Working Towards Balance

I came across this exercise on this blog that I read. I thought in light of all the goal setting and evaluating we have been doing the past 2 weeks, this might be something fun to add to the mix. Hope you enjoy!

The Circle of Life Exercise

Photo by Lisa

1. Draw a large circle with 12 spokes.

2. For each spoke, write in an element that is important to you in your life. Some elements to consider adding to your circle are career, laughter, fresh air and exercise, creativity, relationships, stable finances, social life, spirituality, home environment, beauty, education, healthy foods, or home cooking.

3. Consider how satisfied you are with each area in your life. Probe and ask yourself some questions about each area. Think of the past year and the ways you did (or didn’t) attend to those parts of your life.

• Do you have a desire to continue learning and intellectually growing?
• Has it been a while since you’ve laughed?
• Are you living on candy and caffeine to get you through the day?
• When did you last spend time in silence or in prayer?
• Have you struggled with money and budgeting without addressing it?

4. Place a dot on each line that represents your relative level of satisfaction. Putting a dot at the very center, where all spokes come together, means completely UNSATISFIED and the edge of the circle means completely SATISFIED.

5. Connect your dots and draw your current circle of life. For most of us, this is a bumpy circle, that visually shows the areas that are “depressed” or undernourished. See where the greatest imbalances and needs are. Reflect on it for a while. These may be the areas that you choose to work into goals and aspirations for the new year.

I use this exercise throughout the year as a benchmark to see how things are going. It is simple, quick and surprisingly effective at revealing what parts of our whole-person are in most need of attention.

(exercise taken from here)

Intentional Living

Wasting Time
I don't know about you, but I am the master at wasting an entire day. I can get up and be busy all day long, but when I sit down at the end of the day, I realize not a thing that needed to get done got done. Oh I definitely played with the kids a lot, ran some of the fun errands, ate, and maybe even took a trip to the gym, but the not so fun things like vacuuming, dusting, laundry, grocery store, mopping, (oh the list could go on and on and on!) never got done.


I think life is a lot like that. We tend to focus on things that are fun or enjoyable for us. It is fun for me to get up and spend alone time with God in the morning when the house is quiet. However, it is not so fun for me to discipline myself to control my frustration level when the kids begin to try my patience. It is fun for me to practice the spiritual disciplines of study, prayer, and simplicity. However it is not so fun for me to practice the spiritual disciplines of solitude, evangelism, and fasting.

Only accomplishing what is fun or easy is not what pushes you to become a better person.

Last week I challenged you to evaluate 2009. While you were evaluating, I hope you allowed the Lord to speak to you about areas that needed to change or things you needed to pursue during this next year. The whole idea of goal setting is to plan ways to live in obedience to our Father! Without a plan, we will never grow, change, or move out of the "fun zone" and into the "becoming a more fulfilled, more obedient, more Christlike person zone".

I've listed some goal setting questions below for you to discuss with your M & M. This is just a starting point for you though. I encourage you to take the goal setting for this year seriously and see what God can do with you as you intentionally live for Him.
I. Personal Growth

1. What healthy character traits would you like to see developed in your life this year? What are some specific steps you can take to develop these?

2. What is your plan for maintaining accountability for progressing in personal growth?

3. What are some of your learning goals for this year?

4. What books would you like to read this year?

5. Do you enjoy your job or jobs (include being a stay-at-home mother, if this pertains to you)? If so, what are your favorite things about your work? If not, what are some ways you can change this?
II. Physical Health

1. What is one area of progress you’d like to see this year for maintaining or improving your physical health?

2. What are some tangible, daily choices you can add to your life that will improve your health?

3. In what way would you like to be physically healthier by December of this year?

4. What is your plan this month for starting this progress towards a healthier you?
III. Marriage & Family Life

If you’re married, proceed to question 1. If you’re single with children, you can skip to question 5.

1. What are some goals you have as a couple to strengthen your marriage?

2. In what ways can you grow in intimacy with your spouse this year?

3. What are your plans for having regular date nights? How will you handle childcare?

4. What plans will you make to pray and/or have “family meetings” together? What books would you like to read together this year?

5. What will deliberate, regular family time look like this year?

6. Do you have specific planned vacation time in mind for this year? What needs to happen to make this vacation a reality?

7. How is your current physical living space working for your family? Do you need to make changes to this? If so, what are they?

IV. Goals for Your Children

1. What are ways you’d like each of your children to grow in the following areas?

a. Physically:

b. Emotionally:

c. Relationally:

d. Spiritually:

e. Educationally:

f. Other:

2. How will your children be educated this year? What are some resources you’d like to explore to help your children develop intellectually and academically?

3. What are your children’s strengths? How will you help them use these well?

4. What are your children’s weaknesses? How will you help them overcome these?

V. Money Matters

1. What is one specific area of progress you’d like to see this year in your financial health?

2. How is your current income? In what ways can you make this increase?

3. How much debt do you have? In what ways can you eliminate a sizeable portion of it (or all of it) this year?

4. How is your savings account? In what ways can you save more money this year?

5. What are some of your long-term financial goals? In what ways can you make progress on them this year?

6. Are you giving regularly? If not, in what way can you give financially this year?

7. What is your plan this month for starting progress towards better financial health?
VI. Relationships Outside the Home

1. In what specific way would you like to grow in relating to your friends this year?

2. What are some ways you can be of service to your immediate community?

3. Who are some specific people in your life that can use some encouragement? What will you do to encourage them this year?

4. Who are some people in your life that you admire? What are some practical ways you can positively use their influence in your life?

5. Are there any damaging relationships in your life? What will you do this year to make these relationships better?
New Year’s Goals

Take a moment to reflect on your answers to all these questions. If you’re inclined,apply these answers by setting a few goals for this year. Call them resolutions if you feel like it.

(list taken from the blog Simplemom.net )

Obedience

What does obedience look like for you?

I sat down this morning to read Matthew 1 and was immediately aware of the obedience seen in the Gospels.

Matthew 1:19 "being a just man...resolved to divorce her quietly...an angel appeared to him...he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him."

Can we say the same?
When God shows us what we need to do, do we get up and do it?

Step One:
As the year kicks off, I challenge you to sit down with your M & M and discuss what obedience looked like for you in 2009. I've attached a list of questions for you both to go through to help with the discussion.

Reflection Questions for 2009

1. What was the single best thing that happened this past year?

2. What was the single most challenging thing that happened?

3. What was an unexpected joy this past year?

4. What was an unexpected obstacle?

5. Pick three words to describe 2009.

7. Pick three words your spouse would use to describe their 2009 (again, without asking).

8. What were the best books you read this year?

9. With whom were your most valuable relationships?

10. What was your biggest personal change from January to December of this past year?

11. In what way(s) did you grow emotionally?

12. In what way(s) did you grow spiritually?

13. In what way(s) did you grow physically?

14. In what way(s) did you grow in your relationships with others?

15. What was the most enjoyable area of managing your home?

16. What was your most challenging area of home management?

17. What was your single biggest time waster in your life this past year?

18. What was the best way you used your time this past year?

19. What was the biggest thing you learned this past year?

20. Create a phrase or statement that describes 2009 for you.
(this list of questions can be found at (In) Courage. A great blog full of inspirational stories)

Step Two:
Next week, I'll be back with a list of goal setting questions. By evaluating ourselves and then setting goals, we are more apt to live a life of obedience to God rather than just ebb and flow with life's circumstances.

What do you say? Let's live the intentional life with the purpose of glorifying God!