Connection of Life

If you haven't already seen Where The Hell Is Matt?, it is wonderful:




Article from the NY Times here and some analysis, lyrics, and background posted here (thanks to Obtusity blog).

The song (Praan, by Garry Schyman) is beautiful - it communicates hope, with a touch of vulnerability. The song, the video, and the concept is absolutely inspiring and uplifting.

What's Your Passion Score?

As I read other blogs and learn about different approaches to coaching, I'll often come across things that might interest my readers. This is taken directly from the "Live What You Love" website and I think it's a good litmus test for how "alive" we feel. Go ahead - test your level of passion in, and for, life:

What's Your Passion Score?
Evaluate how much passion is in your day-to-day life and pinpoint which areas need some adjustment. Rate your answers to the following statements using a scale of 1-5 (1=True; 5=Not True).

1. I wake up happy in the morning.
2. I am hardly ever bored.
3. If I could live my life over, I would change very little.
4. I’m often excited about a new project at work.
5. My overall outlook on life is positive.
6. I frequently call friends and family members to share news about my latest accomplishment.
7. I rarely daydream about my next vacation.
8. My energy level is pretty high.
9. I usually feel satisfied when I get home from work.
10. I rarely wish I was doing something else.

Add the numbers to all of your responses together to get an idea of how passionate you are about what you do on a regular basis.

Scoring

10-20: Fantastic! Your passion score is way above average. You are clearly passionate about how you spend your time and have confirmed that you need to focus on other areas of your life that might need to change.

21-30: You’re relatively happy with what you do but would most likely benefit from adding some more meaningful activities to your schedule.

31-40: You’ve got some work to do. You need to make some rather serious changes in order to enjoy life more and feel more satisfied.

41-50: You don’t need us to tell you that a significant change is in order. You already know that, don’t you?

I scored a 17, with a whopping 4 on the last question because I'd like to be doing 3 things at the same time and am frequently thinking about what's not getting done. No matter how happy I am, I think that's a common overachiever characteristic that's hard to shake.

• What's your score?
  
• Does it match your current level of aliveness?

5 Most Important Things in Life

Here's a fun Sunday evening gchat with a good friend of mine (P in the dialog below). I left in the poor IM grammar for authenticity:

Sent at 9:47 PM on Sunday

P: quick...off the top of your head with no thinking...
what are the five most important thinngs to remember in life?

me: 1.discipline and attitude get you everywhere
2. your happiness is the most important thing in life

P: and what creates happiness? quick no thinking

me: living in line with what you want for yourself
um, maybe that wasnt' clear enough...
making things happen that bring you pleasure and meaning
living the life you would want to live

P: gotcha

me: 3. be with people who inspire you and keep you alive
alive = lively

4. you choose your life
5. continuous improvement
btw, i love these kinds of qs :)

me: what would your tip 5 be?
top 5, sorry!

P: ok trying to diversify from your answers, although i think you hit most on the head

P: five most important things in life: 1. This is how you get through everything and anything in life..."show up, stick with it, dont sweat it". 2. you get out what you put in. 3. only you know what is right for you. 4. your gut is always right 5. smiling and laughing makes everything better

It was a great little dialog that only took a few minutes but really capped off the evening positively (and led to a fun blog post!). Being a coach for overachievers, I usually asking these types of questions, so it's nice when my friends keep me on my toes. As I said in the chat with P, I really like these types of questions, so I guess it's good that I'm in this line of work!

What are your 5 most important things in life?

Since I can't gchat with each of you directly, please add your answer in the comments!

Couch Potatoes in the Parlor of Life?

I recently added a number of workshops as part of my business in coaching overachievers. In developing the content for these workshops, I’ve been doing a lot of reading and research to add new exercises and concepts to my coaching arsenal/toolbox. One book I came across had a powerful introduction that caught my eye:

I have a theory: I believe that many – maybe most – people in the hurry-up, make-do, look-good culture we’re living in have settled way too cheap. A lot of us have given up our passion and let the colors fade out of our experience. We’ve settled for the appearance of an okay life instead of the substance of a great life. In the process, we’ve lost track of what is genuinely important to us. We’ve become couch potatoes in the parlor of life, overstimulated with input from the outside, and increasingly deaf to messages from the inside. We’ve gotten stuck in a ho-hum, “go along to get along” existence.
…
Now, you may be shaking your head and saying, “You’ve got it all wrong. My life never had the passion and color you’re talking about.” Maybe so. Or maybe you’ve let it slip away a tiny piece at a time – so slowly that you didn’t even notice that it was happening. Either way, you’ve lost yourself in the rush of the world. … Maybe you’re shaking your head for another reason. Maybe you remember the days when your whole life seemed exciting and passionate. Maybe you invest more time and energy reliving the old “glory days” than you do in creating new ones.
…

• What do you think? Have you ever felt this way? Do you feel this way now? Please comment...
  

I’ll talk more about the author in my next post because I think it will spark an interesting discussion.