One Clever Way to Chart Your Personal Growth

Productivity expert Carson Tate uses a wonderful tool to categorize folks according to their personal style of working.  

The Arranger

The Planner

The Visualizer

The Prioritizer

You can take the test here.  The book is even better as each chapter lets you just zoom in on the strategies that match your particular style.  As an avid book scanner, it was nice to be able to breeze through each chapter, not feeling guilty about it.

I'm a Planner first and a Visualizer second. My wife is an Arranger to the max.

Typically, when you take any assessment like Tate's (or Disc or Myers Briggs, etc.) it just gets filed and you move on.  I decided to do something different this time around.  I wanted to savor the assessment and link it to other measurements like Disc, Meyers Briggs and Enneagram.  

What if I could design a personal growth "tool" of sorts?  And, what if I could make it look nice?

The latter part was important to me.  Yes, I've written (in the past) my goals and posted them on my office wall.  Yes, it's worked.  What didn't work was the utilitarian vibe- I needed something stylish, something with some class.  

Enter Canva.com.  

I use Canva daily (yes, daily) for reports, flyers, brochures, social media graphics and anything else in between.  It's nearly free and makes even the most basic designer look like a pro.  What if I could take my productivity style, along with a few other growth metrics, and create something out of it for my office?  Using Canva, I finally could.

Step two was to find a template in Canva that matched my office's aesthetic.  I chose a "resume" design- very simple and easy to manipulate.

Step three became more difficult as I had to limit the information to one page. The temptation in these things is to make it complicated.  Not this time, I told myself...

The final product included the following:  

  • Mission statement
  • Productivity style
  • Myers Briggs indicator
  • Disc rating
  • Enneagram rating
  • Quarterly goals
  • Spiritual growth target
  • Audacious career goal

Here's what the final product looks like in my office:

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The value of this process was twofold.  First, it memorialized what I'm working on right now.  Second, it made personal growth much more than just a few ideas on a scrap of paper.  When you make something look nice, it gives it dignity and a proper place.  

Think- Baron Fig notebook as opposed to a cheap $1 version.

You can do this too.  It's that easy.  I've created a template for you to use for yourself.  It will save you about 15 minutes.  If you're familiar with Canva and want to do it on your own, that's ok too.  

Here's the download:

Free Personal Growth Template

Get your copy of the personal growth template.

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The real question is this: how are you capturing and honoring your own growth goals?  

Sometimes, Productivity Isn't Enough

About two weeks ago, something weird happened.  After a very productive week, I went home on a Friday afternoon feeling somehow unfulfilled.

My todo list was solid.  I had used my Daily Plan day after day as I have for years.  (You can grab a copy using the form below.)

Download The Free Daily Planning Sheet

This is the planning page we suggest using every day.

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My quarterly goals, inspired by other practitioners, were in place.

Why was the weekend, ordinarily a delight, seemingly ominous as my week wrapped up?  

My life coach was very helpful after we talked about it.  His point was simple enough- you need more than productivity to feel happy.

I turned to Patrick Lencioni's book The Advantage, for some perspective.  Alignment is about "connecting with your why".  Patrick puts it this way, "Great leaders see themselves as Chief Reminding Officers as much as anything else.”

A great leader reminds the team why they do what they do.  

This affirms why the best companies are truly mission-driven.  Millennials more than any other group remind us of this.  Younger workers crave purpose more than just the hacks to shave a few minutes off their next meeting or the keys to getting to inbox zero.  

My own "hmpf" on that Friday was fairly normal after all.  After I had made sense of it, I decided to revisit my quarterly goals and my own mission statement.  These would, no matter what, inform my productivity.  I was resolute.

The weeks afterwards were markedly different.  The productivity remained but this time was animated by something deeper.  

When you feel fragmented or empty and you've been producing solid work, there are a few things you can do to reconnect with your own mission and purpose:

  1. Spend some time alone.  Get with your thoughts and write.  Why were you feeling shallow?  What is it about your work that you enjoy?  What part of it bothers you?
  2. Get away.  It may be time for a day off or a vacation.  If you've been running on empty, you just may be tired.  If so, stop working and recharge your batteries.
  3. Seek the advice of someone you trust.  Maybe you just need to talk to someone without being judged.  For me, seeing my life coach is invaluable and encourages me to reconnect my work with my mission.

Productivity isn't enough.  Connecting your work with your why, now that's where the magic happens. 

What My Non-Smartphone Taught Me About Life

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I'm a techie.

 

I admit it- if it's new, shiny and requires a power cord, I'm interested.  If Apple makes it, I'm looking for my wallet.

 

For better or worse, this "trait" has been passed on to my children.  They know the value of data.  They routinely look for wifi in public places.  They are a chip off the old block...

 

And then something serious happened about a month ago: we ran out of data.  This was cause enough for a Family Meeting, which of course the kids hate.  Bear in mind that not ten years ago, this concept (losing data) would have made no sense at all but in 2016, data is a big deal.

 

We see data as a right, an entitlement and a part of everyday life.

 

I was traveling for work that month and needed to use a lot of data and returned with two weeks left in our billing cycle with (gasp!) very little data to spare.  Since we have a family shared-data plan, this became a family problem.

 

We shut down almost everything that would consume data and by the end of the month, just made it with .07GB to spare. Phew!

 

But you know what?  Those two weeks with basically zero data taught me a few things.  First, I learned that most of the stuff I do on my phone is kind of lame and going without it was no big deal.  So I can't check Facebook?  Ok.  So I can't see Instagram updates when I'm at the grocery store?  No big deal. 

 

And, even better, I learned to daydream.  I learned to be bored again.  To stare out the window and watch stuff.  It was nice.

 

As it turns out, my not-so-smartphone without data taught me a great deal.  It made it easier for me to unplug and just be with my family and friends.  It taught my kids the value of margin and open space. 

 

One final thing: it taught me that Facebook and Instagram aren't nearly as interesting as I had previously thought. 

 

Here's to the simple things in life... With or without data.

6 Ways to be a More Grateful Employee

I don't know about you but I appreciate people who demonstrate gratitude. The catch, of course, is that too many of us don't.   Like the story of Jesus in the New Testament when he heals a number of sick people, not all return to say thank you.  

Bosses can relate to this.  It's not that employees are ungrateful.  Rather, it's that they rarely connect things back to the boss.

Here's a classic example: the Christmas bonus is ultimately approved and determined by your supervisor or boss.  Yet, when the gift arrives, very few people see the bonus as having come from the boss himself.  As a result, hardly anyone thanks the supervisor at Christmas time.  

Kind of a weird dynamic.  Nothing personal from the employee to the boss, just how it is in most organizations.  

The bottom line is this- bosses like grateful employees.  I know that I do and I try to show gratitude to my bosses as well.  

Since all of us are employees in one way or another and gratitude is a lube that can accelerate your career up the corporate ladder, here are six ways to be more grateful at work:

“Joy is the simplest form of gratitude.”
— Karl Barth
  1. Thank your boss if and when you receive a holiday bonus.  This can be as simple as an email or just stop by her office and say "thanks". 
  2. Tell someone outside of your work about the benefits of your job.  By verbalizing something positive about your job, your own gratitude will expand on a personal level.
  3. Commit to ditching complaining.  It's easy to complain about your boss, about your workload or even your workspace.  The good news is that each of these is probably better than you think (and conversely not nearly as bad as the complainers might believe) and by choosing to stop complaining, your gratitude will gradually expand.  
  4. Make a list each day of the things you're thankful for.  This can be in a digital journal or even via Instagram posts spread throughout the week. 
  5. Tell someone else at work that you're thankful for them.  This doesn't have to be awkward and a simple "thanks" goes a long way.
  6. Spend some quiet time thinking about the postive ways that your work enables you to make a difference.  I find that Thanksgiving and Christmas provide both a lot of noise and great opportunities to reflect and be thankful.  Work, even when imperfect, is a real gift.

Being grateful makes sense.  It makes you more attractive as an employee and sets you apart as a humble and hard worker.