Who Manages Me? Me!

Life’s busy. And if you are not careful one day passes the other with no self awareness of how we act versus how we want to act. Yes, you could have a life coach that you check in with on a daily or weekly basis, I guess, or you can take ten minutes at the start of every day to ask yourself how are you doing? How are you doing with what’s important to you? You can manage you. And by asking the question, you think about the answer, and by thinking about the answer you know what discrepancy exists between how you should be answering that question, versus how you did answer it. And that discrepancy, that tension, sets the tone for the day, it is that touchstone reminder of what’s important and what we need to be aware of and act upon.

Here’s what I ask myself over an espresso every morning before the sun comes up and the noise of the day starts:

• What was awesome yesterday?
• Who did I inspire?
• What decision did I share?
• What did I learn that I didn’t know?
• Did I write?
• Did I stretch?
• Was I active?
• Did I eat & drink only what is good for me?
• Did I accomplish my 3 goals from yesterday?

I think about the questions and journal my answers every day. If I don’t write it down the impact of the answers don’t have the same weight that they should. This is a Trello card that I act on Kanban style at the top of my Doing column every morning.

And then I ask myself:

• What 3 goals will I accomplish today?
• What will I learn today that I didn’t know before?

And I write these down.

And then the day begins. By the way, just because I ask, doesn’t mean that I have the answers to my questions that I think I should. There are many days that I give myself an abysmal score for the day before and I just dread having to look at these questions. Reality sucks sometimes.

Who manages you? What questions do you have for yourself?