Tag: Self Development

  • Grow Your Self Awareness – Generic Debrief Worksheet

    Worksheet and Post inspired and adapted from InterVarsity training experiences.

    [2 Minute Read]

    What can you do to facilitate personal growth? How can you tangibly grow your emotional intelligence?

    Slow down, reflect, and debrief your actions and activities with the Generic Debrief Worksheet.

    Reflecting on your actions and activities grows your self awareness. It helps shift your perspective and facilitates and accelerates your growth. 

    My Job

    At my current job I work as a Product Development Specialist. Our team works together to design and bring to market physical consumer products. We have thousands of different products we have designed and produced. We use a software program to store all the information for each of these products. One of my co-workers was in charge of this process. He would fill in the 350+ data fields needed for each new product. 

    Bump in the Road

    I never paid much attention to the item setup process.  That was until a couple months ago when that team member left the company. With his departure, the knowledge of how to use the software also left. This was not an ideal situation to have. With this gap in our team I soon found out that this item setup process was going to fall under my responsibility. I then was handed 4 new items that I needed to put into the system. 

    At this point I found myself struggling to keep up and frustrated with what was happening. The item setup process is not very difficult if you know what all the data fields refer to. It is a mountain of a task if you are starting from scratch with no training on it. I remember sitting at my computer staring at the screen feeling angry. I was paralyzed by this task as I knew it would take me a long time to figure out. 

    Debrief

    What saved me in this moment was stopping to debrief and reflect on what was happening. I pulled out my debrief template and went down the sheet. I first thought through everything that had happened and that would need to happen.

    I then took stock of my emotions. As I was writing them down I felt myself becoming more self aware as I slowed down and processed what I was feeling. I realized it was okay for me to be upset about this situation. I realized it was okay for me to feel overwhelmed by this large project in front of me. Processing through these emotions helped me to slow down and gain some clarity. 

    Turning Point

    Things shifted for me when I then reflected in my journal what was really happening. I realized that when seen in a different light, this project had the potential to be a positive thing. I would get to learn something new from it. For me learning new things is something I enjoy so this was very helpful for me to realize. I also realized that this was a chance for me to really step up at my company and provide value. The project I had before seen as a barrier started to look more like an opportunity for growth. 

    The Result

    The project did end up taking me about a month and had some frustrating moments. But throughout the month I was motivated because I had re-calibrated my perspective. I had stopped to debrief and reflect. And from that I had changed my view and it had helped me move forward. 

    I actually recently finished training a new employee in how to use the software. On top of that I even created some video resources for how to use it as well. 

    Practical Tools

    Reflecting on your actions and activities grows your self awareness. It helps shift your perspective and facilitates and accelerates your growth. 

    See the worksheet to try it for yourself.

    PDF Worksheet

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  • How to Craft a Morning Routine

    Worksheet and Post inspired and adapted from the principles behind James Clear’s book, “Atomic Habits“

    [2 Minute Read]

    How can you set the tempo of your day? What can you do to increase your daily motivation?

    Craft a morning routine.

    Morning Routines

    Morning routines set the tempo of your day with momentum that motivates. 

    Almost a year ago I found myself on a normal Saturday at 3 pm waking up from a nap. At the time I was getting used to a new job, a new city, and a new baby. With the mental overload from the newness I was experiencing I found it hard to get going in the mornings. Especially on a Saturday. That is why in a post nap daze I with confusion asked myself, “How did I get here?”. In that moment I realized I had done the essentials of taking care of the baby and eating that day. But I had not done anything of substance. 

    There was nothing wrong with this lazy Saturday. It was justifiable to take things slow. Yet, I was curious if there was more. It seemed like most days I never got into gear completely. Tied to that, there were certain days that felt hyper productive but what led them to be felt elusive.

    Testing a New Routine

    The next day, Sunday, I decided to craft a morning routine to try out for the next week. I pulled ideas from “Atomic Habits” by James Clear which I had recently read. My morning routine was to consist of two things to keep it simple. Drinking a glass of water immediately upon waking up and doing some form of exercise.


    The next day, Monday, I found myself at 3 pm at work being very productive. I was knocking down task after task. I realized my morning routine had been the key that had propelled me into an amazing day! Upon reflection I remembered something that had happened earlier that day, at 5:45 am. In an early morning daze I had looked around myself and noticed I was on the sidewalk walking to the gym.

    Transformation

    “How did I get here?” was the question I had asked myself. And in that instant I filled with motivation as I realized what had happened. Sunday night I had prepared for my morning routine by doing preparatory tasks. I had put my phone on the charger in the living room instead of the bedroom. I had set my alarm clock. I had filled up my water bottle and set it next to my bed. I had selected a workout and put my workout outfit and shoes next to my bed.

    That meant that when I woke up on Monday morning I followed the path laid before me. I turned off my alarm and drank the water next to my alarm clock. The water seemed to wake me up from the inside as I took a big swig. Then I saw my workout outfit and put it on and headed out the door.

    By the time I was awake completely I was on the sidewalk walking to the gym wondering how I had gotten there. I was so pumped that I was going to hit my target activities of drinking water and exercising.

    It felt like this morning routine had defined the rest of my day for me in advance. I felt ready to take on the day. This energy and motivation ended up spilling over into the rest of my day

    Morning routines set the tempo of your day with momentum that motivates.

    Practical Tools

    Check out the worksheet to craft your own morning routine.

    PDF Worksheet

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  • Reach a 5 Year Goal through Daily Planning & Tracking

    Worksheet and Post inspired and adapted from the principles behind Ryder Carroll’s book “The Bullet Journal Method“

    [2.5 Minute Read]

    How can you reach a 5 year goal? Use the 54321 technique.

    54321 is a tool that allows you to continuously determine daily action steps from a 5 year goal.

    Determining next steps for an audacious goal is an important process. The goal gives meaning and motivation to your daily actions. The goal also provides direction while the next steps ensure progress.

    Looking Back

    As I embark on a new 5 year goal of starting a business with Leverlo I have been reflecting on my previous 5 year goal. From 2014 to 2018 I had been working on an audacious goal. The goal had been to start a branch of InterVarsity (a national non-profit) in Daytona Beach, FL.

    As I have reflected on how the goal had been accomplished, I could not help but ask, “How did that happen”? In response, I received some clarity after recently reading about the 54321 tool.  I realized it had held the key principles that had helped me push through to reach the goal.

    The Dream

    When I graduated from college in 2014 I had a dream. In college I had received faith based leadership development from InterVarsity. This development had transformed many aspects of my life. My dream was to start a branch of InterVarsity in Daytona Beach where it currently did not exist.

    It was so exciting to me to think about this dream becoming a reality. To see InterVarsity planted in Daytona got my heart racing. To imagine independent student groups on each of the campuses. To imagine the impact on student’s lives. The potential of this happening kept me awake at night with excitement.

    The Barriers

    While this dream seemed expansive that was what had made it exciting at the start. Looking back, this enthusiasm soon encountered barriers and began to wane. For various reasons it took me almost a year to even move to Daytona. And once I got there I found the work of establishing something new emotionally draining. This made it hard to stay motivated.

    Before this Daytona goal, my previous goal had been to graduate college. This had been so very different. College had a linear path to follow. But in Daytona there was no course list to follow. There was no set of syllabi for each semester to track along with.

    I can remember a moment halfway through my time in Daytona. I was sitting with 10 college students from a nearby university in my living room. And while I sat there I was excited about how a group was forming among these students. But my mind kept wondering, how are we going to reach the other 8 campuses?

    Questions such as this were common for me. Questions about how it would even be possible to make the dream a reality always were surfacing. How should I use my time? How could we raise more money to bring on more staff? How was this going to work?

    Pushing Through

    Looking back I realized the principles from 54321 are what led to eventual success. When I would get discouraged I would reflect on why I was doing this in the first place. And I would come back to my audacious goal. The dream would motivate me. It would also orient me in the right direction for determining next steps. And from there I would create a game plan for what to do next. And these next steps had meaning because they were tied directly to my dream.

    This process was never easy. Many times I thought it was never going to happen. But day by day over the course of years, the dream became a reality and InterVarsity now exists in Daytona Beach.

    Determining next steps for an audacious goal is an important process. The goal gives meaning and motivation to your daily actions. The goal also provides direction while the next steps ensure progress.

    Practical Tools

    Check out the free worksheet to work towards your 5 year goal. For a more in depth resource, check out the workbook.

    PDF Worksheet

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