So I recently celebrated my 29th birthday (party pictured) and asked myself, “How’m I doing?” Being a sad integral kinda guy, interested in a well-rounded answer I and gave questionnaires to my friends, family and colleagues, asking them to rate me on a number of areas. These “lines” can be thought of different kinds of intelligence – so David Beckham might score high on physical but low on cognitive for example. The point was for me to identify areas that I could work in for the coming year.
The ridiculously simple unscientific scale I asked people to use was:
1: Causes problems
2: OK
3: Source of strength
4: Defining characteristic
So from here’s how I rated (mean average from 14 respondents, descending order):
Physical – 3.6
Social/relational – 3.3
Humour – 3.1
Creativity – 2.9
Cognitive – 2.8
Contemplative/meditative – 2.7
Gender, sex and sexuality – 2.7
Emotional – 2.6
Ethics – 2.4
Aesthetics – 2.2
Naturally half my awkward friends and colleagues were too sophisticated for this crude tool so gave me qualitative feedback instead which was also useful. I let people define the areas for themselves which was interesting in and of itself. Some like “emotional” unearthed several sub-sets, some of which were rated high and others low. Doing what I do it was perhaps unsurprising that the physical lone came out strongly and most of the others were as I would have guessed. The one that really surprised and worried me was people rating my ethics as just “OK” as I rarely lie, steal, cheat on my girlfiend or slaughter the families of work competitors. On talking with people this seems to be more historical and personal from my drinking womanising days and not related to the last 12 months. The people who I work with all rated me highly in this regard which I was happy about it.
One interesting point is that I forgot to include shadow (unconscious) , but that’s what shadow does I guess! Here’s my action plan for each line for the coming Walsh Year:
Physical
· Continued daily Holistics practice
· 2x weekly aikido
· taking up free running
· Continue to monitor sleep and diet
Social/relational
· 4 x family get-togethers, 1x week family calls
· Host 6 friends from out of town
· 2-3 x weekly networking lunches
· Business collaborations and growth to 8 consultants
· Continue to develop local friendships as measured by next party attendance!
Humour
· Observation of when humour is at expense of others
· Comedy workshop
· Continue to play in aikido, tango and Holistics
Creativity
· Write 1st draft of aikido travel book
· 3 x 1 hr exploring Art therapy with Sasha
· Viral marketing development
Cognitive
· Watch 1 x Integral video daily
· Read 20 books related to work
· Increase understanding of business through conversations with mentors and 2x courses
· Develop alt. perspective practice?
Contemplative/meditative
· Increase daily meditation to 30 min
· Complete7 days of retreat
· Incorporate mindfulness into daily life
· 2x daily prayer
· Nightly spiritual readings (20 min)
· 6 weeks of both Feldenkrais and Tai Chi
Gender, sex and sexuality
· Continue and deepen relationship
· Tantra….
· Explore dynamics with middle aged women
Emotional
· MBCT course
· Continued NVC practice including attending/supporting 2 trainings
· Reminder to cultivate not knowing and humility each aikido class
· Manage moods/optimism through rest, pacing, social support, reframing and herbs.
· Look for listening opportunities and practice with Sasha and clients
· 2x monthly walks in countryside
· Gain 4 new stress management tools – e.g. Free Running , anchoring
· Reassess head/heart balance monthly
· Work on containment and impulse control through long term business, book and relationship.
Ethics
· Write and impeccably honour business code of conduct, including confidentiality clauses
· Honour all intimate promises
· Ask friends to warn me of any ethical breaches
Aesthetics
· Develop music collection
· Daily appearance review
· Improve room/house
· Buy new business clothes
· 1 x week tango
Shadow
· Do 6 sessions of depth therapy
· Add shadow element to Holistics
· 3,2, 1 process weekly
· Complete Rolfing course
· Dream course?
I’ll blog in a years time to let you know how I got on with this lot!