What's on your Whole Life Grid?

Over the holidays I drove home, and listened to a very interesting book on the long drive called Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers.  

One of the things I liked was the concept of the whole life grid.The idea of the whole life grid is to consider the 9 different things that you need in your life to feel fulfilled. Take a piece of paper, draw three vertical lines, and three horizontal lines. In the boxes write down the things that make you feel fulfilled and make you feel that you have a meaningful life.  Focusing on the things that you need to have a fulfilling life and make yourself happy helps to take your own internal account of where you are in your life.  Whether you are really fulfilling yourself and living a balanced life, living the life you want.  When you figure out what those things are, you can more easily see the areas that might need a little more attention.  

You can do the whole life grid multiple times each year, re-evaluate your goals as they change.  The first time you go through this filling up the nine boxes might seem difficult.  Or it could seem too easy, with many other needs or areas that don't fit into the nine boxes.  

My first attempt included

family : love : travel

education : friends : books & music

creativity : environment : yoga.  

These are the areas that I feel I need to focus on to fulfill my dreams, to help figure out what I want to do in life, my path, figuring out the journey. I read a really great post about this at ProfHacker

Naivete in Conversation

Boyfriend thinks that I’m naïve; he said that he doesn’t understand how I don’t have guards up.  Or that the guards I do have up are so different from what other women have. He thinks its strange that I don’t assume men want to hit on me, that I assume that they want to have an interesting conversation. He says it constantly perplexes him that I have such an innocent outlook towards men.  He thinks he only sees that innocent, naïve outlook in kids, or people that haven’t been hurt by men or relationships or life.  So essentially no one! I think some of it goes back to self-worth and conditioning.  Most of my girlfriends are magnets for men, and constantly want their attention.  So when I would go out to socialize or meet people, most of the time the guys would be interested in my girlfriends – the hot ones, the blonde bombshell, the red-headed vixen, the exotic brunette.  I wasn’t interested in having some guy pick me up and having a one-night stand, I didn’t seek out their attention.  I would rather have an interesting conversation with an interesting person than get a guys phone number. So I take every conversation as a chance meeting, and don’t expect anything more from it.  It could last for 10 minutes or 10 months, but you never know how long that conversation will last, and you should enjoy it for what it is.  Its one of the few situations in my life where I can truly and easily ‘live in the moment’. I don’t have expectations or assumptions about where a conversation will lead. 

 

Leverage point

Something to think about this year.....Something to act on this year

What's the # 1 change you could make/ goal you could achieve/ problem you could solve that would have the biggest positive influence in your life?

Leverage point

Something to think about this year.....Something to act on this year

What's the # 1 change you could make/ goal you could achieve/ problem you could solve that would have the biggest positive influence in your life?

Femininity vs. Masculinity and your deepest desires

I had an interesting conversation with a friend the other day. We were talking about what things we desire out of a relationship, both physically and emotionally, what things our partners do to make us feel a certain way.  It was interesting because when you talk about what you 'desire' it automatically seems physical.  While that was part of the conversation, it was mostly mental/emotional.  I realized some things that I regret. 

One of the things that I recently realized that I desire is to not have to be tough, to be sweet and kind. I'm so tired of being tough and strong. I associate those things with masculinity, being tough.  At my day job, I don't feel I can be very girly or feminine. I have to be smart and analytical and logical and tough to be taken seriously. I have to suppress any sexuality, essentially being asexual, in my job. I don't think that's a positive or holistic way to live your life.  And I think that has spread out into other areas of my life. I desire to let the femininity take over completely, let go of the masculinity.  Let someone else have the masculinity completely overtake them, and then those two opposites come together. Like yin and yang I guess.  I'm not trying to say that being feminine means being not being strong or tough, I know some very strong women.

My friend responded that he loved unbridled, unashamed femininity.  This open femininity strengthens and masculinizes him.  The two opposites meeting and melding and playing off each other. The openness and intimacy and trust are what makes him feel very masculine. When a woman trusts him that he will hold her heart sacred for what it is, that he won't abuse or toy with her emotions, it allows him to fully express his own desire and masculinity.  That in those two opposites they are completely present, mentally, physically, emotionally.  And she gives herself to him completely, just like he gives himself to her completely, letting the joy and playfulness of two open, loving hearts that are unafraid of judgment or rejection fulfill them.. His significant other is a lucky woman.  The give and take of the two opposites, and letting those opposites take you, are what make us feel energized.  

When we were talking about this, it made me so sad to realize that there was a person that I love very deeply, who desperately wanted this, and I was too scared to give him that.  Too scared to let go of the toughness that I had accumulated and had become such a part of my professional life. I was scared that by giving in to that desire, I would lose myself.  In the end I lost myself anyway. I literally felt my heart sinking when I realized this. I'm so sorry I couldn't do this, in a way I can't possibly convey. 

2013.... a wonderful number and year

2013 is going to be a wonderful year.  Even if it did get off to a very rocky start.... which included me being sick. My New Year's Resolutions are set, and the over-riding theme is to be more productive.  Or be less lazy, whichever way you look at it.

• Spend at least an hour every day getting my "sweat" on to better myself. For my purposes this includes a physical or mental workout to improve my situation - running, swimming, dancing, yoga, meditation, etc.  
• Read at least 2 books a month from a list of books that I've compiled and let grow out of control for the past few years.  
• Work on starting a business with my friend, put it into action!
• Promote my self-confidence and femininity- which I seem to misplace on a regular basis, but other times its front and center.
• Write in a journal and be more self - aware and in the moment.  Keep a gratitude journal or jar. 
• Write! Work on one or two of the stories I've been playing around with and get them published.
• Figure out what I want to do with my life... career wise. Get a path and a plan going so I don't feel like I'm floundering. 
• Be Happier, live in the now, be more productive and stop worrying!

I accomplished several of my goals last year, here's hoping I can make 2013 as great of a year as last year was. More later...