NYNL Day 5: How to Identify Your Life Themes

Today, look over the list you made yesterday; the list of things that you do well in your life! Get that list, a blank piece of paper, and a pencil. Okay, got it? Now, sit down and…

 Categorize the items on your list. 

This will probably be challenging, yes. I hope it will also be insightful. When you look at your list, you probably think big categories like House, Job, Kids, School. That’s what I thought, too! 

BUT once you start, you’ll see that it’s a little more difficult than that. There are many things that will remain uncategorized. 

So you’ll have to dig a little deeper. Look for keywords in your list items. Chances are that you have some that are recurring. These are most likely go be the themes that are important to you. So, don’t worry if they don’t seem to “go together” (for example, I have makeup, grades, bed on time, wake up on time, and categorize time well in the same group. Why? Because they all go along with time management). 

For me, I noticed that I kept seeing words and phrases like “cut” “go without” and “limit”. Okay, so that tells me that self-control/discipline/restraint is an important theme in my life.  

Here’s another category from my list: 

organized house

purged stuff

streamlined house

tossed/donated more items

cleaned out car 

What theme did you get from that category? 

I got Eliminating Excess. 

And, by the way, the categories themselves will probably change/evolve as you go. Some of my mine got changed over 4 times as I tried to find a logical way to group things together (and that’s why pencils are awesome)! Try to fit all of your items into about 7 themes; maybe a little more, maybe a little less. 

Here are the themes that I ended up with:

Time Management

Self-Discipline 

Eliminating Excess

Making Time for Others

Prioritizing Home

Prioritizing Health

Being More Outspoken

By completing this challenge, you are identifying a broader picture of the things to maintain in the future. Things that you do well that are meaningful TO YOU. That is how we will set substantial goals that we will actually have the motivation to follow through with! :)

I’d love to hear some of the themes that you came up with!

{By the way, if you are reading this series for the first time, you can check out what it’s all about here}

Source:
The Beginner’s Guide to Goal Setting
Goal Setting- Powerful Written Goals