Work Life Balance Podcast: Business | Productivity | Results - The Quality of Life Enhancer™ Exercise

The Quality of Life Enhancer™ Exercise

08/21/11 • 9 min

Work Life Balance Podcast: Business | Productivity | Results

Today we are going to talk about a great tool called The Quality of Life (QOL) Enhancer Exercise. Almost everyone has lamented, at one time or another, about not having enough time in the day. Have you ever said or thought, “I wish I had more time?”, “If I had more time, I would _____.”, “If there were a few more hours in this day, I could _____.” Most of us, at some time or another, have probably thought or said this to ourselves and heard others say something like this too. The truth is, even if we had five extra hours each day, we would probably still misuse the time and bemoan our inability to finish everything with which we task ourselves. The Quality of Life EnhancerTM Exercise is a powerful tool. The through-provoking and fun exercise is based on two principles: 1. The more we can align our behavior with our core values (what’s important to us), the happier, more satisfied, and fulfilled we’ll be with our lives. 2. The more we delegate the tasks that are less important, the more time we have for what’s more important. So often we make choices about how we’ll spend our time unconsciously, and this unique exercise is designed to help you make conscious choices. Roy Disney once said, “When your values are clear, your decisions are easy.” When your values are clear and you know what you need to do to fulfill them—and you realize there are only a finite number of hours in the day—the decision to delegate what you can is much easier to make. The QOL Enhancer Exercise is a gift you give your clients, prospects and strategic alliances, centers of influence, friends, and associates. It is a gift of focus and clarity, and it can even help you and the people you share this exercise with to visualize things differently in their life. I believe it is one of the most powerful exercises and it is not utilized enough. When we use this tool, we can have a huge impact on your relationships and your life, not to mention when you share it with others. The exercise starts with the question, What is more important in life than money? Another way to you may think of it is: What do you wish you had more time to do? Put that item/activity in the column headed Life Quality (it will be on the left side of the page). For example, it can be things like Being Healthy, Being Spiritual, Having Fun, Time with Family, Charity, etc. The fact is that there are only 168 hours in the week. The QOL Exercise allows people to think about what they truly would like to do with their time. It helps us focus on those important things and delegate the rest. Imagine for a minute-- how different your life would be when you do some of the items you wrote down on this exercise. It has a huge benefit to you and to others when you work on Quality Of Life items. Share this exercise with as many people as you can. You’ll find an online complementary Quality of Life EnhancerTM Exercise at www.AccountabiltyCoach.com that you can easily complete. Feel free to go online and share this exercise with your friends, associates, and clients. Update your Quality of Life EnhancerTM frequently and measure your progress. Go to http://www.accountabilitycoach.com/landing/ and get 3 FREE gifts including a special report on 10 Power Tips for Getting Focused, Organized, and Achieving Your Goals Now. Join the Silver Inner Circle (IT’S FREE) and receive 10% off on all products and services in addition to having access to many assessments and complimentary resources so you can begin achieving your goals in the timeframe you want, so you can have the life you desire. Get started today by going to http://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/ and Join the FREE Silver Inner Circle. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability CoachTM Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule and Live Life with No Regrets. Get your copies today.

Previous Episode

The Wheel of Life

Today we are going to talk about The Wheel of Life and how it can help you put into perspective how balanced your life is now, and how using The Wheel of Life periodically will help you make progress and keep on track to continuing your journey for total life balance. The Wheel of Life is what I use as a starting point for the goal-setting process. The Wheel of Life helps you focus on the activities required to achieve your goals and ultimately obtain what is truly important to you in life. The goal of the exercise is to help you create a wheel of life that is as round as possible; therefore, creating total balance in your life. When the wheel is out of balance, life is like a rollercoaster of ups and downs. Your professional life is up, but your romantic life is down. A person could be in excellent physical health, but suffering from their poor relationships with family and friends. These constant ups and downs take a toll on a person’s overall quality of life. The Wheel of Life I use has 8 areas to it and that you continually focus on. 1. Fitness and Health 2. Family & Friends 3. Romance/S.O. / Partner 4. Money 5. Career 6. Fun & Recreation 7. Spiritual Development/Personal Growth 8. Physical Environment People begin by rating their current level of satisfaction for each of the 8 areas of the wheel. They rate each area on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the very best and 1 being dismal. Rating each area of life gives each person a better perspective of how round their wheel actually is today. You want to visualize each area of your life as a perfect 10 and answer the question, “What would I be doing in each area of my life if that area was ideal?” The things that you visualize when you picture your life as a perfect 10 are, in a way, your goals. After all, these are things that you see in your life when you envision life as ideal. So how do you set out to achieve this ideal lifestyle you’ve envisioned? To complete your Wheel of Life and determine how round your wheel is today, go to www.AccountablityCoach.com. This is complimentary resource available to everyone. Feel free to share this exercise with others and update it as often as you like. Begin enjoying the experience of an even greater life quality and total life balance Go to http://www.accountabilitycoach.com/landing/ and get 3 FREE gifts including a special report on 10 Power Tips for Getting Focused, Organized, and Achieving Your Goals Now. Join the Silver Inner Circle (IT’S FREE) and receive 10% off on all products and services in addition to having access to many assessments and complimentary resources so you can begin achieving your goals in the timeframe you want, so you can have the life you desire. Get started today by going to http://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/ and Join the FREE Silver Inner Circle. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability CoachTM Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule and Live Life with No Regrets. Get your copies today.

Next Episode

Effective Goal Setting for Even Greater Success

Today we are going to talk about Setting Goals for Success. Without execution, visions will remain just that - visions or dreams. Establishing goals and writing them down in ink sets the wheels in motion to creating your ideal life. For the record, I don’t believe anyone should set the goals for someone else. They might be able to ask questions and help them think but each person should come up with their own goals and timeframes they want to achieve each goal. Goals are personal decisions. There is a school of thought that says every goal a person sets should be an S.M.A.R.T. goal. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Tangible. Note: The “T” can also stand for Timely. I add to this a requirement that goals must have a specific target date for achievement, including a month, day, and year. Another powerful component of goal setting relates to how you will feel once you have attained each of your goals. This adds the emotional element that helps inspire you even more. Picturing how you’ll feel after achieving your goals is like an emotional magnet that pulls you to do what you need to do so you can experience goal achievement. I have to mention that I take issue with the words realistic and attainable. After all, who defines what is possible in the realm of reality? I believe goals should be “stretch goals,” goals that are achievable, and also require that the person stretch their limits. This extra push provides inspiration and motivation. Stretch goals are win-win. Even if you fall short of achieving a stretch goal, you’ve still exceeded your “realistic” goal. This is my belief. The word attainable bothers me for similar reasons. Obviously, you want your goal to be within reach, but that same “stretch” should be added for additional motivation and inspiration. For example, if you set a goal that you think is attainable, add something extra on to that goal for it to be a stretch. Let’s say, based on last year’s revenue, you think you can increase your revenue by 10% this year. What would happen if you set your goal to increase your revenue by 15%, 17%, or 20%? You would probably be even more creative and come up with ways to achieve that “stretch” goal. In theory, working toward your goals is not complicated. Most days, most of the things you do should move you toward your goals. Perfection isn’t a requirement. Rather, consider what would happen if most of what you said and did every day moved you toward your goals. Your goals can be anything you wish – there are no limits. In fact, it is better if you stretch your visions beyond what you believe is possible. The reason is because you are probably capable of so much more than you currently believe. The mind has the ability to be our best friend or our worst enemy. As our best friend, it serves our limitless visionary, but as our worst enemy it serves as our limited perception. Go to http://www.accountabilitycoach.com/landing/ and get 3 FREE gifts including a special report on 10 Power Tips for Getting Focused, Organized, and Achieving Your Goals Now. Join the Silver Inner Circle (IT’S FREE) and receive 10% off on all products and services in addition to having access to many assessments and complimentary resources so you can begin achieving your goals in the timeframe you want, so you can have the life you desire. Get started today by going to http://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching-store/inner-circle-store/ and Join the FREE Silver Inner Circle. Aim for what you want each and every day! Anne Bachrach The Accountability CoachTM Author of Excuses Don’t Count; Results Rule and Live Life with No Regrets. Get your copies today.