The Currencies of Life

Money.

What comes to mind as you read that word? What emotions are stirred? What feeling do you get in your body?

If you’re like most people, just seeing the word money sparks a reaction.

Money is an interesting thing. In many ways, it’s essential to live (in our country, anyway) and yet it’s seen by most as so much more than a necessity. It’s coveted, desired, hoarded, given away, lost, gained, traded, and exchanged. For it, we human beings stay in deadening jobs and equally deadening relationships, and we do things that defy every bit of what our souls long for.

The funny thing is, money is a form of currency.

We tend to view money as the form of currency, when in fact it’s one of many.

Energy, time, knowledge, and even gratitude are all forms of currency that can be exchanged, traded, and spent in a way that aligns with who we are and what’s important to us.

When we begin to see money as just one of many forms of currency, we can begin spending and receiving these different currencies in a way that reflects our values.

So here’s what I invite you to do:

• Make a list of all the currencies that you use in your daily life in one column on a sheet of paper.
• Then, on the right side, list the value that each of these currencies relates to for you personally.

For example, my list looks like this:

Time	Freedom, Impact, and Flow
Money
Energy
Knowledge	Expansion, Growth, and Impact
Skills
Talents
Generosity	Love and Meaningful Relationships
Gratitude
Kindness
Presence

Then, over the course of the next week, pay attention to how you’re exchanging each of the currencies on your list and how they may or may not reflect your values.

Notice when you feel best about spending one of your forms of currency, and also when you notice a sense of misalignment around your spending.

Consider updating your list each time you notice a feeling (physical or emotional) related to spending one of your above forms of currency.

For example, your friend asks you for a ride (again), this time to a destination 45 minutes away. As usual, she doesn’t offer to pay you back for gas money. You find yourself agreeing but feel a pit in your stomach as you do.

Or, you spend your morning shopping online for a wedding present for one of your closest friends. She is one of the most generous people you know and has been a huge supporter for you as you’ve recently transitioned to a new career. Your heart actually beats with excitement for her as you select her presents online.

Notice that the situations above likely required similar forms of currency and touched on similar values – but that the feeling surrounding each of the ‘expenses’ was likely very different. Pay attention to those feelings, and begin to notice trends that emerge.

As we begin to pay attention to the currencies that make up our lives and the values that they honor, we can start to become much more deliberate about spending in a way that honors our values.

Honoring our values in our day-to-day living eventually leads to honoring our values throughout our lives. 

What about you? What are the currencies that make up your life, and how do they relate to your values? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

To honoring all the forms of currency in our lives,

Sarah

Creation Before Intake

I admit it. I have a bit of a problem.

Give me a good article, video, blog post, or book and I can’t get enough. 

I love learning about new ideas, new philosophies, and new tools to incorporate into my coaching business.

When I first learned about Marie Forleo from one of my clients, I gorged on her videos for about 3 days straight. So many tips!

The only problem was, with all this learning, there was little time for creating. So much time hearing other people’s voices and ideas that there wasn’t time to express my own.

As a result, I’ve come up with a new motto to guide my daily learning routines.

Creation before intake.

This means that I get up each morning and write down m own ideas, do my own writing, and do my own important things – before I start taking in stuff from others. “Stuff from others” includes everything in the learning category, along with requests and to-dos that come in the form of emails and messages.

The result?

I’ve become much more productive and also much happier with my daily routine, because I’ve reduced the amount of stuff I’m taking in each day. 

I also like to think that my new system is helping me to be more creative, as I’m spending more time developing my own ideas and my own voice – and less time being influenced by everybody else.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I still love a good Marie Forleo break every now and then. But these days, it’s just that – a break – from the important things on my list that now take priority.

What about you? What helps you prioritize creation and your important to-dos over intake? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

What Are Your Buckets?

In coaching, and in some religions, a circle is used to represent the different aspects of our lives. In Buddhism, it's called the Bhavacakra, in Hinduism it's called the Samsara, and in coaching, we usually just call it the Wheel of Life.

Whatever you call it, it's a useful tool to look at life and reflect on how it's going.

It usually looks something like this:

As we kick off the new year, I recommend taking some time to draw your own Wheel of Life.

That means stepping back and reflecting on the 'buckets' that together form your unique life, in order to create a tool that you can work from in the upcoming year. You can draw it out in your journal, or you can use the free blank template that I've included here. 

My wheel looks like this right now:

I say "right now," because your wheel may evolve or expand over time. Mine has.

Then, once you've created your own wheel, each month or each quarter, you can schedule a little check-in with yourself to look at how things are going in each area, and identify opportunities for growth, expansion, or more fulfillment. I like to place dots in each area to represent my overall level of fulfillment in each (the perimeter of the circle represents a 10, and the inside represents a 1), and then connect the dots to see what it looks like.

The fun thing about doing this regularly is that the wheel almost always looks slightly different, at any given point in time. 

Darin Eich of Innovation Learning has a great post here about how to do this in a reflective way - by using the wheel to do your own personal year in review. 

I'd love to hear from you in the comments...what are the different parts of your wheel?

Happy New Year!
Sarah

Workshop Review: De-Clutter the Small Stuff to Make Room for What's Important

Last week, I had the pleasure of hosting a workshop with Vicky from Grid Organizing. We spent time talking through how we spend our time and how we *want* to spend our time, leaving participants with a few tips for honoring what's most important to us in our day-to-day routines.

We talked, we laughed, we ate some cheese, and we connected over some of the things we all feel passionately about - making time for the important things.

Here's what a few of the participants had to say.

Huge thank you to everyone who joined us for these events!

Molly Coughlin:

"Vicky and Sarah's workshop provided  refreshingly straightforward, practical strategies for getting more out of your days (and years). The group setting led to great conversation and insight into how peers manage similar challenges. All in all a very productive session!"

Jason Schatz:

"The workshop was a refreshing, inspiring, and above all a fun night with some great people. How we spend our days adds up to how we spend our lives, and if there's something more important than that, I don't know what it is. The workshop gave me the space and guidance to really focus on how I use my time and how it relates (or doesn't) to what I value. It was wonderful to spend an entire evening exploring something so fundamental. Best of all, I got to do it in the company of some really great people doing the same thing--sharing insight, honesty, and a lot of laughs. Making personal progress is so much easier (and way more fun) in a supportive group than trying to go it alone. Sarah and Vicky did an impressive job balancing light hearted discussion with more focused exercises and concrete actions for getting closer to where we each wanted to be. They made it look easy. It was a great night, and in the days since I've spent way more time on things that excite me than things that distract me, which is always a good feeling.  It's amazing what a little discussion and reflection can do when you need a little nudge (or even a big one)."

Heather Green:

"Vicky and Sarah did a wonderful job making the group feel comfortable, relaxed and open in our chaotic lives. The workshop was valuable in determining what roles in life I play while pointing out the gaps between my everyday life versus what I want to do. We often forget how many hats we wear and don't give credit to ourselves for the vast roles all of us uphold. The workshop provided a wonderful foundation point of goal alignment, prioritization and values."

Jordan Rothenberg:

"I'm really glad I attended the workshop for two reasons. Reason one: the exercises enabled me to put my time, both past and future into perspective. Sarah and Vicky did a great job of introducing the exercises, making the group feel comfortable and providing real examples for us to work with. Reason two: I now have an actionable list of steps I can take, today, to start making the strides I need to make to achieve my goals for this short, crazy ride called life."

Kourtney Franck:

"I really enjoyed the workshop, and found it very helpful in regards to time management.  The things we discussed during the workshop helped me focus on if I had really been spending my time on the things that were truly important to me, and how I could change things in order to spend more time doing what I enjoy and accomplish my goals at the same time.  It was also really nice to hear about others' experiences as well as share my own in regards to our goals, daily commitments, and time-management struggles."