A Useful Exercise

As we head into the last month of the year, here’s a great exercise to get you ready for 2013. Grab a piece of paper and a pen and play along. This should take you no more than 15 minutes and will make a big impact!

Step 1 – Make a list of all the important areas of your life. Spiritual maturity, financial health, physical health, relationship with your spouse, relationship with your children, business/career, etc.

Step 2 – Go through each area and rate them on a scale from 1-10 with 10 being the best it could be. Maybe you’re a 6 in finances, an 8 in your relationship with your kids, and a 3 in your spiritual walk. Just go with your gut.

Before we move to the last step let’s pause and talk about one of the most important principles in your pursuit of success.

The principle I’m referring to is the law of Reciprocity which simply states that we reap what we sow.

Look over your list and the ratings that you created. For each area, whether you like what you see or not, your current reality is the direct result of seeds that you did or did not plant in the past. You are simply reaping the harvest (or feeling the lack of harvest) for what was done in previous seasons. This can be a hard truth. Our natural inclination is to blame and rationalize. Blaming and/or making excuses, unfortunately, simply perpetuates the problem, because we are trying to ignore or become exceptions to one of the foundational laws of the universe. You cannot reap what you have not sewn. And if you sew it, you will reap it. Which leads us to our last step.

Step 3 – Go through your list and for each area think of ONE seed you could plant now that would make the biggest impact in your rating when that seed produces it’s harvest. For instance, if you rated your business as 6 perhaps the best seed would be to meet with 2 more prospects a week than you do today. If you rated your relationship with your children as a 5, perhaps the best seed would be a one-on-one breakfast date with each of them every week. These are just examples. Don’t get overly ambitious. What is the ONE seed you could plant and cultivate that would bring the biggest improvement?

If you will plant seeds now, at this time next year you will be seeing the harvest. If you don’t plant seeds now, you are going to be going into December 2013 with the same or lower ratings as you have today.

Let’s make 2013 the best year yet! Get to planting!