“When a person travels through a few years with an organization, or with a partnership, or any other kind of working association, he leaves a “wake” behind in these two areas, task and relationship: What did he accomplish and how did he deal with people? And we can tell a lot about that person from the nature of the wake.” ― Henry Cloud, Integrity: The Courage to Face the Demands of Reality
How we function in these two areas (task and relationship), determines the type of “wake” that we leave in our places of business, our families, and our friendships. In order to perceive our own “wake” accurately - we need to regularly re-prioritize and reflect on what and why we’re doing what we’re doing. Here are two tools that you can use to start this process:
1.Death Clock: Ok - so the Death Clock sounds morbid - but it’s actually quite inspiring to open your browser before diving into work or browsing the internet each day greeted by the number of days you may have left - it really makes you stop and think “I’ve got to make it count” - and then “What am I going to spend my time on today, what’s most important?”
It’s free - so no excuses - click here for the link to it in the app store.
2. Eulogy: Michael Hyatt has a great summary on the process of going through the exercise of writing your own Eulogy - this can really help with defining and narrowing your purpose and priorities right now, directly translating into what you spend your time on everyday.
You can go through the process here.
Carve out some time this week to walk yourself through these steps, it’s well worth the effort.