The war: Return to flight

About two weeks ago I told you that I had to start thinking about my 50000ft level visions and goals. I will here try to explain what that is. I was recently introduced to something called "the 6 level life planning model." The basic idea is that everything we do is based on the longterm plans and the image of ourself that we have. It's about the broader perspective. So in order to really come to terms with it one can divide it up in different "levels." The analogy that explains it the best is the one that was used to explain it to me: The airplane analogy.

Here are the six levels and what they represent:

• 50000ft: Life
• 40000ft: 3- to 5- year visions
• 30000ft: 1- to 2- year goals
• 20000ft: Areas of responsibility
• 10000ft: Current projects
• Runway: Current actions

Life
Who am I? Why am I here? What do I have to accomplish? Where am I going? These are all questions that need to be answered on this level. They determine more than we think about whether we are happy or not. If my current job does not match my idea of who I am then I should probably start looking for alternatives. If a project I'm working on goes against the basic values I live by then I should consider leaving it. What education is best in line with what I believe to be true about my purpose on this planet?

There situations will be more or less impossible to decide on if we haven't clearly defined these things. And don't think that just because you are a member of the church and have been spoon fed the answers to these questions since birth, that you are safe. General answers are good but they don't answer the question of what YOU, insert-own-name-here, are doing on this planet. They give pointers but the rest is for you to find out/decide.

3- to 5- year visions
What will my life be like in 5 years? Will I be in school? working? Married? Have children? Live in a foreign country? Be in the army? Decide what your vision of the future is. What will you have accomplished? Where will you have lived, what jobs will you have had? You get the idea.

1- to 2- year goals
This level blends together with the one above it in many cases and is very similar. The exception is that the goals and visions laid out here tend to be a little clearer and more defined since the outcomes are closer in time.

Areas of responsibility
What "hats" do you wear? What roles do you have in your society? What responsibilities do you have in your job? Are you a student? A parent? Do you have responsibilities in your Church? Club? Your kids sports team? etc. The list can be made long. By defining all you roles you get a clearer picture of what your life actually consists of and it gives you a chance to decide what roles are consistent with the higher levels of you life planning.

Current projects
This is where it gets easy. What projects are you working on right now? Planning trips, looking for a new couch, writing a thesis and planning a major project at work, all go into this category. This is where it starts getting "hands on" and you feel like you can work with things in a more frequent level then the higher levels of planning.

Current actions
This is where we spend most of our time. This is where we actually do stuff. Everything from taking the trash out to sending in your tax-declaration to proposing to that special someone takes place here.


The airplane analogy is an incredibly apt one for this. If the runway is all cluttered up with trash (Stuff in our lives that hasn't been properly taken care of) its impossible to take of with our plane and go to the higher levels. And at the same time we might, once we make it to the higher levels, realize that a lot of the actions we are doing on the runway level are actually part of projects that don't fit into our life plans. So while we need to spend most of our time taking care of everything on the runway level we definitely need to make frequent trips to the higher altitudes to assess where we are in the bigger picture. Here we can add and remove projects and areas of responsibility based on our life- and 1-5 year- goals as well as adjusting our goals according to our perception of our direction in life.


I myself haven't been terribly good at this but I have started looking at the higher levels. The last week however my runway had a bad case of being cluttered so the last few days have been spent on clearing the way. Now I once again feel I can have a look at those higher levels again.

I'm signing of for tonight but will be back soon with more. Dont forget to check out my new miniseries "the Good life".

The Good Life - Part 1: Introduction

Why do we get up in the morning? Why do we struggle through difficulties and hardships? What is it that motivates us to do things we really don't want to do and to work long hours every day? What gets us to take the risk of investing emotionally in another person? To take loans and buy houses? To give birth to children? The risks involved in all these things should be enough to deter any sane person from even trying. So why do we do it? Could it be that we see something from afar? Something we want to reach?

Some call it happiness, others bliss. To some it is success and to others it is the dream of a better life. In the church we often see it as the reward for faithful service, the result of a life of "doing the right thing". Common to all is that we see it as something in the future, something not quite attainable but that we constantly strive for.

I call it "the Good life" and claim that it is very much attainable in this life. It is very interrelated to the things I've been writing about so far in my blog but in this miniseries I will be looking at it out of a spiritual and philosophical perspective. I call it the good life for several reasons: It signifies that it is not about perfection but rather about constant growth. It means that it's something we can have ongoing in our lives, something we can have more or less now. I also chose it because the term "the good life" has special personal meaning to me that I wont go in to here.

In this miniseries inside my blog I will give you updates from my studies into what "the good life" really is about and how we can have it. But don't worry. I haven't given up the war. It is still raging and I will be posting updates on that as well.

Ramblings and thoughts

Sitting down to write this I really have no idea what to write. Lots of thoughts are rushing trough my head and I find myself closing in on one of the big deciding moments of my life. I wont tell you here what that is about or which way I'm leaning on it since it would disturb my process of decision too much. I just want you to keep it in mind before you read today's entry and start wondering why I don't make any sense.

Lately I've invested a considerable amount of money (at least by my standards) into personal productivity. I've bought all the gear I've needed, the lack of which has often kept me from getting things done in a timely manner. I've made big changes and little progress. You could say I've discovered where the breakpoint is between tools and motivation. I've discovered that personal productivity is relatively easy if you are by yourself and exclude emotion from the equation. But add a high workload, little time and emotional investment and the equation goes haywire very fast. I guess the real challenge is to use the little time and the moments of sanity wisely in order to allow for the relative insanity that emotions can sometimes be.

Today's institute class gave me a reminder that I need to really go over my high level goals soon. I guess my trip to the Temple in Copenhagen this weekend will be the perfect time to really decide about my 50.000ft level goals. Things like what am I here for? Where am I going? And not just in the general sense (Cause we all know the textbook answers to those questions) but more in the sense of: Why am I here? Where am I going? Me personally. Where do I aim in life? I have long been avoiding that personal assessment. Instead hiding behind the text-book answers. Those answers are of course valid as well. But they don't give me much help with deciding some of the bigger decisions in life. So the question I am asking myself and will be working more thoroughly on is not "How should man live life" But rather "Where am I, Michael Dundee, going in life and why?" So now maybe you understand why my thoughts are a bit unfocused on the specifics on combating laziness in my life.

That war rages on however and I gain ground every day. For example I'm really tired right now. This is quite unusual for me who used to happily stay up until 2 or 3 am without getting particularly tired. But this is also a good development. Because it means I get to sleep on time and I'm rarely ever tired at work any more. My use of lists has deteriorated somewhat and I find I'm not as effective as I was a month ago. But at the same time I've really learned to take my mind of things and make space for focused efforts at work etc. So its a mixture of good and bad.

I think I'll leave you with these ramblings of my mind. If you didn't understand then I dont blame you. I dont even understand a lot right now. I just hope I make the right choice with my "Big decision." But we'll see. Good bye for now!