Posted on January 25, 2012

And now what shall I do? 
Over the last century, business productivity has risen 25-fold, working time divided by 2 and life expectancy multiplied by 2 … In other words, we have more time to work, we work less and More efficiently. But in recent years, ill-being, stress and psychosocial risks have become increasingly evident in the world of work. In France, one out of two executives said they were overwhelmed by the amount of work they had to do and complained that they were running out of time. Why are these overwhelmed executives so struggling to apply, over time, the principles – however simple – of personal organization and “management” of the time they have learned here or there?
These questions lead us to recognize that the implementation of some “good cooking recipes” or other common sense rules is not as simple as it sounds. Let us turn our attention to the causes of these difficulties.

A search on Google shows 1,860,000 responses for the phrase “time management” and 196,000 for ” time control “. It can be concluded that in our French-speaking world, there is ten times less energy invested for the subject of mastery than for that of time management. Remember that to manage is to take charge, to administer. This activity assumes that we will organize to be able to live with or beside the thing managed. Think about stress for example. Mastery, on the other hand, requires additional personal investment. To master means to dominate, to submit to his authority. Mastering one’s time is therefore a way of controlling it and giving it the place that suits your pleasure.
But what is your good pleasure? What kind of life do you ideally want? For what destiny are you on this earth? The answer to these questions is a necessary condition to master your time. The practice of these famous rules of personal organization is not tenable if it does not fit with these fundamental answers. For example, do you think you could become sufficiently organized and relaxed in your profession as an engineer if your true vocation was to sell works of art or to set up a brewery?
The following paragraphs will help you to better understand what is important to you and to better manage your ambitions, your good pleasure … then your behaviors, to master this time that you miss so much.
VALUES    
Your valuesAre those things that really matter to you the most and that help you make sense of your life. Values ​​define good and evil, clean and dirty, the beautiful and the ugly, the natural and that which is unnatural, the norm and the abnormal, the rational and the irrational, the coherent and the foolish … When you live in accordance with your values, your personal and professional lives are more satisfying. A good knowledge of your values ​​helps you to surround yourself with people whose values ​​are aligned with yours. Typically, when you seek to ensure that your values ​​are reasonably aligned with those of others, you reinforce the intensity and effectiveness of your personal and professional relationships.
When you do not respect your values, you suffer from a lack of consistency. This lack can exhaust your positive energy. For example, suppose that one of your values ​​is authenticity and that this leads you therefore not to lie. Imagine now that you are forced to say a lie. You will then waste a lot of energy trying to hide this lie, for fear of being “unmasked” and having to bear the consequences if the lie was discovered.
Allow yourself some time to think about what really matters to you. The result of this work is fundamental for the control of your time. It will allow you to become more aware of what is really important to you and to make choices about which tasks to perform first. Program a time to “ask” you and quietly go through the list below. Complete this list yourself from other values ​​you like and which would not be present below.
Be sincere with yourself. This exercise only aims to help you learn a little more about yourself and thus offer you easier access to congruence in your life.
Evaluate the values ​​below according to the following priority rule:
1 = very important – 2 = important – 3 = not important – 4 = not important at all.
I am interested in :

____ Silver
____ Attention to the welfare of others
____ Autonomy
____ Adventure
____ Physical well-being
____ Kindness
____ Clarity
____ Compassion
____ Trust
____ Comfort
____ Courage
____ Creativity
____ Mental Challenge
____ Knowledge Development
____ Personal development
____ Professional Development
____ Leave ideals To others
____ Equality
____ Commitment
____ Enthusiasm
____ Mutual help
____ Be imaginative
____ Be innovative
____ Being a recognized expert
____ Excitement
____ Flexibility
____ Force
____ Brotherhood
____ Generosity
____ Kindness
____ Gratitude
____ Honesty
____ positive impact on others
____ Independence
____ Influence
____ Integrity
____ Intelligence
____ Joy
____ Justice
____ Leadership
____ Freedom
____ Loyalty
____ Moral
____ Order and structure
____ Peace
____ Perseverance
____ Positivism
____ Power
____ Generating new ideas
____ Quality of work
____ Receptivity
____ Making others autonomous
____ Problem solving
____ Respect
____ Self-respect
____ Responsibility
____ Stability and security
____ Family time
____ Tranquility
____ Teamwork
____ Variety, diversity and change
____ Truth
____ Public life

Focus on the most important values ​​(those that have been ranked No. 1). Group those that you think are similar on the same line.
See the below
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
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The value of group you entered above is really your core values. Refer to them in case of dilemma. They will facilitate your decision-making process.

DISCOVER YOUR PURPOSE, YOUR MISSION
The goal of your life is that which lies deep within your essential being; Your reason for being. Your goal is the reason you are here on this earth. Stated in another way, your goal can open the doors to your passion. When you know your purpose and when you really let yourself live and guide by this goal, you can realize that you are beginning to excel in everything you do. Your goal motivates your thoughts, plans, goals and actions. Your goal often unfolds and becomes clearer when you live in phase with it and invite you to take an active part in your life.
In reality, your goal is already omnipresent in your present life. You may let him sometimes express himself timidly or you have already chosen to let him guide every step of your life. The level of awareness with which you let your goal guide you in defining your personal or professional goals ignites these goals and fills them with contagious meaning and passion!
To begin to discover your goal, take a few moments to answer the following three questions:
1. What do you do as naturally and effortlessly as breathing?
For some, this could be “speaking in public”. For others, this could be “writing”. Still others may find that training, or “relational”, development of others, assistance activities or project management, gives them a sense of personal achievement effortlessly. So, once again, what do you do as naturally and effortlessly as breathing?
__________________________________________________________________________

2. What do you like?
What exactly do you have so much pleasure in doing and which makes you lose the notion of the time that passes when you realize it? What delights us comes from our heart. It is in this direction that we invite you to seek the answer to this fundamental question in the discovery of your goal. Once again, what do you like?
_________________________________________________________________________

3. What have you accomplished in the life you feel proud of?
Without even realizing it, our accomplishments have very often and subtly been guided by our goal. So what have you accomplished?
_________________________________________________________________________

Refer to your answers to the three questions above. Create a brief draft of your goal. It is important that your formulation is short so that you can remember it easily.
___________________________________________________________________________

Just as with your values, when you know your goal, you can stand behind it. You can choose actions that have power, passion and substance; Actions that result from the depths of your being: your values ​​and your goal.
Now, type your goal with big characters and place it somewhere you can easily see it. As you live with it, allow yourself to update it until it really expresses who you are in your “deep self.”

Identify your Vision I
aspire to a future state of things that goes in the direction of my values. It helps me accomplish my purpose, my mission.
Vision at ten : if you had all the time, all the money, all the resources, all the contacts … If you had everything you needed and wanted to conceive your professional life with the utmost care, Would it look like 10 years of today?
__________________________________________________________________________

Vision at three : if we had this conversation in three years from today and we had to look at what happened during the past three years, what must have happened to make you feel Happy with the progress made?
The answer is about progress in your personal and professional life. _________________________________________________________________________

Vision to one year : considering your vision at 10 years, and your plans at three years, what should you accomplish this year? What should you set up? What marketing will you do? How will your life be balanced? What benefits do you want to attract to you? Take the time to make this as real as you can. Write your answer to this.
__________________________________________________________________________

OBJECTIVE
I want to obtain a definite significant result: I clarify the boundary-contact contours of this experiment.
Set genuine, meaningful and motivating priority goals. One of the great secrets to setting goals that inspire you and that really motivate you is to identify those that are aligned with your values, purpose and vision of the future that you long for. Therefore, by focusing on your values, your goal and the answers to your questions (about your vision at ten, three and one year), list all the things you would like to accomplish within a year. It’s now that it starts to grow your business and advance your professional life!

Check that each enumeration is a genuine priority objective, that is, a goal that carries you to the fulfillment of your goal. It gives you the opportunity to honor your values ​​while bringing you closer to the vision you have of your life at ten, three years and one year. This goal is not a “chimera” or a simple task that should eventually be realized.
Among these objectives, choose 1 to 4 maximum. You agree to fulfill them for the next 12 months. The delay may be shorter. It should not be longer than a full year.
Set SMART goals:
A SMART goal meets the following criteria:
Specific: it is sufficiently clear and detailed to allow you to know exactly what you want to accomplish. It is the difference between “I want to improve my skills,” and “I want to enroll in a training course in conflict management between employees” (Specific Action).
Measurable: you can objectively measure your achievement. “My level at the knowledge assessment exam will be greater than 15/20 (measurable level).”
Appropriate: aligned with your goal, vision and values. When goals are congruent with your values ​​and purpose, they have substance and you will be more enthusiastic to accomplish them.
Realistic: it is ambitious and must challenge you. But it is also achievable (for example: my current level is 11/20).
Based on Time: you have set a specific deadline for achieving this goal (for example, “… before December 31, (specific year)”). Reformulate the 1-4 goals you committed to accomplish during the 12 months to (Using the SMART formula above)
Example (the loop is looped!):
Goal 1: “I plan to have my book in my hands before the end of this year. This supports my values ​​of innovation, pride and optimism. This helps me accomplish my goal of helping business executives to tame their emotional intelligences. It is a fundamental step towards the development of my professional activity. ”

STRATEGY
Strategy is the set of goals and means that guide your activities (and by extension, the activities of an organization or a group of people) in the medium and long term. Strategic thinking focuses mainly on the virtues and the valorization of available resources: your talents, your assets, your capacity for innovation, your speed of maneuver. This strategic reasoning helps you achieve the goals. It is on the basis of these resources that the objectives must be adjusted.
Your strategy can be defensive by mobilizing your resources on a multitude of actions aimed above all at protecting you from any risk of failure.
Conversely, your strategy can be offensive by focusing your resources on a small number of relevant actions that maximize your chances of success.
The following questions can help you build your strategy:
• How will I get what I want?
• What are the different routes?
• What strengths will I focus on to achieve this goal?
• What strengths will I rely on to ensure the success of this project?
• Should this objective be readjusted?

LIMITATIONS The
more realistic a SMART objective, the more it takes into account the capacities of available resources and their limitations. It is with this consideration that this objective is most likely to succeed. Attention, personal limitations are too often equated with deficiencies or impotences, especially difficult to assume for the masculine gender. The purpose of this reflection on your limits is not to relegate you to the rank of boasters, but rather to that of the David who, aware of their abilities, will then know how to use their resources in a more intelligent way than all Goliath companies. To accept your limits is to accept the path of your own reality. It is also accepting to let you finally become what you are.
To accept your limits is to stop wanting to look like someone else. Accepting and assuming your limits is the first condition of change. Accepting your limits is a necessary condition for professional management of your resources and therefore your time. Taking personal boundaries into account is the beast of perfectionists.

The following questions can help you explore this topic and make your goals even more SMART:
• What are my “weaknesses”?
• What are the constraints imposed on me?
• What could stop me from getting what I want?
• What am I capable of releasing to strengthen my chances of success?

A change in our personal organization becomes possible only if we learn to manage or master the dilemma of private life / professional life. It is the one that opposes our need for individual freedom and an inevitable race for performance at work. In other words, it is necessary to learn to realize a fair balance between “I want” and “I have to”.

That will be the subject of our next article.