Do you need to get your mojo back?

Last week, I had the rare privilege of meeting a World-renowned speaker, writer and coach.  Marshall Goldsmith (http://www.marshallgoldsmith.com) was at the Rochester Institute of Technology to present at a Women’s Conference and I attended his keynote address.

Of all the great nuggets he shared for women to help us balance our lives, one stood out to me above all others.  He called it the “Mojo Survey”.  Basically this survey will help you examine how you spend your time at work and outside of work.

Consider your time in two dimensions – short-term satisfaction (“Does this activity make me happy?”) and long-term benefit (“Does this activity have a long-term positive impact on my life?”)

The best way to describe it is with a model. (I’ve recreated the model below with Marshall’s permission so you can get the full understanding of this concept.)

The model illustrates the five different combinations of short-term satisfaction and long-term benefit that can characterize our relationship to ANY activity.

You might be wondering about the specific activities that fill your day and which category they fall into.  I will share with you some ideas but suggest you also come up with a list of your own.

Surviving: chores, cleaning, paying bills, pointless meetings, waiting in lines, commuting, administrative details.

Stimulating: watching random TV, surfing the net, Facebook, soap operas, Farmville, watching sports, video games, reading “junk” fiction, gossiping or bashing others, daydreaming with no corresponding action.

Sacrificing: watching TV (that I don’t like for someone else), spending time with people I don’t like, eating healthy foods that I don’t enjoy, getting organized, cleaning the office, being politically correct, working late and on your days off, doing work that you can’t stand.

Sustaining: running the kids around, checking emails, reading that is required, traveling for business, routine communication, managing projects and others.

Succeeding: spending time with people you love, quality time with kids, reading meaningful books, engaging in self-development activities, satisfying work, teaching and helping others, completing important or revenue-generating projects.

(Please note: The same exact activity can be placed in different categories by different people.  A lot of the rating is based on our unique attitude toward the activity.)

Now here is where the rubber meets the road.  Write down what percentage of your time at work is spent in each category.  Then write down what percentage of your time outside of work is spent in each category.

If you are like MOST women (there are exceptions), you will most likely find the majority of your activities are spent in the surviving, sacrificing, and sustaining categories.

Very few working women nowadays spend much time in the Stimulating category on things like video games but consider how much time is spent on Facebook.  Yes, it may be a way to stay in touch with friends, but I wonder in forty years how many people on their deathbed are going to say “Gee, I wished I spent more time on Facebook.”

All of this means that we spend the LEAST amount of time in the Succeeding category.  Activities that we find personally fulfilling and meaningful come DEAD LAST.  No wonder we often feel overwhelmed, overworked and like we’re missing out because WE ARE!!

The bottom line is that to increase your happiness and satisfaction in life, you need to decrease the amount of time you spend on activities in the Surviving, Sacrificing and Stimulating categories to allow for more time to be spent in the Succeeding categories.

What is one non-fulfilling activity you could eliminate this week?

What is one fulfilling activity you could add this week?

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