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Your Personal Barometer This week's trek is based on the work of Stanford academics Bill Burnett and Dave Evans on how to design a well-lived life. Does it feel like you are running on empty in some parts of your life? Burnett and Evans would argue that in order to get things back in sync you need to review your personal barometer across four areas of your life -- health, love, play and work. Introducing Your Personal Barometer Exercise* What It Is A quick way to understand where you are focusing your time and energy so you can assess what might be out of sync in your life. Why We Love It  Sometimes we feel that things are off in our life but we aren't certain of the source. This exercise helps you get a quick gut check on where some of your sources of imbalance might be. How It Works 1. Set aside 10-15 minutes and grab your favorite notebook. On a piece of paper, create a scale from 0-Full for each of the following categories: health, love, play and work. 0=nothing really happening here. Full=lots happening here. 2. Then, think through your current state in each of these categories. How much time and energy are you spending on your mental, physical, and spiritual health? On love (e.g., time with friends or loved ones)? On play (e.g., hobbies, creativity)? On work? Rate where you currently fall on this spectrum based on your responses (see image below for an example). 3. Next, consider areas where you might be full versus running on empty. - Are you comfortable with those discrepancies? - Are there areas where you might want to make more of a shift in a particular direction?  4. If you have some areas where you might want to make a shift, consider what it would take to make that happen. Keep in mind that the goal may not be to reach 'full' in every single area. At some points in your life different areas will get more attention than others. The key is to decide if the balance you have right now is the right one for you. *Source: Designing Your Life. Want to dig deeper into this topic? To watch Bill Burnett's TED talk on how to design a well-lived life, watch here. For details on how Burnett and Evans developed their approach, read this from NYT. To learn more about how the average American spends time, see this from WSJ. To go deeper on this specific exercise, check out Burnett and Evans book. Shout. It. Back. To treks@lifetrekkers.me if you have praise or gripes about this trek or random thoughts about Life Trekkers. Here's what your fellow trekkers have to say about past treks: "The What's Your Tutu? exercise couldn't have come at a better time. I've always had a hard time showing emotion in romantic relationships, so it's helpful for me to check in with these questions after a date."  – Beebe Xia, Copywriter and Single Lady Tweet Tweet Email Us Learn More Copyright © 2018 LifeTrekkers, All rights reserved. Want more information? Drop us a line at info@trekkers.me. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list.