For years, I lived multiple lives... I had my work life and my home life. My inner life and my public life. I spent a great deal of energy managing all my lives and ensuring that I showed up just right in each one. People that knew me twenty and thirty years ago have told me that they never really knew me... that they always sensed they were getting just a part of me... and they were right!
For several years now I have been shifting to a "whole-life" view of things. It seems that I really am just one person and the more I can look at myself as an integrated whole the more energy I have to simply be me... as opposed to managing the story of me.
One tool I use at the beginning of every meeting or retreat that I facilitate is called the "Whole Life Check In". At first some are reluctant to peel back and reveal the layers of their life but in the end almost everyone appreciates the few moments of permission to reflect on themselves. No one ever shares more than they want to share and I have found that in even the most task-oriented business setting that starting this way focuses first on "who we are" so that "what we might do together" becomes stronger and more effective.
Click on the Whole Life Check In link here to download the one-page handout. In some ways I use this every day. What do you think?
Onward!
V
