Personal Inventory Day

But how do you choose? This is one of the most common questions I am asked by clients facing decisions - big and small. Choosing can be paralyzing. And while only they can answer this for themselves, I do have some ideas how in fact we can choose.
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Data and gut.

Data means the facts. The truth.
Gut means your instincts. Your internal compass. Trusting it can be hard because it may mean bypassing logic.

But I don’t want to get too caught up in definitions or which one to use with decision making. What I find really interesting is that we rarely allow ourselves the time to know what either facts or gut are telling us.

We don’t allow ourselves time to reflect.
Call Your Girlfriend is a podcast I absolutely LOVE and its first episode for 2018 included advice from amazing women like Sabrina Hersi Issa, an award-winning human rights technologist. Sabrina gave me one of the biggest “A-HAs” I’ve had in a while - which is to schedule a personal inventory day each month. If you know me, you know one of my mottos is “What’s scheduled gets done,” so clearly intentional reflection time for myself hasn’t been on my radar. But, better late than never!
The concept of a personal inventory day is simple. You pick one day a month (Sabrina schedules hers on the day of her birthday - she was born on the 16th, so the 16th of the month is her day) to spend time with these four questions:

• What did I learn this month?
• What surprised me, and why?
• What am I grateful for?
• Who am I grateful for?

These questions may seem easy, but what we know is the easier the question, the more clarifying it can be. The point is to sit with these questions. To be honest with yourself. And, to allow this process to help you be intentional about your time.

And, if you’re worrying that you don’t have a whole day to dedicate, how much time do you have? Anything is better than nothing.

The truth is, without time for reflection, we are merely being reactive. Like everything, reflection is a choice. You can choose to make space to reflect - to find out the truth and listen to what your gut and your data are telling you. Let the next decision you make be the date of your own personal inventory day.

Author
Coach Lindsey Lathrop works with motivated people who want to make a change but feel stuck - stuck in their thinking, overwhelm, perfectionism, and imposter syndrome. She believes in "eating the frog," good socks, strong coffee, and paying it forward. ​

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