Personal Boundaries: The Key to Creating Work and Life Your Way
Personal Boundaries: The Key to Creating Work and Life Your Way
These are all physical boundaries. What about boundaries in your work and life? Saying no without guilt, for example, provides a great boundary around your time.
Have you ever seen Stephen Covey give his demonstration with the bucket of rocks and the pail of sand? It is one my favorite visuals for boundaries.
He holds up a full bucket of sand and a pail of rocks and asks a participant how to fit the rocks into the sand. One after another, the participants try to push and force the rocks down into the sand. At most, they can get a small part of one or two rocks down into the sand. The rest of the rocks are just left out.
If you are not utilizing good boundaries, this is how you are living your life. You are starting with a bucket full of sand and are trying to fit in the big stuff to no avail.
Let me explain. In his analogy, the rocks represent the things that are most important to us in life; our core values, our core goals. The sand represents all of the little stuff; the phone calls, emails, junk mail, junk pile, gossip, obligations forced upon us. There is no end to this stuff. It is voluminous and WILL NOT go away.
The sources of little stuff are endless; your needy co-worker, your mother-in-law, your grown child, the unwanted sales person, the chatty neighbor, the gossipy friend. All of this stuff will fill the bucket that is your life if you let it. And, then how do the big things fit in? The career goals, family, time for you.
The answer to the Covey Puzzle is to start with the bucket filled with rocks. That is your core. From there, pour the sand around. These little things can fill in the crevices, the little bits of time in our lives, while the rocks stay solid. Life is filled first with what is important and the rest fills in where there is room. Some of the little stuff may be left out and that’s okay because the core is there.
The boundaries you set to protect what is most important to you are the key. Saying no without guilt, relieving yourself of obligations and spending time on the activities that add value to your life, instituting consequences when others are not respectful.
Which bucket do you start your day with? Are you trying to fit the rocks around the sand or the sand around the rocks? Will you create your life the way you want it or will you let others dictate your journey? You choose! Boundaries are your key.
Personal Boundaries The Key to Creating Work and Life Your Way - To learn more about this author, visit Kirsten Ross's Website.
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When you think of the word boundary, what images does it conjure up; A fence around a pasture, a concrete barrier between two lanes of highway, how about the Berlin Wall?
These are all physical boundaries. What about boundaries in your work and life? Saying no without guilt, for example, provides a great boundary around your time.
Have you ever seen Stephen Covey give his demonstration with the bucket of rocks and the pail of sand? It is one my favorite visuals for boundaries.
He holds up a full bucket of sand and a pail of rocks and asks a participant how to fit the rocks into the sand. One after another, the participants try to push and force the rocks down into the sand. At most, they can get a small part of one or two rocks down into the sand. The rest of the rocks are just left out.
If you are not utilizing good boundaries, this is how you are living your life. You are starting with a bucket full of sand and are trying to fit in the big stuff to no avail.
Let me explain. In his analogy, the rocks represent the things that are most important to us in life; our core values, our core goals. The sand represents all of the little stuff; the phone calls, emails, junk mail, junk pile, gossip, obligations forced upon us. There is no end to this stuff. It is voluminous and WILL NOT go away.
The sources of little stuff are endless; your needy co-worker, your mother-in-law, your grown child, the unwanted sales person, the chatty neighbor, the gossipy friend. All of this stuff will fill the bucket that is your life if you let it. And, then how do the big things fit in? The career goals, family, time for you.
The answer to the Covey Puzzle is to start with the bucket filled with rocks. That is your core. From there, pour the sand around. These little things can fill in the crevices, the little bits of time in our lives, while the rocks stay solid. Life is filled first with what is important and the rest fills in where there is room. Some of the little stuff may be left out and that’s okay because the core is there.
The boundaries you set to protect what is most important to you are the key. Saying no without guilt, relieving yourself of obligations and spending time on the activities that add value to your life, instituting consequences when others are not respectful.
Which bucket do you start your day with? Are you trying to fit the rocks around the sand or the sand around the rocks? Will you create your life the way you want it or will you let others dictate your journey? You choose! Boundaries are your key.
Personal Boundaries The Key to Creating Work and Life Your Way - To learn more about this author, visit Kirsten Ross's Website.
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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