My Life in 4 Quadrants
Like most of my middle school art projects, I just copy and pasted a bunch of google images into a word doc, printed them out, and taped them to a board.
My brain is both logical and creative and you can probably tell by how it looks…
First I started with a blank board.
It was pretty daunting. My perfectionist mind wanted me to make sure I accurately conveyed what my life was all about.
So I then asked myself a bunch of questions:
What do I value? What do I spend my time on? What brings me joy?
After brain-dumping an exhaustive list on my whiteboard, I then tried to figure out how to sort or categorize the mess. I started seeing some correlations and my conclusion was to put some electrical tape on the board and create 4 quadrants or “Life Buckets,” if you will.
Life, Relationships, and Learning (LRL)
“Relationships are the Economy of Life”
This quadrant is the most general and was used as my catch-all.
I thought about some people that I admire and respect - specifically their personality traits and philosophies on life.
It serves as my daily reminder to remain curious, a lifelong learner, and maintain a “childlike” attitude toward life.
There will be hard times, but it’s a reminder to not take life too seriously and to always try my best to be a kind friend and neighbor.
The stock image of the animated pile of books represents my dedication to Lifelong learning and my rule that if there is any book I find interesting or I want to buy - I buy it “no hesi”
Health
For me this means:
Ample sleep, proper nutrition, and hella water
Exercising or doing some sort of movement each day
A balance of social interaction and time alone
Before you do or build anything. You must have a strong base. For me, that “base” is my health. Looking back there has been a strong correlation between my habits of exercise, sleep, and food that set me up to not only have a good day (micro) but to have a good year, years, life (macro).
It also serves as a daily reminder to work hard, but not too hard and to never sacrifice or skimp on improving or investing in my health. Whether that is my $80 per month gym membership, overly expensive organic Honeycrisp apples, or sleeping in a little extra on the weekend to make sure I hit 8 hours- any and all investments in this area pay dividends.
I also have included a daily “wind down” event in my Google calendar at 10 pm before my “SLEEP” notification to further instill this.
Career
This quadrant has always been a point of anxiety and tension for me.
In brief, you will spend 1/8th of your life working. That is a significant amount of time and I put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure I spend that time on something that’s “worth it.”
To make sure I have the greatest positive “impact,” means I have to invest in myself in what I do to bring value to others. Create value, make and save money, and then invest that into myself and others.
Creative
This is the other side of my brain that, although I am not the most talented in, brings me a lot of joy.
It allows me the most “freedom to fail” whether that is with writing, music, whatever. A reminder that creating can be very fun and meaningful but also bring joy and purpose to life
I believe creating, can inspire, connect, and make others “feel” - which is innately human.
Conclusion:
Overall, this has been a fun exercise to actively visualize who I am and who I want to become. It serves as a daily visible reminder and a compass of my values and who I am striving to be!
Do you have a vision board? Or some sort of visibility/daily reminders you like to keep up? I’d love to know! Shoot me an email or send me a tweet!