Life In The Mirror A little book of exercises to stimulate dreams and build inner confidence.
Reflection exercises are a great way to kickstart the planning process, helping you gain more clarity around your values, goals and priorities for the future. If you run out of space on the pages provided, write to your heart s content in your journal or an online doc, or even share your inspiration with others on a blog or online space. You may like to do these exercises with a friend, your family or your GIG or 6 Step Challenge team, or make it into a date with yourself to sip tea in your garden, find a quiet spot on the beach or lay on a rug in a nearby park. We hope you enjoy! The team at 10thousandgirl xo What were the last 12 months like for you? Eye-openingly awe-inspiring? A challenge to put it nicely? A little of a mundane pass-me-by year? Your best year yet? Reflecting on the past is a great way to appreciate what you have learnt, summarise your experiences, challenges and wins and revisit the direction your life is taking as you look ahead to plan for your next phase. This booklet includes a range of exercises, activities and templates to help guide you through this process. In true 10thousandgirl style, we encourage you to do them all as the benefits are truly worthwhile (clarity, purpose, inspiration, focus, motivation, intention), or simply pick and choose a few to suit your stage and current needs only you know where your attention and time is best spent! Share your experience, learnings and outcomes of this process with your GIG or 6 Step Challenge crew, on facebook or with a friend. We believe life planning is about having fun, embracing opportunity and working together as women around the world to inspire a global Ripple Effect of mindful and resourced lives and communities. Please enjoy the process and give yourself a pat on the back for making time in your busy life to spend on you and your energy - your most important asset. REFLECT AND GROW We often zoom through life rushing from one thing to the next with little opportunity to look back and see what we have actually accomplished or experienced (except for allowing that little voice inside who can be pretty handy at pointing out our slip ups ). Consciously taking the time to reflect leverages our experiences from being something we just 'did' to something we can learn from and use to improve our future and the future for others. Introducing reflection into your life on a regular basis is a skill that cultivates growth as you get to know yourself better. Knowing yourself better leads you to making better choices and decisions in your life for the right reasons for you. Reflection builds self-appreciation which builds confidence which forms our foundational beliefs. It s like building a house, the first step is always to ensure our foundations are strong. Consider scheduling in some reflection time each day, week or month and see what happens!
Exercise: Sense of Achievement Write a thorough list of everything you have achieved over your life. Include small, big, past and recent undertakings. Finding it hard to start? Start with simple things we take for granted riding a bicycle, learning a new skill, building a network of supportive friends Exercise: A Singing Heart Write a list of everything that lights up your life and makes your heart sing.
Exercise: Soul Restoring Write a list of anything that destroys your soul, depletes your energy or makes you feel depressed. Make a note beside them of any actions you could take to avoid or change the situation. Exercise: World Changing Write a list of the changes you would like to see in the world. Note any action you could take towards these. Exercise: Strength Building Write a list of any specific skills, areas of expertise and natural or practiced strengths you have.
Exercise: My Year in Reflection Reflect now over your past year. What did you do? How did you feel? What lessons did you learn to bring with you for the future? Taking the time to reflect over the last 12 months really gives you the opportunity to zoom in your attention to what worked really well so you can do a little celebratory dance and truly acknowledge your accomplishments, and what didn t work so well so you know what to do or not to include in your next set of goals. What was the best thing that happened to me the past year? What did I complete this year that I m really proud of? Who did I help? Who do I need to thank for being there for me? What are the top 3 lessons I learnt? 1.... 2.... 3.... What increased my happiness and joy this year?
What s something I got through that was really tough? What did I avoid that I must pay more attention to in the year ahead? What character trait did I develop most this year? What new people are now in my life? What is my strongest memory? Other notes and thoughts
Exercise: Life Audit Below are nine life categories. The objective of this exercise is to determine the areas of your life you would like to see significant change in. Analyse where you see yourself in each area currently and note the areas you d like to set specific goals around in order to change and improve that area. It s important to do this exercise intuitively, answering each category with the first answer that comes to mind. The good news is there are no rules. Balance is what you make of it. You create the recipe. HINT! Aim for excitement, it s OK to spend more time in the places that make you sizzle and If there are some surprises, that's ok too. STEPS: 1) Rate where you see yourself now by putting an N in the rating column (1 = unsatisfactory, 10 = extraordinary). 2) Rate where you d like to be in each category by putting a G in the rating column. 3) Draw a line between N and G. 4) Put an asterisk in the third column against each area with longest line. The areas with the longest lines will help identify the areas you can focus on to improve. AREA Eg. Health RATING N= Now G = Goal N G 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 PUT AN * NEXT TO THE THREE AREAS WITH THE WIDEST GAP BETWEEN N & G * Health 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Family/friends/new relationships 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Love and Romance 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Personal and Spiritual Growth 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Career and New Skills 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Finances 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Travel, Interests, Treats and Surprises 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Physical Environment (the space/s you have around you) 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Contribution/giving 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Other 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 What are your key priority areas? The audit may have given you an insight or you may already know in your heart where you need to invest some love and attention.
Exercise: Old goals and new ideas Clear your mind by doing a braindump of old goals and new ideas. You may like to pick an area in your life and create a mindmap of goals and values around that area. For example, HEALTH In the first week of the 6 Step Challenge, you can use these reflections and ideas to build a Life Plan and put your goals and ideas in timeframes. Learn to meditate Run half marathon Weigh 70kg HEALTH
Exercise: Gratitude Write down ten things you re thankful for. Decide one ongoing action you can take to increase the amount of gratitude and appreciation in the world. 1. 6. 2. 7. 3. 8. 4. 9. 5. 10. Did you know? Gratitude A study by Dr Robert Emmons of the University of California and Dr Micheal McCollough of Southern Methodist University in Texas found daily gratitude exercises resulted in: Higher levels of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, optimism and energy Less depression and stress More likely to help others Exercised more regularly Made more progress toward personal goals More likely to feel loved McCollough and Emmons found that gratitude encouraged a positive cycle of reciprocal kindness among people since one act of gratitude encourages another. In our gratitude investigation, we found some people have a gratitude journal and write down 5 things they are grateful for each day. We met two friends who regularly text each other something they re grateful for. Others write thank you cards and subscribe to gratitude blogs which drop them gratitude notes in their inbox each day. There s an online gratitude community called gratitudelog.com which claims to be The Happiest Place on the Internet and is 100% free, like air and sunshine. It seems gratitude is best felt when it s shared. We re actually convinced gratitude is like the world s blood and it needs to keep on flowing. How are you going to flow gratitude today? We dare you to thank someone for something small every day this week!
Want to get serious about creating a life plan and laying your financial foundations for the future? Join the 10thousandgirl 6 Step Challenge! "a bootcamp for your finances..." This is for you if... ü ü Getting ahead financially is one of your goals Somewhere in the back of your mind, you know your personal finances are in need of a spring clean This fun and interactive new program is a first of it's kind - our aim is to make personal finance fun, social and totally life-changing. Join girlfriends, workmates and new 10thousandgirl friends over 6 Weeks to give your personal finances a Blitz. It's all about learning the life and finance skills we all need to know but so often didn't learn at home or at school - join now to help each other take action and feel set for a financially secure future. Supported by interactive webinars, videos and beautiful workbook and online materials, 10thousandgirl will guide you through the program. Each week you'll receive an email with helpful tools, links and resources. It will provide the details for you to login to the weekly webinar and you'll be tasked with a 10 minute challenge. Between webinars you have the option to ask questions and chat with like-minds and experts on a private online forum. Financially empower yourself while 10% of your program fees go toward providing a microloan for a woman to start a new business and lift herself and her family out of poverty. Pretty inspiring! More on www.10thousandgirl.com 2014 10thousandgirl Campaign For further tips, resources and program information www.10thousandgirl.com