Last week, I talked about 7 important questions and I explored a few of them in depth. I discussed Who, What, Why, and When. Today, it’s time for, “Where?” The topic of space and sphere is not as high on the list as some of the others, but it is still a critical one.
Sphere
When you think about questions of where, you’re usually thinking about a physical place. However, I also want to challenge you to think about, “where?” as relating to the different spheres of your life.
Every person’s life can be understood as different overlapping spheres of activity. There are the financial, the familial, the social. There’s your job, your hobbies, your recreation. Think about the home and family life, layered with the workplace and career life, layered with the community and social life. You’re getting the idea.
So, when you do this work of conceptualizing your goals, it’s important to think about the spheres of your life that this goal lives within. Also think about how the other areas, seemingly unrelated to the goal on first look, might be affected or impacted by the pursuit of this goal. Sometimes saying “yes” to one thing means saying “no” to another.
Space
This is the physical “where?” This is the obvious answer to the question I’m posing, but still a really important point of consideration.
Where–in what place on earth–are you going to accomplish your goal? Is it in your home town or in the big city across the country? Is it even in this country, or in some other place on the other side of the world. Thinking about where in physical space you see this goal being achieved will help you conceptualize the steps you must take to achieve it.
Here’s another aspect of the where question: where are you going to be when you do the work? Is this a goal that you’ll work on in your house? Will you be going to a gym to put in the reps? Is it a goal that you build out in the mountains, or in an office? Is it something you have to do with a factory? Or in a boat on the sea? There can be a lot of different answers to this, depending on the goal in question. Drill down into the details on this, as it will help you transform what can seem like an abstract goal into an actual concrete, actionable plan.
The Point Of All This
I guess that’s a good place to end this one. The entire point of asking these questions in the first place is to take something that currently only exists as a feeling or a vague sense, and to transform that into a result. To do this, we must identify and give shape to that feeling, then flesh it out with all the details and plans we can come up with. Then, we have to put those plans into action and build the thing. We bring the picture into focus, then create the thing in the real world. Visualize and manifest. Job done.
SMART, FIT, AND CLEAN 