When struggling with overwhelm making the most out of life can be a challenge. It’s a step too far. Existence is a struggle, let alone surviving or thriving. Where do you start? What are the bits of your life that you want to make the most out of?
The Wheel of Life exercise I shared with you on 13th Feb and 22nd Feb will help. You can read my introduction to the Wheel of Life here. The additional follow-up questions are here.
This is a good starting point. Identifying your core values will help you remain true to the “essence of you”. You can read Andrew’s blog on identifying you core values here.
Doing these two exercises, together with performing SWOT analysis is getting your ducks in a row. However, the ducks may be wandering around ignoring you and not standing still.
Not much help when you want to make the most of out your time, energy and motivation.
Using MOST analysis will help you make those pesky ducks stand still for a while.
What is MOST?
MOST is another of my business analysis techniques that is very simple to learn. It’s also easily transferable from the business environment to the personal one.
Like many tools in business analysis it’s an acronym ….
M = Mission
O = Objectives
S = Strategies
T = Tactics
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style”. Maya Angelou
Andrew and I have recently performed MOST analysis on two aspects of our lives that were not in balance. These are the work we do FOR Canbace Life, so supporting other people as they embrace Canbace. Then there is living OUR personal version of a Canbace Life. I’m going to share with you both so you can see how MOST works and why these two aspects of our life aren’t working in harmony at the moment.
Canbace Life Work
To begin with I’m going to focus on the business/work side of Canbace. This is all out supporting other people as they come to terms with their situation. Here’s out MOST analysis for this aspect of our life.
Mission
To build a Canbace Tribe
Objectives
- Raise awareness about the benefits of Canbace within the CNBC communities
- Raise awareness about the benefits of Canbace in the wider world
- To create a vibrant, active and supportive Canbace Tribe
Strategies
- Improve our social media activities
- Improve the website
- Write the book
- Create the on-line courses
Tactics
Social media
- Create a social media schedule using Buffer
- Start using and promoting our Instagram account
- Build our Twitter following
- Promote the #CanbaceLife Twitter Chat
- Build our Facebook page likes and activity
Website
- Invest in the Learning Management System
- Invest in paid-for theme
- Redesign website
- Build the on-line community forums
- Launch the on-line community
- Promote the community
Book
- Use a professional editor and designer
- Critique team of readers
- Organise a crowd-funding campaign
- Plan the book promotion and PR
As you can imagine all of this will involve lots of work. Work that requires time and energy to complete. Time and energy that we are struggling to find at the moment.
Helping other people to create their new, beautiful and courageous existence is very important to us. It aligns well with my core values of creativity, inspiration and life purpose. However, doing all of the above doesn’t leave much time or energy for creating and living OUR Canbace Life.
So, let’s have a look at the MOST analysis that we did for that aspect of our life.
OUR personal Canbace Life
Mission
To Canbace more effectively
Objectives
- To get a better balance between Canbace work and Canbace Life.
Strategies
- To work smarter not harder on Canbace work
- Make the most of life here
- Put the house back on the market
Tactics
Canbace Work
- Reduce number of blogs per week
- Improve the way we use Buffer
Make the most of life here
- Get out and about more
- Eat out in the garden when the weather is good
House on the market
- Work in the garden
- Clear the barn
- Redecorate the house
The Process
- Start at the top with Mission. This should be concise and very focused.
- Drill down into the objectives that will help you to achieve your mission. Ideally these should be SMART objectives. However, as part of working smarter not harder we didn’t spend the time turning our objectives into smart ones. The headlines are fit for purpose at the moment.
- When you have confirmed your objectives think about the strategies you will used to meet your objectives. Strategies are what you will do in theory and are fairly broad brush. Create several strategies for each objective.
- Finally work out your tactics. Again, identify a number of tactics that work together to create your strategy. If the strategies are the broad brush approach the tactics are the nitty-gritty of what you intend to do.
Each aspect of MOST should be linked the adjacent one. If this has been done correctly the work is easier.
You do the work identified in the tactics.
As you complete all the tactics you are following the strategy.
By following the strategies, you are working towards the objectives.
Meeting the objectives helps you to achieve your mission.
Practice makes perfect
It’s all well and good writing about things in theory: however, we need to start applying what we learn. Choose an area of your life that you would like to improve. Use MOST to identify your Mission, Objectives, Strategies and Tactics. Start doing the work identified in the tactics and see if this helps you to implement the strategies, meet the objectives and help you achieve your mission.
To help you keep track of all your work for the daily activities mentioned, we have created a Monthly Diary for you to record your progress. To download your copy of “My February Canbace Diary” please click here.
Be kind to yourself …
In CANBACE friendship!
If anything I have written resonates I’d love to hear from you in the comments. I appreciate that this can be a difficult subject to speak openly about. If you don’t want me to publish your comment on the website, please let me know. I will keep your words private.
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