Personal Constitution & Deconstructing Fear

This week I had two assignments that required serious introspection.  One of them inspired by the Launching Leaders series (James Richie) has to do with writing your own Personal Constitution.  Basically you take the time to establish what your core values are.  You determine what is most important to you and you build on your foundation of beliefs a document that talks about the kind of person you want to be.  You are supposed to use "I am..." in your statements.  You then work through the productivity pyramid as you plan long-term goals, short-term goals and daily tasks to help you become the person you really want to be.  I didn't have any problems determining what is most important to me, or what I value the most and who I want to become.  My biggest problem with this assignment was making "I am statements".  I have serious problems with this.  I have a hard time saying I am anything.  I try to do many things, good things, but I have a hard time saying so confidently I am this or that.  I look at myself as a work in progress and that is what this Personal Constitution is all about.  You develop the document based on what is important to you and what you want to accomplish, but it is a fluid document, meant to be changed as you change, meant to be refined as you are refined by life.  I hope to eventually become many good things, but I just can't bring myself to declare that I am those things before it is true.  Somehow it feels like lying.  Maybe I am too harsh of a judge.  We are usually harder on ourselves than others are.  Overall this was a very insightful exercise as it forced me to look inside and think about what is really most important to me and how I will make those things happen in my life.  I do love that the pyramid helps you plot a course from long-term to short-term to daily.  Breaking the larger than life goal down into daily steps anyone can do.  I am a visual learner, so I really enjoy seeing the path before my feet.

The other assignment Deconstructing your fears made you look yourself squarely in the mirror and determine what it is that might hold you back or stop you from following your dreams.  I had never thought of my fears as tools to hold me back before.  When I think of fears, I think of snakes, and mice- not the fear of failure, or financial ruin or wasted time and energy.  This assignment made me think, what would hold me back?  What would stop me from making my dreams come true?  Again, it kind of stopped me in my tracks to look inside and ask myself difficult questions, with difficult answers.  I love that the exercise has you determine what to do about your fears.  It forces you to face them and somehow facing them in this way minimizes them greatly.  An attack plan forms and the fear becomes a manageable piece of the puzzle or step on the journey.  I once worked for a boss who told me he was so busy putting out fires that he didn't have time to strategize.  He couldn't be pro-active because he was so busy reacting to the messes around him.  I really think both of the assignments this week will help me be proactive in my future endeavors.  Both of them helped me see the path ahead a little clearer.


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