Welcome Journey Life Lens®
Between Journey Life Lenses® and it’s mirror opposite, Destination Life Lenses®, you self-assess as a Journey Life Lens®.
A gentle reminder before we dig into your Journey Life Lenses® report: to get the most out of your results, I recommend:
- Approach your results with curiosity not judgement.
- Pay attention to that little voice in your head when it reacts with surprise, disbelief etc. In other words watch where you’re focusing and how you react to your Life Lenses® results.
- Have fun! Seriously. Suffering is optional.
Using Life Lenses® will work best for you when you ditch the natural tendency to look only at the strengths of your Life Lenses® and the weaknesses of the other Lenses. To truly shine look for what the other Life Lenses® have to offer you. I promise it’s a ton!
Journey Life Lens® description:
Journey Life Lenses® (a.k.a. you!) like to focus on HOW something gets done. In fact, the “how” can be more important to you than actually getting stuff done. Your eye is firmly on the journey and you’re flexible about how you get to your destination (a destination being getting a report written, a meeting facilitated, a product launched etc).
You’re the king/queen of process!
Journey Life Lenses® on a good day:
Journey Life Lenses® are known for being able to change direction quickly if the need arises. Everything pointed towards completing a certain project? Journey Life Lenses® won’t hesitate to step in and say “what’s your rush”, “slow down”, “how about we change it and do it this way?”
If you were to follow behind them, tracing a line of the path they leave, it’s unlikely to be a particularly straight line. It might meander over this way, then that, and even disappear over the horizon, its destination being unclear for the moment.
Journey Life Lenses® are great at building capacity because they focus on the process along the way so it can be replicated. One and done isn’t in their vocabulary.
True story:
A colleague of mine is an extreme Journey Life Lens®. She thinks nothing of dropping whatever she’s currently focused on, changing direction, and heading off on a whole new path. She’s terrific at bringing people along with her, checking in to see if all is well, gaining ownership and buy-in along the way.
Sure, it may take her longer to get something “done” but you can be sure the process she’s used was thorough and well-thought out.
Another colleague of mine, let’s call her Rachel (because that’s her name) was working on some copy for me and asked me ahead of time: “how do you learn best, what’s the best way to give you my feedback?” After picking my jaw up from the floor in admiration and wonder, I let her know.
And then she tailored what she had to say JUST FOR ME. She focused so beautifully on the process (Journey Life Lens®) that the content (Destination Life Lens®) sunk in soooo much better.
That’s a Journey Life Lens® for you. Paying attention to process and HOW things get done.
Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. Greg Anderson
Journey Life Lens® on a bad day (no worries, we all have ‘em):
Focusing on process can be a great thing…until it’s not. Until the process is too complicated, time sucking, unimportant, not strategic, inappropriate, doesn’t fit the situation, too narrow, constricting, or is being used to avoid something else altogether.
True story:
I was nervous and overwhelmed. A young 20-something, I was putting on my first international development conference. A hundred or so people had registered to show up to discuss women’s development issues.
It was the night before. Very late the night before.
I should have been focused on getting the speaker notes finished and a bunch of other strategic and important things done and ticked off my list, but my stressed out mind was wandering.
It was focused on something else entirely. Like the tablecloths. Yes, the tablecloths. The ones I’d brought in to cover the display booths to make them look colorful and nice.
I was letting my stress take over and was focused on the process (of a nice looking environment) when the speaker notes were much more important…and far more urgent! In other words, I was procrastinating big time!
Enter a Journey Life Lens® on a bad day: focusing on a minute process that isn’t particularly strategic or important (tablecloths!), instead of the bigger picture stuff that would have a significant impact on the outcome.
Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome. Arthur Ashe
Where Journey Life Lenses® look: around them.
Journey Life Lenses® colour: purple (think P for purple and process).
A sound that represents Journey Life Lenses® (notice the feeling of hearing the process of an orchestra tuning up): add link to orchestra clip
What stresses a Journey Life Lens®: a lack of focus on, or disrespect for process. Rushing so fast to get something done for the sake of getting it done that the process used is not correct, unhelpful, inappropriate etc.
What a Journey Life Lens® values: process, the journey. The JOURNEY is the point, not the destination.
Take action now as a Journey Life Lens®
- Learn — watch for examples of your Journey Life Lens® in your own life. Watch where you shine and build on your natural Journey strengths.
- Laugh — check out this funny clip for an example of an excessive Journey Life Lens®. link to procrastination video
- Lead — practice switching lenses and seeking out the gifts the Destination Life Lenses® have for you e.g. goals, objectives, getting things done.
It is good to have an end to journey toward but it is the journey that matters in the end. Ursula LeGuin
It is not enough to reach for the brass ring. You must also enjoy the merry go round.
Julie Andrews
