Can you believe Q4 is upon us? Time for planning. (And the chance to win a free gift at the end of this post.)
Whether your planning is jump started by the back to school regime &/or fourth quarter it’s a great time to hit the pause button. Think of September like the new New Year.
Hitting pause to plan makes sure that when you do hit the accelerator, you’re headed in the right direction (as opposed to willy nilly).
Whether you’re into to do lists or vision boards or more the hitchy glitch with planning is that we tend to see stuff from (only) our own perspective.
Now dear reader, you know I have your back & how much I respect you right? So please don’t take offense to what I’m about to say.
Your perspectives includes all that juicy, beautiful stuff that comes onto your radar easily naturally & comfortably (yeah for strengths) ….
AND …
Your perspective also excludes things. Things that you miss because they’re unfamiliar, awkward, foreign &/or uncomfortable.
That’s why I designed Life Lenses® – an assessment to help you tease out both where your light naturally shines & what you can do to ease the blind spots so you don’t end up in a bind.
Thousands of clients have taken the Life Lenses® for team building, planning, parenting etc. in order to gain perspective & enhance their worldview. Let me help you use them in your planning to see through the piles so you get a clearer view.
The gift & the glitch
How you see you see the world is normal & natural …for you. You’d go bat crap crazy if you tried to pay attention to everything (hello left baby toe). You’ve got to filter out things, which comes with a gift, namely that of focusing.
It also comes with a glitch, which can be missed opportunities, points of view & perspectives.
So let’s work with your natural lenses (the ones you normally wear to view the world). And let’s lay on some new ones so you get a 360-degree view.
What we see depends mainly on what we look for (John Lubbock).
Back to September being the new New Year. Let’s have you plan with your blind spots not against them. Let’s turn around the same ol’ same ol’, formulaic planning process. Do ABC + DEF to achieve goal of GHI.
Let’s find you some opportunities, some sweet spots right under your nose to amp up your innovation.
Here we go.
The Life Lenses® comes in 4 pairs of partner, albeit totally different lenses. Think of them as opposite ends of the same continuum. The four pairs are:
Pair 1:
- Carrot Life Lenses® – you adore the details
- Mountain Life Lenses® – you love the vision
Pair 2:
- Stop Life Lenses® – you start with reflection
- Go Life Lenses® – you start with action
Pair 3:
- Head Life Lenses® – you focus on information
- Heart Life Lenses® – you focus on intuition
Pair 4:
- Journey Life Lenses® – it’s all about the process, the how
- Destination Life Lenses® – it’s all about getting stuff done, the what
In order to see white light you need a bunch other colours mixed together. Leave one out & it all falls apart. Same with the Life Lenses® – all 8 lenses are critical.
When they’re used together, all of the Life Lenses® fit together on a beautiful spectrum.
So go back to each pair above & find your sweet spot, your ease. For each pair find the one you prefer. For example do you think you’re a mountain Life Lens® or a carrot Life Lens®? One test is that the opposite should feel less like a fit, harder, more like a slog to operate that way.
Now comes the fun part.
Try on different lenses
If you think you’re a carrot, stop, heart, journey play around with what your planning would look like from a mountain, go, head, and destination.
Here’s an example. In the fabulous book Blue Ocean Strategy Canvas Map by W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne they talk about a Mexican cement company that had been functioning like a Head Life Lens® (my terminology, not theirs). In order to innovate they switched things up & focused on being a Heart Life Lens® (again my words).
Instead of using facts & figures (head Life Lens®), the company began marketing their product for emotional appeal, specifically to celebrate quinceanera (a special celebration for girls turning 15). That’s classic heart Life Lens®.
Back to you. You can’t get this wrong. Feel free to experiment, to dream, to innovate all using your non-preferred lenses.
Tip: if you have a friend or colleague who you suspect has different lenses than you, do the exercise together for even more impact.
My bet is that you’ll uncover some sweet spots right under your nose. At the very least you’ll polish your perspective & gain a whole new view.
Now get going. And don’t be blindsided by your blind spot.
Want to learn more about the Life Lenses®? Tell me your story & you’ll be entered to win a free Life Lenses® assessment ($60USd value).
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