I ran across a great audio blog post by Mark Sanborn where he poses five questions we should ask ourselves at the beginning of each week. These questions serve as a guide to live by design and not just react to things as they come. They will improve your personal and professional situation.
Here are the questions:
- What will I learn this week? Identify what you need to learn, want to learn and how you will learn it. Growth and development rarely happen accidentally.
- What relationship will I improve? What relationship needs repair or nurture? Think in terms of both who and how.
- What problem will I address or avoid? Look for a problem that is looming on your horizon and head it off.
- What opportunity will I seize? Too often we’re fixated on our problems and miss our opportunities. Look for opportunities in the midst of challenges, struggles and difficulties; they’re out there.
- How will I increase my value? Think in terms of what you can do to increase your value to your employer, your customer, to your family. Providing more value than you consume makes you a producer.
To improve your business or life, ask yourself these questions and then act on the answers. “Do business by design rather than by default.”
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The Product Management Perspective: We will improve our effectiveness and our ability to work with others by giving careful thought to these questions. As product leaders we need to plan and then move forward with focus and energy.
June 4, 2010 at 7:22 pm
Excellent question that each move us to add positive value and change in our lives.Thank you.
June 19, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Roger, glad to hear your enjoyed this post. Thank you for commenting.
-Michael
June 30, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Indeed, very good suggestions. This sort of exercise I’ve been doing for years and it really works.
What also helps is, before you plan for the coming week, is to reflect on the week just past to evaluate if you’ve achieved the goals you’ve set for yourself. In addition to planning new goals, you can also improve the process in which you achieve them.
August 10, 2010 at 5:44 am
Excellent point Leo. Reviewing your past goals and achievements will help you as you look forward.
July 15, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Great bussiness and personal growth questions, our individual answers will promote daily growth and add design to our business and personal lives.
August 10, 2010 at 5:45 am
Good point Donald, thanks for the comment.