This is YOUR life!

Oct 20, 2024

3 min read

Six steps to discovering the course your life is taking.

The Gift of Seeing

It’s a Wonderful Life, Mr. Holland’s Opus, and A Christmas Carol are distinctly different classics with one striking similarity. George Bailey--desperately frustrated that he has never escaped the small-town confines of Bedford Falls, NY, to pursue his dream of global travel--attempts suicide. Glenn Holland retires after teaching for thirty years, despondent that he never finished his symphonic masterpiece. In contrast, Ebenezer Scrooge is a miserly character, ensconced in a life of greed and selfishness. Yet, the protagonist of each story is bestowed the opportunity to see the direction his life has taken and how he has influenced those around him.

This is a gift. Too often, we do not look to observe the course our life has taken but perhaps once a year (New Year’s) or in times when the prospect of death rears its ugly head. Yet, the thoughtful person need not await either New Year’s or an awareness of one’s mortality to grab this same opportunity. The tenor of one’s life can be shown in five easy steps.

Life-graphing

I discovered this when simultaneously confronted with the need for a new job, a profound lack of desire to move into the traditional roles of my career field, and uncertainty as to what was next for me and my family. I needed a high-level view of the last thirty-six years of living. And thus entered life-graphing into the equation.

Life-graphing is exactly what it seems. It is listing the main events of one’s life, assigning positive or negative values to each one, and then placing them in chronological order on a vertical and horizontal axis. In the process, one may discover habits, trends, patterns, directions, strengths, growing areas, and even evidences of the hand of God! Again, this can be done in five easy steps, perhaps throughout a weekend, as follows:

Step One: Grab some sticky notes and write down significant life events, both positive and negative. Put down one per sticky note. The intent is not every life event but the significant ones. It may happen that, while thinking this through, you realize some events seemed insignificant at the time but played a major role later. Write these down!

Step Two: Arrange these chronologically, assigning a positive or negative number to each one, using a scale of negative (-) 10 to positive (+) 10.

Step Three: On a large space (whiteboard, butcher paper, wall you're about to paint, or just an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper), draw two axes. One is vertical and is numbered -10 to +10. At "0," draw the second axis horizontally. This illustrates the timeline of your life. Go ahead and section it off about every five years.

Step Four: Begin placing those sticky notes (or transferring the events) in the proper time and level assigned.

Step Five: Step back and admire your work.

*Look for trends.

*Recognize patterns.

*Find growth areas or moments of strength.

*Point out times you impacted others or were impacted.

*Witness moments where God’s hand was active in your life.

Step Six: Ensure you have a notebook, journal, or some other method of capturing your insights for the future.

Reflect