Life, Inc.
You can achieve personal goals by taking a businesslike approach. What does it take to make the company Me, Myself, and I a success?
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Another business, Tap Root, focuses Cocowitch's desire to spend more time with his family and local community. But to carve out that time, he had to identify his internal board of directors - aspects of himself that helped or hindered his goals.
"I had one guy named Default Dan - the guy that would say 'yes' to clients [and traveling] just because I felt like I needed the financial security." In the power hierarchy of his board of directors, Default Dan got demoted.
The major Tap Root project right now is creating a walking path with Kyle. They've had good conversations as they've planted flowers along the route that winds through their 2-1/2 acre property.
"I might have missed [this experience], if I hadn't stopped and given it some real attention," Cocowitch says.
Envisioning your life as a cluster of businesses, blossoming and evolving over time, implies a long-term commitment to investing in them and periodically reviewing their success. But to get started, you don't need to already have a 10-year plan, or even a one-year plan, mapped out.
The first steps can be likened to writing an annual report, which in the business world includes the company's mission statement, its expenses and income, and an analysis of the return on its investments.
Here are some recommendations for putting these concepts to work as you become your own CEO, drawn from "If Your Life Were a Business, Would You Invest in It?" by John Eckblad and David Kiel.
Review the past year. Look at financial records, calendars, and journals. List the amount of time you spent on recurring activities, special one-time events, and relationships. Account for where your money came from and where it went.
Do this over the span of a week or two so you have time to reflect. Consider questions such as what skills you used during the year and which people helped you the most.
Discover and name your life businesses. Cut out images and words from magazines and create a collage that depicts your past year and your values. Cluster your activities into five or six groups to show what your main commitments are - hobbies, relationships, personal or professional growth, etc. On the basis of these clusters, create names and definitions that sum up the essence of your life businesses.
You might choose Homestead Enterprises if running the family household is a key part of your life. Or if you're devoted to art projects, music, and cultural outings in your free time, you might call that business AIM (Artist in Me).
Assess your businesses. In one chart, show how much you spend on each business. Homestead Enterprises could include everything from lawn-care expenses to the food budget. Some of your businesses, on the other hand, might bring in revenue.
You should also note the percentage of time spent on each business. When totaled it should not exceed 100 percent.
Finally, you can chart what's called a Got/Gone ratio. Try to estimate how much "return" you get on the energy you put into your businesses. Perhaps AIM is 2:1 because you get so much joy from playing a musical instrument for a short amount of time.
Think about whether these businesses are sustainable and for how long. Consider whether they reflect your core values.
Once you know what businesses you are in, you can decide how much further you want to go in using tools from the corporate world for everything from budgeting to strategic planning.
