July 16

Roundabout Position – Your Current Position

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Roundabout Position – Your Current Position

By Deborah Johnson

July 16, 2022

assessment tool, current position, get unstuck, lifelong learning, podcast, roundabout, summit, traffic circle

Determining Your Current Position

In my last article about Position (Starting the Journey), I shared my thoughts on why it is important to know where we are today if we’re going to develop a life-changing plan and how to honestly assess our Point A by examining seven essential facets of our lives through a tool like my HALFERS Model.

As a quick recap, here are the facets that the HALFERS Model encompasses:

  • Health
  • Attitude
  • Learning
  • Finances
  • Employment
  • Relationships
  • Spirituality

I visualize each of these facets as faders on a soundboard, making adjustments to each aspect that can enable us to move along the path to where we wish to be, our Point B.

In my previous article, I also spoke about how we have to be forgiving of ourselves, gentle, and compassionate to not develop paralyzing mindsets. There may be difficult truths that we must acknowledge and own to move forward.

Here I delve into the practical application of my HALFERS Model in helping to determine our current position, our Point A.

Each of the seven HALFERS Model aspects can have a direct impact on the quality of our lives, how satisfied (or unsatisfied) we are, and how successful we can be as we set out to reach our life goals, our summit.

Following is a definition of each aspect and a few questions you can ask yourself to assess your current position.

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Women at Halftime by Deborah Johnson Roundabout Position: Your Current Position 7-19-22
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Health

The condition of our body and mind regarding soundness, vigor, and freedom from disease or ailment. This covers several areas.

Physical Health: Physical body functions/processes that support our physical and mental activity.

  •    Am I getting the hydration and nutrients needed to fuel my mind and body?
  •    Am I making time for activities that improve my flexibility, strength, and endurance?
  •    Am I getting enough rest every day to allow my body and mind time to recover and reset?
  •    Am I caring for my mind, teeth, ears, eyes, and other parts of my body for long-term wellness?
  •    Am I engaging in risky or addictive behaviors that can put my health at risk?

Mental Health: Emotional, psychological, and social well-being.

  •    Do I speak to myself in a way that makes me feel loved, supported, and valued?
  •    Am I connecting with others on a level that makes me feel loved, supported, and valued?
  •    Am I identifying things for which I am grateful, even when times are difficult?
  •    Am I seeking the help of a friend, counselor, or doctor when I am overwhelmed and need help?
  •    Am I getting enough rest from the demands in my life to stay positive and balanced?

I’d also like to make a quick mention here of financial health, even though the aspect “Finances” is a standalone category within the HALFERS Model. Financial health has been proven to have a significant impact on our mental and physical health.

Attitude

A tendency or orientation, especially of the mind. The mindset in how you approach the aspects of your life. You may have heard the saying, “Your attitude determines your altitude.”

  •    Am I changing my internal conversation when it is negative, tuning out my inner critic and giving more air time to my inner advocate?
  •    Are the people in my inner circle positive-minded? Are they lifting me to be my best self?
  •    Am I looking for (and finding) the silver linings in the challenges I experience in my life?
  •    Am I performing self-care activities that boost me, like listening to music or being in nature?
  •    Am I aware of and avoiding any negativity around me like on social media or from complaining friends and co-workers?
Halfers Model-Roundabout Hero

Learning

The ongoing pursuit of new ideas, knowledge, skills, and experiences for personal and professional reasons. Lifelong learning helps you grow, even after traditional schooling is completed. It can benefit you professionally and socially, and can even improve your cognitive health.

Using these free worksheets, I will ask you first to annotate the level at which you currently assess yourself on your Health, your Attitude, your Learning, your Finances, your Employment, your Relationships, and your Spirituality. On the worksheets, I have offered a few questions as a guide, and there is space for you to jot down your thoughts. You can be brief or write additional pages. It’s up to you.

  •    Am I scheduling a few minutes in my day to learn something new? (YouTube, podcast, etc.)
  •    Am I investing in my personal or professional development? (reading, listening to speakers, interacting with experts, etc.)
  •    Am I developing a new skill that I have an interest in?

Finances

Managing the money you have and earn to support what you wish to achieve.

  •    Am I living within my means by spending less than I earn?
  •    Am I on a path that will allow me to eliminate the consumer debt that I am carrying?
  •    Have I funded an emergency fund to cover multiple months of my living expenses in the case of a life event that requires available funds (job loss, injury, divorce, death, etc.)
  •    Do I have a plan to invest my savings for future needs including retirement?
  •    (If partnered) Am I able to discuss and collaborate on money decisions with my spouse or partner that enable us to create a financially stable future?

Employment

How you spend your time - work, occupation, profession, vocation. Employment is not simply paid work for someone else - it can include entrepreneurial work and volunteering.

  •    Do I find my work enjoyable?
  •    Do I find my work meaningful or effective?
  •    Does my employment provide me with a good balance between work and personal time?
  •    Does my work satisfy my need to make an impact? Help others? (Again, employment can be entrepreneurial or volunteer!)
  •    Does my work integrate my skills, talents, and interests?

Relationships

How you are connected to other people. The quality of the bonds you form has a direct impact on the quality of your life.

  •    Do the key people in my life share my values and support me in my goals?   
  •    Are these people lifting me to be my best self instead of holding me back or bringing me down?
  •    Do I have a person or people in my life who I can count on in times of difficulty?
  •    Do I trust that the people closest to me have my best interests in mind?
  •    Do my key relationships inspire me to be my best self?

Spirituality

Holding a sense, feeling, or belief that there is something larger than ourselves that is a resource of additional power to live our lives.

  •    Am I living life in a way that is aligned with my beliefs?
  •    Are my spiritual practices, including consistent time to reflect and meditate, helping me be the person whom I wish to be?
  •    Am I able to connect with a community of like-minded people through my spiritual practice?
  •    Is my spirituality helping me to be more loving, compassionate, and forgiving of myself and others?

Position Exercise

To start the Position Exercise (Click here for FREE Download) using the HALFERS Model to assess each essential aspect of your life, please download and print these free worksheets.

You will find fader diagrams similar to the one below. The key difference is that the worksheets will not have the fader set to 50% (as shown below). There will be no black horizontal lines on the worksheet so that you can annotate where your fader level is.

Roundabout Position Workbook-Deborah Johnson

Again, this may not be easy, and it may stir up some negative feelings. In conjunction with this exercise, it may be helpful to write what you are experiencing on the worksheets or in your journal. The process of releasing your thoughts to paper can be an unloading of sorts. It may also help to talk to a trusted friend (or even a professional if you feel this is needed) about the feelings brought up by this assessment.

But please stay with me on this process. It is a critical step in your journey to where you wish to go. I’ll share my friend Susan’s story to demonstrate how powerful this process can be.

Susan struggled for years financially. She had purchased several rental properties from 2002 to 2005 to build long-term wealth. When the real estate market bottomed out in late 2008, she struggled to stay afloat. She couldn’t sell her properties for the price she paid, and she faced substantial losses every month due to vacancies, increased taxes and utility costs, and a few problem tenants.

After bearing her struggle alone for many months, Susan told her parents about her situation. Sharing her financial problems with her family was difficult - she was embarrassed and even ashamed - but she told me that the act of acknowledging and owning her circumstances released her from the heavy secret she was carrying and freed her from being consumed with pretending she had invested successfully.

Susan felt so much lighter, and by being honest and accepting her current situation (her Point A), she was able to move forward on a path to recovery. It took her multiple years to get her finances back on track, and while she did this on her own, she did not suffer alone.

I share this example because pretense brings pressure, especially when not being honest with yourself and others. We can release this pressure inside by releasing our truths.

Assessing Your Point A

Using your worksheets (FREE Download) and considering the questions provided above in this article, you can draw in a horizontal fader line at the level where you believe you are today, starting with HEALTH, then progressing through the seven other essential aspects of your life. This will be your Point A.

Susan’s Example: Assessing Her Point A for HEALTH

Back to Susan. It is 2022, and she is going through this exercise to gain clarity on what she would like to do with her life. She is approaching 50, and while she is in good financial shape after selling most of the properties she owned, there are other impacts that her financial struggles had upon her life.

Health: She gained 30 pounds in one year when the stress of paying her mortgages consumed her with fear. She was never able to take the extra weight off, and her doctor told her that, without a significant change, she is placing herself at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and possibly even early dementia. She does walk occasionally but has rarely made her health a top priority. Mentally, with the financial stress gone from her life, she has a positive outlook on her future.

Halfers Chart-2-Deborah Johnson Roundabout

Health: She gained 30 pounds in one year when the stress of paying her mortgages consumed her with fear. She was never able to take the extra weight off, and her doctor told her that, without a significant change, she is placing herself at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and possibly even early dementia. She does walk occasionally but has rarely made her health a top priority. Mentally, with the financial stress gone from her life, she has a positive outlook on her future.

She assesses her HEALTH at 55%. In terms of mental health, she feels great. In terms of physical health, she knows she must take positive action to set herself on a path to long-term health. She then completed her assessment across the other facets of the HALFERS Model, marking where she appraised her Point A (annotated as “A”) for each aspect.

Overall, Susan feels her life is pretty good. She has several positive adjustments she wishes to make, but she has come a long way in the past years.

But where does Susan focus her efforts if she wants to take action to improve her life?

In my next article on Position, I will discuss the next steps in applying the HALFERS Model, including determining your Point B and developing a plan on how to take action to close the gap between where you are and where you wish to be. Next article: Your Desired Position

There may be difficult truths that we must acknowledge and own to move forward.

deborah johnson

Thought Leader, Keynote Speaker, Author

If you are interested in growing and learning, check out our online courses here: Online Learning

1,942 words

Deborah Johnson

About the author

Deborah Johnson, M.A. has not only written multiple books and albums, but hundreds of songs, three full-length musicals and is the producer of the popular podcast, Women at Halftime. She was past president of the National Speakers Association, Los Angeles and has written & produced multiple online courses. She enjoys being outside and traveling with her husband and also loves spending time with her children and grandchildren.

Up for multiple GRAMMY Awards and spending over 20 years in the entertainment industry, she's built multiple self-driven businesses and is an expert on how to constantly reinvent yourself in a gig-economy. Deborah speaks and performs for both live and virtual events.

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