Episode description

Progress Coach, Jillian Johnsrud, meets with Households of FI member, Corinne, to review the two exercises designed to help her understand how she can prioritize her life to focus on the things that matter the most.

• After taking a quiz to reveal which of the Four Tendencies she is, Corinne discovered that she is an Upholder. She has many things that she would like to do but struggles with feeling guilty about doing non-work related things that are important too.
• Corinne would like to find more time for meditation and develop better awareness and confidence with her finances.
• Though Corinne always felt like she was decent with money, beyond investing in a 401k, she would like a better understanding of what her baseline expenses should be and where she can make improvements with a budget and investments.
• When it comes to learning, Corinne feels that she learns best by practice, repetition, and talking through things, but would love to make her processes as automated as possible. Jillian suggested that Corinne may learn about investing best through a book club, class, or mastermind group.
• Her goals for mediation are to be more in tune with her body, realize when she needs to step away from work and take a break plus try and have mediation become a part of a daily routine.
• Jillian divides priorities into two categories, the things we want to make progress on and the action steps to take. There is a huge return on the investment when taking those actions, but things that help with progress are foundational and make life easier.
• As habits develop in stages, Jillian suggests Corinne first try to find a place in her life for a two-minute meditation habit, before getting started and trying to optimize it. This will help test out when mediation might be appropriate and get through the learning curve. Then focus on any hesitation resistance to doing those two minutes.
• Creating habits can be more successful when added to an existing routine or by creating a prompt.
• Corinne would also like to make progress in her career. She needs to stay focused better during working hours to make the most out of them and make progress with communication and executive presence.
• Exercise, eating healthy, and socializing with friends are other areas where Corinne would like to reduce friction and make doing them easier.
• Since starting a new habit is so difficult, Jillian likes to divide the year up into six-week chunks and focus on one of the new habits in each of the six weeks. The synergy between the habits begins to build momentum.
• For the exercise “Challenges and Motivations”, Corinne felt making partner at work was her biggest motivation because she values being part of a team or community and having a sense of belongingness. Other motivations she has are security and autonomy.
• To increase Corinne's sense of her top three motivations, she feels that she hasn't done well lately with maintaining relationships and connections with people. Jillian likes to use her understanding of the five love languages as a framework to strengthen relationships with others.
• The biggest challenge to meeting the goal of becoming partner is balancing the expectations of her time at work with her personal life which is why she would like to be more focused at work. Additionally, she would like to stop comparing herself to others at work and concentrate on what works for her.
• Options for tackling challenges include self-correction, finding a more helpful perspective, and problem solve it. In Corinne's case, Jillian thought she would benefit by actively looking for leaders who were more like her rather than the hard-charging partners in her workplace.
• Regarding Corinne's challenge with setting boundaries at work with her time, people who work for her sometimes find it difficult to connect with her. Jillian suggested creating a specific time or better communicating what times she is available.

• JillianJohnsrud.com
• ChooseFI Episode 162 The Four Tendencies and FI With Gretchen Rubin
• Everyday Courage Episode 32 Four Tendencies, The Obliger
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• The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

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