In the July SkillBites Teleseminar, Diane Hansen, Chief Inspiration Officer of What Works Coaching (http://whatworkscoaching.com/), introduced the notion of creating a “happy pie” to help us identify the areas that need focus. The idea is to identify the main areas of importance in one’s life (personal relationships, career, financials, marriage/family, self-care, spiritual, health, etc.) and create a pie which includes each of these areas.

When thinking about each of these areas, we want to identify aspects that aren’t working well for us. Start with rating your happiness within each area on a scale of 1 – 5, where 1 means the area is really bad, and look more closely at any area that scores a 3 or less. What is causing us give it a lower rating? Perhaps we feel fear, resentment, “icky”, or desire to procrastinate where we should feel little resistance, satisfied, comfortable, happy, and motivated. When we identify an “icky” area, we should drill down to determine what is going on in that area that is not working for us. What isn’t “tasting” right? Sometimes journaling about the subject can help us evaluate what is going on so we can identify the core issue and develop a plan to focus on and improve that area.

When all of the areas of our lives are working well, our businesses do much better. If the business is not doing well, think about what you are currently doing that you aren’t enjoying. Next, what can you do about those parts that you don’t enjoy? Perhaps that work could be delegated to someone else, so you can focus on the areas you do enjoy. You will find that you will be much more productive and your revenue will skyrocket using this tool for life and business improvement.