Sweep Time (ICOMD, Planning, Organizing, Professional & Personal Growth)
Welcome back to the series about mindsweeping and here we go!
For this article, you have some additional categories for sweeping, including ICOMD, which is my abbreviation for “In Case of My Demise,” along with prompts related to Planning, Organizing, + Professional and Personal Growth. That’s a nice array for you to play with, I think!
Access the pages with all the prompts here so you’ll have it to refer to as you read further.
Assuming you are looking at your materials, you’ll see on page 37 a set of prompts that I developed for myself a while back, and keep adding to — and keep knowing that it is important to get this done. As we all know, somewhere along the line, we will “demise”, also known as die or at least no longer be in control of our faculties. When that happens — and it will, we all need to have our affairs in order. You may be a person who has had a parent or a sibling or a spouse who has died without having his/her affairs in order — and you were left with trying to figure it out. It’s not pretty and it’s not fun. And truthfully, although this may sound a little harsh, it’s selfish (in the bad kind of way) for someone who is older or has dependents or has any means really, to have neglected to put their affairs in order. Part of why I’m writing this is because maybe it will give you a reason, kind of like it gives me a reason, to get my stuff in order. I don’t want to selfishly leave my husband and my brother or my nieces and nephews to try to figure out things I haven’t made clear.
Take some time to look over page 37 and see if any of the words or phrases there spark something for you as far as a task you need to take care of or a question you need to ask. Please note, some of these ideas will spark something you need to do that is NOT about your demise but is about what happens when someone else dies or isn’t able to take care of him/herself any longer. Do you need to get long-term care insurance for one of your parents or for yourself? Do you know where your parents’ wills are or if they even have wills? This is a heavy topic, but worth investing the time and energy to do.
If you have any intellectual property, you need to be thinking about what happens with it after you die. This page may give you a headache, and I’m sorry to be causing that, but…it is better to think about this a little at a time while you are able than when it’s too late.
Remember the rainbow, right?
Page 38 is about all sorts (no pun intended) of planning and organizing that you might need to do. It’s another one of the many pages that you have in your materials that you can bring out on a regular basis to see if something is prompted for you. All of us ALWAYS have something that needs planning and/or organizing. It’s the nature of human life. Consider making extra copies of this page and putting them in your monthly planning folder. You may want to use them when preparing for your quarterly planning, too!
Page 39…pretty clearly I know I’m preaching to the choir here because it’s obvious that professional and personal growth matter to you or you wouldn’t be reading all these articles. And if you happen to be one of the millions of people worldwide who have taken the Strengthsfinder assessment and have Learner as one of your top strengths, then you will be on fire with this page because of all the ideas it will help you pop out of your head and into another container for processing.
What’s an area where you really want to improve in your personal or professional life? What’s a topic that you believe would be interesting and worth learning more about? Is it time for a coach — or to change coaches? How about those books you own, but haven’t read? Is it time to read them or time to let them go?
Put anything and everything that comes to mind on your index cards or into your other gathering tool. You’ll be able to sort later. For now you are gathering…
That’s enough for this article. I expect it may be a few days until you are ready for the next article in the series but I’ll get busy and have it ready for you, but whenever you’re ready.
Have fun and keep breathing — or take a nice brisk walk to your office supply store to buy more index cards! If you do so, however, make sure to carry some index cards with you in your pocket so you can write down anything that comes to mind while you’re walking. Exercise of that type will often shake ideas loose from your head and you want to be ready to nab them rather than bury them back down in your head to be excavated later!
Here I am the most recent day I was leading a mind sweep for about 50 people. I wore a rainbow shirt and rainbow necklace to symbolize the “arc” of how this process goes.
Here I am the most recent day I was leading a mind sweep for about 50 people. I wore a rainbow shirt and rainbow necklace to symbolize the “arc” of how this process goes. Remember the rainbow!
