Hello amazing multipotentialites 😀. Now that you know your top items on the list and have gained a sense of acknowledgement of different seasons, you can now refine your focus within seasons and plan strategically. If you have no clue what I am talking about I suggest you visit the first three posts in this series.
The Detail Tree
Incase you are wondering whether this is a certified term or method, it isn’t. It is simply a practical exercise I first learned how to do from a good friend of mine-Mrs. Nancy Lazaro Mwaisaka Nyambele. She’s an eclectic and multi-talented individual, a multipotentialite in every way.
While wondering a few years ago how to plan my activities, she taught me how to do what I have named a detail tree. This is a way of detailing your plans down to the very last detail sequentially. I have personalized this method and further tweaked and interpreted it in my own way to suit my activities and you can do the same. The bottom line principle is this tree is supposed to help you see every detail visually at a glance and thereafter, plan forward.
Prior to doing this tree, it helps to have a good general idea of your end goal. Write it down in one statement. That end goal should basically determine what you want to ultimately achieve in life. It can entail both social and work-related aspects. However, for purposes of this demonstration and this series, let’s use work-related activities. To guide your single statement, describe what you would want to achieve in your life.
Let’s assume Brianna, a hypothetical person, is an architect and a musician and her defining statement is “I want to be an accomplished and stellar musician and architect whose music stirs hearts and whose buildings become landmarks.”
These are the two things she’d like to be known for, professionally. It tells us what her end goal is. What does she need to do to achieve this? What steps does she need to follow and when? Assuming that she already finished her degree in Architecture and is a self-taught musician, she needs to define a path for success, beyond this point, in both.
A few themes to set the steps are education, practice and exposure. You can add your own categorizations. These three items are things that according to me are necessary to look at for professional development.
When I speak of education, I do not mean formal education exclusively. Learning never stops, at least it shouldn’t, and the same goes for growth. So when I speak of education, I mean ensuring growth by exposing yourself to new information and skills. Sometimes, formal education may be necessary to achieve this and other times, you can learn all you need through other avenues such as watching shows, reading magazines, apprenticing etc.
Practice is self-explanatory.
And finally, all her hard work would be meaningless without any exposure to a target audience or clientele.
With the above in mind, our person Brianna can do a rough detail tree as I have done below. It isn’t the most visually organized or neat tree and it doesn’t have to be. It simply needs to communicate every detail.
You will notice that the tree grows wider at the bottom as you add more activity to it. This tree is as organic as your life is and should be re-done as often as you deem fit to accommodate the various changes and growth patterns of your life. It may seem basic and primary, but do not minimize it for it enables you visualize every aspect of your undertaking.
Certain items on the list will be lifetime and routine occurrences, others will be seasonal and the rest one-time events or activities. A music course at X academy, for example, is a one-time activity that will no longer exist on the tree once the course is done, while other activities such as reading the Archdaily magazine for thirty minutes a day could be a lifetime routine Brianna builds into her schedule.
After doing the tree, Brianna needs to move forward to scheduling these different items on her calendar. Items that are daily routines can be slotted in at the same time everyday. She could slot her hour of guitar practice every day at 6:00 pm, for instance. It would all depend on the other activities and what times are suitable for each and every activity.
The seasonal or one-time events and activities need to have a timeline attached to them. An example is pitching to potential clients. This should have a clear deadline by which she should have accomplished this. Without a deadline, this could become something that hangs in the waiting lounge indefinitely.
To reiterate what we talked about the last time, all this planning has to be with a clear acknowledgement of the season you are in and your priorities within that season. It will predetermine how much time you give each activity.
We’ll wind up this series in the next two weekends as we look at the experiences of different multipotentialites and the benefits of being a multipotentialite.
Have a blessed week. Do share this to help someone. Read the previous posts to get a better idea of the genesis of all this and follow by email to get notifications of the next post. Keep being all you were created to be.
With the warmest of regards, Keziah.
NOTE: Most of the images used on this blog currently, are downloaded from the internet through random searches. Where an image source is not acknowledged, this blog DOES NOT claim ownership of it and we therefore acknowledge alternative ownership. Thank you.
Keziah Elaine Ayikoru 