Week 1 - The Terrain Map of Your Life

I’m going to invite you on a journey. It’ll be a quick trip, soon enough you will be back on the ground and in the thick of it again - in the weeds. But for now, join me on a quick flight. Hop in this jet - we are going for a quick flight…straight to 30,000 feet and we’ll circle around for a bit up there to take in the view. 

It’s amazing up here - the clarity, the vast distances, you can barely decipher the boundaries down there as they blur into one landscape. From up here we get a clear view of what lay below: the full landscape of your life. 

Take a mental picture because we are going to descend shortly and get into the details of who you are, how you show up in the world, what actions you take, and the values that drive your directionality. But from up here - it is a vast and varied landscape. 

Paul Meyer created a unique tool many years that has helped and guided countless individuals and organizations to navigate the macro and micro aspects of their lives. The Terrain Map you are building is an extension of his first developed work. 

To build your personal Terrain Map the first step is to determine what types of features are in the landscape. On the following page you will see a list of ‘features’ (categories) to help you get started. Use those as a launching point, but you will be best served by honing down and being as specific as possible. 

Once you’ve marked your ‘features’ onto each section, it’s time to score that section. You are scoring each piece based on your genuine satisfaction in that category. I shy away from using the word ‘happiness’ and instead offer ‘joy’ or ‘satisfaction’ as the judgement. The point system is on a scale of zero to ten. Zero being the least amount of satisfaction and ten being the most. Move around the circle using an ‘x’ to mark the score on each section. 

When you are done, connect the ‘x’s’ with a line. You should now have a clear chart that maps out the core areas of your life. 

This can be a sobering moment. The aspects of your life that hold the most meaning or most significance may not equate to those that receive the most attention or have the highest level of satisfaction. This is perfectly normal and expected - that is why you are here in this course. To literally course correct and shift behaviors in order to increase satisfaction in the areas of lives that have the most meaning. 

Suggested Terrain Features:

• work
• business
• career
• money
• health
• fitness
• friends
• relationships
• fun
• home
• adventure
• personal growth
• parenting
• significant relationship
• joy
• side hustle
• hobby
• art
• creativity 

How did you score?

Why did you score each section the way you did? Are there categories you left out? What scored the lowest? How could you improve the score? Are there sections that could benefit from more effort? Less effort? Add a new one? Remove an old one that no longer serves you?