Life quality management
None of the management processes deals without the analysis of the current situation, based on the results of measurement of various parameters, conditions and risks, followed by the evaluation of the dynamics of change and the forecast of consequences and perspectives. The same way life quality management requires periodical assessment of situations and the degree of satisfaction with life, audit of objectives and plans to improve the efficiency, for example, in the key points when making fateful decisions, choosing a path of personal and professional life or creating your reality.
To do this, “The Diary of High Quality Life” provides special tables and indexes. They help to measure the level of satisfaction with the quality of life considering the importance of its components, life priorities at any given moment. So, any person can measure the index of satisfaction, assess objectively the quality of his life today and plan improvements. To start with, read about the proposed instruments for analysis and assessment on the pages 16-17 and 22-29 of the diary. One needs to assess his strengths and weaknesses, external opportunities and risks from the point of view of set goals and tasks in order to assess the current situation, formulate SMART goals and measure the success of their achievement. In fact, one needs to conduct SWOT analysis taking into account all the components of the quality of your life, your life goal, purpose and dreams and vision of your future.
The assessment is based on a five-point system considering the importance (“I”) of each component and your level of satisfaction with it today and in the future (“S”). Then you can calculate your current index of satisfaction (“IS”) with each sphere of your life, summarizing all 15 multiplications of “I” by “S” and dividing by 15. This way, you will get the index of satisfaction on a scale from 1 (absolute dissatisfaction) to 25 (absolute satisfaction) points. In reality, the level of your satisfaction will vary at different periods of your life within these values. It will demonstrate the changes of your personal performance in accordance with your “SMART” life goals.
The index of satisfaction is assessed within the established lower and upper boundaries of the acceptable values that you set relative to the average value of satisfaction scale 12.5. For example, if the value is +/- 3.5, then you are effective within 9 and 16 points, if lower than 9, your efficiency decreases, and increases if above 16.
Your effectiveness is the ability to achieve the goals you set, and your efficiency is the ability to achieve it with minimum loss of time and other resources. This method of assessment of your effectiveness considers all spheres of your life and proves that happiness is not only in material well-being and money, but your happiness consists in your satisfaction with life and depends on many components. Achievement of your life goals defines the level of your satisfaction. Any result is just an excuse for further work and adjustment of your life. To estimate the index of satisfaction, you should fill in the questionnaire on the pages 28-29 of “The Diary of High Quality Life”.
The index of satisfaction based on the components of the quality of life should be determined (found, calculated) at least once a year when conducting life SWOT-analysis and always at key points of making important decisions.
Following the same scheme, you can mark the degree of satisfaction and the level of importance of each day in your diary and then you will get the index of life satisfaction per different periods: per day, week, month, quarter, and year and per any important period of time. In this case you simply specify the corresponding period of time in the questionnaire: a week, a month, a quarter etc. On the basis of these calculations you can construct graphs of changes of the degree of your satisfaction in the course of time.
Even if you do not calculate numbers by formulas and tables and simply mark the importance and satisfaction every day, you will see the number of days you felt maximum satisfaction, the number of important days you had per assessed period. They are also targets for improvement of your life quality that allow to plan changes in a particular area not at the expense of other areas or compensate losses in one sphere by your success in others. In addition, they allow establishing consistent patterns and determining the reasons for occurrence of certain situations in life, distinguishing real problems from the situations that only seem so. This way you can keep the balance between all spheres of your life and strive for harmony with yourself and the world around you.
Not only do the events, but also our attitude to them define our state. Often assessment of events from the point of time perspectives puts everything in its place. If you feel good, then develop the success of those events that lead you to this state. If the unwanted events take place in your life, eliminate their causes and consequences; make sure they do not occur again. If you cannot solve the problems in one area, look for help and solutions in other areas. If you cannot solve them yourself, ask others to help and support you. In any case, do not give up, fight for the quality of your life!
To prevent the unwanted events and achieve your goals you ought to plan the achievement of your goals and foresee the occurrence of possible unwanted consequences basing on your SWOT-analysis. Before planning, define your purpose, who you want to become and when, and your priorities. Understand who you want to be in the future, try this image on to see what needs to be done to make sure it fits you, or choose something more suitable. It is an uneasy task, but understanding the components of your high quality life, makes the search for answers easier. Setting priorities and “SMART” goals require consideration of the current situation, your strong points and shortcomings, external risks and opportunities in order to act using internal and external resources and outsourcing. In this respect assess your current situation daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. Basing on the assessment of the current state improve the quality of your life taking into account all its spheres. This way you will apply the Deming’s wheel to each sphere of your life. So, forming your own guidance for high quality life based on the “The Diary of High Quality Life” you create a “quality bicycle” for yourself, the carriage of which consists of the Deming’s PDCA improvement cycle (P – plan, D – do, C – check, A – act). The back wheels with the star are the components of your life quality, whiles the front wheels show the level of your life. You choose the direction, spin the pedals and keep the balance, improve the quality of your life and go ahead towards your goals realizing your mission and achieving the future you wish.
Use everything helpful for you, use the experience of other people; many successful companies do this and call it benchmarking, i.e. alignment with the leading brand. The elder friends or mentors are absolutely necessary, listen to them and work in their teams. Form your own team with the ones with whom you are on the way. Manage the knowledge and changes, be persistent, act and improve the quality of your life. Consider your life as the most important project. Direct it! Be honest with yourself. Your problems will begin to get resolved when you recognize them. Constructivism is your strength; whiles optimism and pessimism as such are useless unless you take into account external and internal circumstances.
Do not doubt it, it does work. However, effectiveness does not depend on you only; it also depends on how much you work on yourself to achieve your goals. Not a single sports champion has become a champion without hard and persistent work mostly on himself. Do not trust the advice to live your life easily and carefree.
