Over the past few months, I’ve mentioned more than a few times that we all have varying approaches to managing our lives. This blog has continuously hammered on the notion of 13 Dimensions of Life as the basis for designing the lifestyle you wish to have.
This blog has also outlined what exactly a DOL is with a post defining the concept. To quote the prior post:
DOLS are a way to compartmentalize your planning, to architect one’s own life, and to more easily enable one’s pursuit of greatness.
In the prior post, a brief nod to the types of DOLs was delivered, although this notion of DOL types was essentially left on the table. In this post, I’ll outline the various types of DOLs.
To recap – there are 13 Dimensions of Life based upon the work here at Energy and Action. These 13 DOLs can be categorized into a few buckets to help establish the inter-relatedness of the various dimensions. This is a systemic way to characterize one’s life and self-made plans.
Here are the types as a first step:
Inner Being
This type of DOL is your inner most core of self. This is all internal to you, and only you truly know what is going on in this space of your life. Many refer to this as your ‘inner game’ that you must pay attention to. Your inner core is a must have for a truly aligned life. In many ways, this is the category of DOL that already is, and it is your job to figure out what your true self is. Many tend to ignore their inner world as our culture is so focused on the doing, rather than the being. These types of DOLS pervasively span all other DOLS – they sit at the core of your life. This is the furnace that fuels everything else.
Inner Doing
This type of DOL is also internal to you, and largely inherent to all other aspects to your life. This category of DOL does rely upon your Inner Being core, and these DOLS will manifest themselves outwardly to those around you. People can see if you are healthy for example. There is a large focus on taking action in these areas of your life as we begin to execute your plans forward. These types of DOLS link both your outer and inner worlds – they manifest themselves via the Enabling and Amplifying layer.
Enabling and Amplifying
These types of DOLs truly interlink your inner world with the outer world. These DOLS are in many ways the grease that keeps things in all facets of your life operating at the level you need. These link up your outer and inner worlds, and the DOLs in this category pervade across all DOLs that you have. This is the membrane through which you bring your being to bear in the doing of your life. For many in the self development world – this layer is overly focused on technique and mechanics – rather than the relatedness of being and doing. The techniques are critical, and especially helpful as a second step. The first step is focusing on the linkage here, and if you have no true sense of your Inner Being – these are the DOLS that will be employed to unlock that portion of your life as a first area of focus.
Outer Doing
This is your outer world, and in many ways the areas of life that so many point towards as the basis for happiness. We believe that these are targeted areas that warrant priority attention in relation to all of the other areas, and that these outer Dimensions are in fact fueled by all of the other types of DOLs. You interact in your outer world based upon your Enabling and Amplifying DOLs and your Inner Doing/Being DOLs. If you have a lack of discipline or poor health – these will directly affect your ability to influence and create in the outer world.
So which Dimensions of Life go into each of these types? Here’s a rundown for this current version of the EAF:
- Inner Being
- Energy & Spiritual
- Values, Purpose, and Legacy
- Inner Doing
- Emotional Health and Well Being
- Health & Physical Fitness
- Intellect, Education, and Skills
- Enabling and Amplifying
- Character, Discipline, Integrity
- Productivity & Organization
- Outer Doing
- Entrepreneurship, Business Plans and Delivery
- Family, Inner Circle, Social
- Financial
- Play, Adventure, and Creativity
- Professional – Career and Work
- Tangibles and Location
