Are you managing your Life Funnel?

It's Friday and time for another Thought Tale Hour at the Henderson's. During our trip back from a lovely visit with a couple of our kids and grandkids, I had more than enough time to ponder my updated age (I just had a birthday) and what I want to do with this coming year. It feels to me, and this might just be me, that my birthday's on the "Fives" seem to be more significant than the others. It always feels like more of an advancement somehow, and I look to see a difference in my status now that I am 'this age.' So at the only time that I should see a five not once but two times (I just turned 55, get it?), I've had fairly high expectations of what will come this year. A year where I can begin to plot out my road map to life's later years and put a flourish or an exclamation point on any of the marks I've made in my world... Sound's peachy, doesn't it?

And then I got home and read the mail...

There's something about being away for awhile and checking your mailbox that can remind you of just how full your life is. When you get your mail daily, you have time to deal with or soak in messages, responsibilities or requests. But when you get a week or two all at once, it can be a little bit of an avalanche. A few pieces of mail that I found in my mailbox made me wince and brought a tear. Now I had to go back and rethink what I had been musing about in the post-vacation glow. My once optimistically slanted view of 2015/55 began to curl it's toes a bit. My strong shoulders facing forward started to hunch a bit. I went to bed that night a little deflated.

But on the first day back from my vacation, I woke up...

And as I opened my eyes, it occurred to me that I needed to manage my funnel better.  What funnel you ask? Well, for the many years I was in sales and marketing, I learned to be a great manager of my 'sales funnel.' For those of you outside of that world, it's a mechanism for organizing, tracking and managing the customer life cycle. It looks like you might imagine, large at the top and small at the bottom. The goal is to keep it full, but not overflowing. Keep it moving, but not so fast that you overlook something or someone. And even though there are new methodologies and tactics in marketing today, I am still old school, and I think that the funnel, or a version of it, is the easiest for most to grasp and maneuver. 

So what in the world does a sales funnel have to do with the average life of a 55-year-old Social Worker grandmother? I began to realize that the same way I worked to attract and bring in projects and customers to my professional life, I also draw and bring people and responsibilities into my personal life. In our 'Life Funnel' as I'll call it, there are some items that fall into which we have little control. Unlike a customer who we decide to engage, we have people and relationships that are brought or given to us as a happenstance of life. Unlike a project that we create or agree to, we have responsibilities and commitments that come our way and become a part of our lives. Our life funnel, like the sales funnel, can make or break us. An ill-managed funnel will result in more than just lower success rates; it can mean a funnel that spins more like a top than a balanced receptacle.

The key to a great funnel is to review, review, review...

Before my feet hit the ground that morning, I pulled up my favorite funnel from the past and began to consider how each part fit into my life. As chance would have it, next to the funnel, I had noted the words, "Review often and advance accordingly". Don't get stuck. Always give yourself a Plan B. Often, a toxic element or relationship is best taken out of the funnel rather than allow it to deter or endanger the rest of the funnel. I began to realize that if I wanted to experience the best of whatever this coming year could bring me, I needed to take a hard look at the elements of my Life Funnel. I needed to ask myself some important questions:

1. What is coming in or has been at the beginning that needs to be brought deeper into my life? This includes opportunities as well as relationships.
2. Am I allowing so many opportunities or relationships in that I cannot adequately care for the aspects of my life that I highly value?
3. What are the toxic elements of my life funnel that need to be either neutralized or quarantined?
4. What kind of collaboration do I possibly need from others to deal with passive or incubating elements of my life funnel? What might be preventing me from reaching out?

And remember, slow and steady wins the race...

Deo and I are enjoying a moment on the beach, in the sleet.

It's still early in the new project of managing my life funnel better, but I'm feeling pretty good about the results so far. Today, one of those people who I've noted brings out good parts of me invited me to lunch, and rather than say I was behind on my work and just getting back and...yada, yada, yada...I said "Yes!", and had a lovely time just enjoying the sunshine and a Gyro. I have also decided to give myself permission to remove some toxicity from my funnel and put it on ice for future or for never, because I can't heal some broken souls. Yes, it's the new state of my 2015/55 funnel, and I'm pretty damned excited about it.

So tonight, we are toasting to success in our funnel management drinking something I'm calling, "The Laws of Attraction"** because half the battle of having a successful funnel is to be sure you are bringing in the right prospects. Let's do this... CHEERS FRIENDS! 

Joy's "The Laws of Attraction" cocktail

1 oz of Absolute Vodka

1 oz of white Rum

1 oz of Amarretto

1-2 oz of good beer (we are using Phil's homemade brew)

A splash of Ginger Ale 

Pour alcohol's in a martini glass, splash with Ginger Ale. Garnish with something sweet and pretty.

**Always drink responsibly. Don't drink and drive, ever!