I often feel like July / August are the calm before the storm. The summer even if the weather isn’t great is kinda quiet and relaxing, most things stop or wind down to a gentler pace. This is especially true with church, generally September sees things getting more hectic again as we head towards Christmas. I think this also true of work in the wider sense, things pick up after summer, we get busier, life becomes more like a spring rather than a stroll.
Its for those reasons that I think late summer is a great time to reflect on your life, to think about how things are going, about what your priorities are and if any have to change anything before your start back into what is the “madness of normality” for many of us. I came across a simple tool from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity recently. Its called rather grandly “The Human Flourishing Quotient” but is really just a way of looking at how your life is going as whole and whether you need to reflect on and make changes in any particular areas. Its pretty self explanatory. Why not grab a coffee and a half hour of quiet and think it through?
What’s your HFQ? (Human flourishing quotient) Score yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 scale. (10 is ‘yes’ and great, 1 is ‘no’ and awful)
1. I get about the right amount of sleep
2. I get about the right amount of time for rest
3. I get about the right amount of time for family/key relationships
4. I work about the right amount of time
5. I have enough uninterrupted time on my own for reflection
6. I get to do the things that refresh me reasonably often
7. My lifestyle allows me to stay reasonably healthy
8. I feel my pace of life suits me – I don’t need to escape
9. I am satisfied with the structure of my life
10. I feel at peace about the future
11. I have a good relationship with God
12. I am secure in who I am and am not driven by what other people think of me
13. I know the meaning and purpose of my life
14. There’s another person who knows me well and to whom I can open up my life
HOW DID YOU DO?
This is obviously very general but that probably means you can take some “general” pointers from it about how your life is doing. What its trying to do is help us realign our priorities in life with God’s priorities for our life.
SO….
If you rated yourself over 70, life looks like its going well
50-69 is probably flagging up areas that need some attention and changes to see improvement
Under 50, you need to make some changes and should talk to someone you trust about how to do that
NOW IF YOU ARE REALLY BRAVE
Get someone who know you well and you trust to fill it in for you and compare how they scored the different facets of your life with how you did? Any big differences? In all honesty who is being more realistic in those areas ?
Abraham's Footsteps 