LifeMapping Terms
-Descriptions by David Drury gleaned from several
sources
Over the
years I’ve heard many people talk about the idea of making a life-map.* At first I had no clue what that was or why
anyone would want to do it – other than maybe they had too much time on their
hand. But as I learned more I found saw
that lifemapping can help bring clarity to
decision-making and bring some sanity to all the crazy experiences of life.
But perhaps
two maxims bring it home for me most:
The unexamined life is
not worth living –
Socrates
A man must examine himself
– 1 Corinthians
11:28
Overall Concepts & Principles:
LifeMap – a general term to describe the
process of laying out your past experiences, learnings
and wiring to get some sense of how your life is “playing out” so far. It includes creating some kind of a picture
or grid or distilling list that helps one gain direction for future decisions
and priorities. When done well—a lifemap does more than describes
the past, it also helps define your present and determine your future.
Mega-themes – if you watch most any movie you
can see a plot developing, even before you’re half-way through it. And near the end you practically know the
ending sometimes, even if some surprises could still develop. Your life has themes just like a movie, and
by watching closely for even less time than it takes to watch a movie, you can
see some mega-themes develop in your life.
A mega-theme is more than just a thread of connection in your life—it’s
something that just keeps coming up over and over again that must have overall
significance to your life.
Life Wedge – The more narrow the wedge the deeper
the impact. The wider the wedge the more
shallow the impact. Narrow down your focus in life and hit your target
deeper. You may want to put a giant
wedge pointing down on a poster and put your life map on it.
Life Arrow – Your life adds up to a unified
direction in the future. Like an arrow
your life should point to something—like your ultimate contribution. You may want to put a giant arrow pointing to
the right on a poster and put your life map on it.
Life Scroll – God sees your entire life like an
opened scroll. But you only see one
portion of the scroll. You may see
experiences and paths developing in this season and draw conclusions that are
wrong for the future. You don’t know
where every path leads or how every experience ties in to the future. However, sometimes God opens up a huge
portion of your life scroll for you to see and gain greater clarity. A calling often includes this. And the lifemapping
process itself can contribute to that effect (because you’re unrolling the past
portion of the scroll and you can see things coming together into a larger
mural. You may want to take a giant long
piece of paper put your life map on it (left to right), then roll up the sides
like a scroll.
Hinge-Pin Impact – Like a door on a house, you can
be a hinge-pin to something bigger. Find
the place at which you connect something smaller (a door) to something bigger
(a wall, a house, a castle) that God is doing.
Then you’re making a bigger difference than all your day to day squeaks
and rust shows.
Word of the Year – Choose a word each year which the
Spirit impresses on you and pray that God would teach you about that word in
Scripture and in your development that year. Review it often.
Fortune
Tide – "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the
flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in
shallows and in miseries." --Julius
Caesar (William Shakespeare). The
purpose of lifemapping has less to do with content
than timing. As the Fortune Tide
principle points out, good leaders not only know what to do but when to do it.
Past Experiences:
Extended
Preparation – A
leader's preparation extends about 15 years beyond the schooling years. Robert Clinton calls this stage Inner
Life Growth when life is focused on developing yourself.
Destiny Markers – there are many things that happen
in our lives that are turning points or have major significance for our
future. They forshadow things to come. Like mile-markers on a highway, they show us
how far we’ve come and where we’re going.
History Variable – a major portion of lifemapping is remembering the past, which when written
down becomes at least 1/3rd of the variables used to come up with a
more complete picture of your lifemap.
Ebenezers – some achievements, experiences or
decisions should be marked as spiritually significant in your life—even if you
don’t know the reason why yet. Later on
you can look back and see that God moved at that place, that time, or in that
way. (1 Samuel 7:12)
Formative Relationships – you’ve had many relationships,
but some have formed who you are more than others. The most formative relationships you have
should be touchstones of your identity.
However, being invested in by others should have a limit—be thinking of
who you are passing on and forming yourself too.
Investing Relationships – at some point the scales tip and
you invest in others more than others invest in you. Warnings: 1) If you don’t have a list of who
these people are—are you really being intentional in investing in them? 2) You are never done with needing
investment, even if the scales have tipped.
3) The better the leader, the easier it is to invest in too many people
than in not enough people.
Identity Variable – another third or more of your lifemap should take into account your identity on several
levels, including your gift mix, your calling, your aspirations, your
personality, interests and your passions in life. These are the things that make you, you.
Strengths Themes – 34 descriptive terms to help
clarify the five things you’re best at and could be called your “strengths.” These show up as themes in your life because
over and over again you find that you are simply good at them. You are wired this way. See www.strengthsfinder.com
Gift Mix (Clinton) – Not only the spiritual gifts you
have, but the way in which different gifts might mix together and come out as
something even more unique, such as having the Teaching AND Leadership gifts as
opposed to the Teaching and Wisdom gifts.
Your giftedness set might
extend beyond this to your personality and strengths.
Failing Forward Season – A season of brokenness brought on
by failure in one way or another. Often
times this season of brokenness is what ends up being a huge part of your
practical help to the kingdom in the future—and more often than not the point
at which God begins to shape your heart.
Divine Affirmation – A time or
experience when God gives a leader a renewed sense of ultimate purpose
affirming the call.
Divine Contact
– A person sent by God
to bring confirmation to a leader, usually at a crucial point.
Future Priorities:
The Identity Funnel – instead of constantly saying
“yes” to too many things, develop an identity funnel where you can catch things
that directly apply to who you are and eliminate those things which don’t apply
to who you are. Say yes to the things more toward the center
of who you are and say no to the opportunities that are more toward the fringes
or don’t even apply to your primary ministry and personal identity.
Tomato
Plant Problem – Tomato
plants grow like crazy and are hard to take care of and require a lot of water
or they die. With ministry
opportunities, don't put out more tomato plants than you can carry water to (or
that you can’t pull the weeds around).
Ministry Variable — more than your history and
identity, there are some things about your ministry calling that form another
third of your lifemap. The platform you’ll be most effective in
ministry on in important, as is the kind of ministry insights and specific
methods you carry with you that make you unique.
Life Objectives — these are the specific next steps
you have in life, which are major life-achievement goals (as opposed to smaller
tasks). Life objectives may take several
years or even decades to achieve.
The Three-Legged Stool – There are three key areas that a
leader should incorporate into their future plans: 1) Professional Development (doing things that increase your
competence in certain areas), 2) Ministry
Achievement (doing things that increase your effectiveness in certain
ministries), & Spiritual Dynamic
(doing things that increase your character in certain areas).
Life Maturing
– A phase Robert
Clinton has identified when a leader’s true inner character catches up (or
should) with perceived outer competence.
Things “switch back”, often in middle age, to make this happen. Or it doesn’t happen, and a leader’s
emergence is stunted.
Future Yearnings – More than dreams, future
yearnings are those things you deep down know you are drawn to, as opposed to
just being nice ideas you could or could not do and would be pleasurable
(dreams). Future yearnings are often the
tell-tale sign of things you’ll someday do—but are often mis-interpreted
in their specifics or mis-interpreted in their timing. Future yearnings should be sat on for many
years with patience while one develops in that area.
The End in Mind:
Ultimate Contribution – what might be called your
“tombstone” statement, your ultimate contribution is that overall statement
which would define what you contributed to the world with your life. Claire Booth Luce used the term "Life
Sentence" to denote a similar idea.
Afterglow – What
Robert Clinton has identified as the final potential stage of a leader’s
life. It’s when the effectiveness of a leader is
increased exponentially after they have already retired or finished their
original ministry.
Convergence –
Identified by Robert Clinton as when a leader is placed into the area of ministry where his gifts
are needed and used. How God created
you (gift mix) and the character developed in you both converge
with the right context where you can minister with maximum competence.
Destiny Essence/Mission Statement – usually one phrase (at most one
full sentence) that captures the spirit of your future purpose in life and
gives direction and a sense of your “life assignment” from God.
*Many of
these terms and the concepts associated with them originate from the LifeMapping and life planning ideas of Steve Moore
(Charting the Course), Keith Drury (Strategetics),
Robert Clinton (Leadership Emergence Theory), John Trent (The Blessing), John
Maxwell (InJoy), Marcus Buckingham (Now, Discover
Yours Strengths) and Donald Clifton (Strengthsfinder).
Would you like to add a term I haven’t thought of or change
something on this list? E-mail me
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