Dem ask her make she give di toast for retirement party of somebody wey she respect, and she take am serious. Four drafts, every one of dem na about am. Di thing wey e do for 2009 wey nobody else for do. Di way e dey run room without raising im voice. Di phone call wey e make for one junior analyst wey never even find out.
As she dey drive go house, she realise say she no fit write dat paragraph about herself. No be say she dey shy. She good well well for her job and she sabi am. Na just say she no get any idea wetin fifteen words anybody go use for her.
Dat one na normal position for person wey sabi work, and you fit fix am for half hour. Di sentence wey people go eventually use about you, dem don already dey write am, one plain week at a time. You fit allow am gather by itself, or you fit write di draft yourself and den go make am true.
Wetin be di sentence, and why fifteen words?
Na di line wey somebody wey sabi you go use describe you when you no dey di room, and fifteen words na di constraint wey dey force real decision. Anything longer dey allow you keep three priorities wey you no really get, wey na exactly how personal mission statement dey turn into paragraph wey nobody fit remember, even di person wey write am.
Di short form dey do something wey long one no fit do. E must dey sayable. If you no fit deliver am for one breath, nobody go ever repeat am, and sentence wey nobody dey repeat no be di sentence wey people dey use about you. Na document.
E dey help make you see di size of di target. "She hired people nobody else would hire and half of them are running things now" na nineteen words and e need trim. "He told you the number early, every time" na eight and e fit carry more. Somewhere for dat range, version dey wey specific enough to be about you and short enough make person talk am for table. Na dat be di whole target, and e small pass how di exercise dey feel before you start.
Good evidence dey too say to write about your core values no be decoration. Cohen and Sherman review of self-affirmation work for di Annual Review of Psychology find say short writing about personal values fit improve outcomes for education, health and relationships, sometimes months or years later, mainly because e dey change how person dey read di pressure wey dey front of am. Fifteen words na dat same exercise with work attached.
How I go take write my own without am sounding like company talk?
Write about people and behavior, never about categories. Cut every word wey name job title, industry, or adjective wey you go find for performance review, and wetin survive usually dey close to di true sentence.
Three passes dey carry most people reach there.
Pass one, write am rough. Just put anything down. "A visionary leader driving transformational outcomes" na fine bad draft because e dey show you wetin you don absorb instead of wetin you choose.
Pass two, put person inside am. Sentence wey no get another person inside am usually na CV line. "He made three careers possible and never once took the credit" na sentence. "She told people the truth early enough for them to do something about it" na sentence. Di two of dem name behavior wey person wey dey receive am go recognise.
Pass three, cut am reach fifteen. Every word wey you delete dey raise di price of di ones wey remain. Delete di adjectives first, den di qualifiers, den di job.
Run one last check. Colleague fit talk dis one about you today with straight face, or na only for di version of you wey go exist after next year? Di two answers useful. Di first one mean say you get description. Di second one mean say you get target, wey better.
How I go take check whether e true?
Check last month, no be next year. Open your calendar and your sent messages for di past four weeks and mark every block wey stranger wey dey hold your sentence for hand for predict, den count wetin percentage of your working hours dem block dey add up to.
Next year na where people dey hide. Everybody plan for next year dey match dem sentence perfectly, because next year no get traffic inside. Last month na evidence. E get di meeting wey you agree to out of habit, di thing wey you do well wey nobody ask for, and di two hours wey you give somebody without recording am anywhere.
While you dey inside there, run second column: who I helped. Name di people, no be di projects. Most people dey find say dis column full pass wetin dem expect and nobody record am at all, wey good to sabi because di fifteen words wey dey survive ten years almost always dey about dat column, no be about output.
No score yourself out of ten for any of dis. Di count na measurement, and di only thing wey you need from am na number wey you fit compare against next month. Twenty percent of your hours pointing towards your sentence na workable starting position for person wey get real job and full calendar. Zero percent no be character problem. Na scheduling result, and scheduling na something wey you already sabi how to fix.
Wetin if last month no match di sentence?
Den you don find di useful part, and di fix na one calendar change dis week, no be new life. Gap of few hours na scheduling problem. Gap of everything na sentence problem, and e mean say na di sentence wey you admire you write instead of di one wey you go defend.
Sheldon and Elliot work on self-concordance na di reason why dis one matter pass how e look. Goals wey line up with wetin person truly value dey get more effort and dem more likely make person reach dem, and to reach dem dey do more for di person pass reaching di borrowed kind. So di audit no be discipline exercise. Na check whether you dey spend your plenty energy on di thing wey you for pick if you dey choose on purpose.
If di gap small, move one recurring block dis week and leave every other thing alone. If di gap na everything, rewrite di sentence instead of di calendar, because sentence wey you no fit live inside na just fine way to feel say you dey behind.
Fifteen words na decision rule, no be poem
Di payoff dey show di next time wey somebody ask you for something. Five year plan no fit help you by four for afternoon, but fifteen word sentence fit, because you fit run request against am for like two seconds. Whether you agree to dis one go make di sentence more true or less true. Dat one faster pass any framework and e dey travel with you for every decision wey you go make dis quarter.
E dey survive change of job too, wey no plan wey dem build around title fit do. Reorganisation, industry and employer dey move, but sentence about how you dey treat people and wetin you dey insist on dey move with you whole. Na di practical reason why di fifteen words dey leave di job out. Title na rent. Di behavior na your own, and na di behavior anybody go actually talk about you for party twenty years from now.
Fifteen words too easy to lose inside notes app, so put dem somewhere physical. Den continue. Di sentence no be request make you slow down or want less of anything. Na filter wey dey allow you say yes harder to di things wey count, for another twenty years, without di yearly crisis of whether any of am dey aim anywhere.
Sources
- Annual Review of Psychology, The psychology of change: self-affirmation and social psychological intervention
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Goal striving, need satisfaction, and longitudinal well-being: the self-concordance model