Element Description – Space
Having what you need to move forward. This is about your ability and desire to gather and have access to the resources you need for the journey you’re on. That could be things like permission, autonomy, trust, time, tools, money, or other resources.
General Description:
This is about identifying and obtaining the things you need to move forward. This could be tools, time, talents, permission, money, or any other resource for your journey.
Essence Attribute:
“I have what I need to move forward.”
When ranked high, you’ll feel more confident about taking the steps you need to take, knowing you have what you need. Your perceived readiness creates feelings of engagement and even excitement.
When ranked low, you’re likely to experience concern and worry about not being “ready,” which can cause you to hold back and disengage, creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt.
Attribute 1:
“I have the resources I need to move forward now.”
When ranked high, you experience more confidence in the journey ahead because you know what you need to get where you’re going.
When ranked low, the unknown of what you might need to get where you want to go creates feelings of doubt, worry, and fear that build disengagement and hold you back.
Attribute 2:
“I know the resources I’ll need in the future.”
When ranked high, the knowledge that you already have about the tools you need will increase your confidence and draw you forward.
When ranked low, the absence of resources will create worry, doubt, and fear. You will sometimes fail to make any progress until these things are anticipated and planned for.
Attribute 3:
“I have confidence I will have the resources I need in the future.”
When ranked high, you will feel more confident in taking the steps you need to take to move forward, knowing how to access the resources you need to do so.
When ranked low, not knowing how to access the resources you need will cause you to hold back, often delaying progress until you figure them out.
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Element Description – Mentor
Being or having a guide. This is about your ability and desire to have someone you can turn to when you need help, and your willingness and aptitude for doing this for others.
General Description:
This is about having a guide, a mentor, someone who believes in you, reminds you why you fight, sees the best in you, and helps you see and navigate the way forward.
Essence Attribute:
“I feel like I have a guide for my journey.”
When ranked high, you’ll feel more confident in the journey you’re on. You’ll take bigger, bolder steps because you know you’re drawing on experience of those who have more experience.
When ranked low, you’ll tend to hold back, pull back, lean out and disengage, because you’ll have more fear of failure and worry that you don’t know enough or have what it takes right now to be successful.
Attribute 1:
“I have access to expertise.”
When this is high, you tend to engage more fully, confident that if you get stuck, there is someone you can turn to for help and guidance.
When this is low, you tend to disengage, reluctant to move forward for fear of getting stuck and not knowing what to do, or looking silly, or even failing altogether.
Attribute 2:
“I seek help from those who know.”
When this is high, you not only know who to turn to when you need help, but actively seek that help, receiving guidance and increasing confidence that creates added engagement.
When this is low, you disengage out of fear of failure, or fear of seeming incompetent, and the absence of that expertise hampers your ability to succeed.
Attribute 3:
“I have someone who holds me accountable.”
When this is high, when you feel like someone is watching, that someone cares, and that someone will follow up, your sense of accountability keeps you engaged and moving forward.
When this is low, the risk is low, the visibility is low, and the lack of those things can cause you to fail to engage and invest.
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Element Description – Environment
An ecosystem and surroundings to support your journey. This is about having surroundings that suit the journey you’re on. It’s about your desire and ability to shape your own physical environment in ways that motivate you, bring you peace, and help you do your best work.
General Description:
This is about having physical surroundings that support and enable your effort. This includes immediate access to the things you need and the physical space you need in order to accomplish what you’re trying to accomplish.
Essence Attribute:
“My environment is conducive to the journey I’m on and the work I need to do.”
When ranked high, you’ll feel more confident in your journey and your ability to succeed, because you have surroundings that help you move forward, support you when you fail, and allow you to do the work you need to do.
When ranked low, you’ll be more inclined to disengage or not invest because you won’t feel like you have a setting where you can do the work you need to do, or that is in alignment with who you are and what you’re trying to do.
Attribute 1:
“I have a space where I can be productive.”
When this is high, you tend to more fully engage because you have an environment to support your efforts, where you can do what you need to move forward.
When this is low, and you don’t have a place to go to be productive, it can create feelings of disengagement and you may wait for the right conditions to take action.
Attribute 2:
“I have a space where I can be myself.”
When this is high, and your environment aligns to who you are, you feel like you can be yourself. You tend to more fully engage and better perform.
When this is low, and your environment does not align to who you are or who you want to become, then you tend to hold back your best self. You don’t feel comfortable, and tend to disengage.
Attribute 3:
“I have influence over the spaces that I’m in.”
When this is high, and you can personalize your environment, you tend to more fully engage because your environment becomes a more true expression of your identity.
When this is low, you tend to disengage, feeling disconnected from a depersonalized environment, creating feelings of loneliness, isolation, and even despair.
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Element Description – Score
Measuring Progress. This is about measuring progress and having a clear sense of winning, or whether or not you’re moving forward.
General Description:
This is about having a sense of winning and losing. It’s about knowing that you’re moving forward, or knowing when you’ve stalled, so you can adapt accordingly.
Essence Attribute:
“I have a strong sense of whether I’m winning or losing.”
When this is high, you tend to have more confidence in your journey, even if the score is low, because you have a sense of if it’s going well or not.
When this is low, your energy can fade and you can lose confidence because you don’t know if you’re doing well or not, causing you to feel insecure in the steps you take.
Attribute 1:
“I consistently measure short term progress.”
When this is high, you experience increased engagement that comes from the confidence you feel when you know you’re on or off path, and can feel and see the progress you make.
When this is low, you feel unsure in whether or not you’re making progress, in whether or not “it’s working,” which creates feelings of disengagement and reluctance that can cause you to pull back.
Attribute 2:
“I regularly measure long-term progress.”
When this is high, you have a strong sense of where you are on your larger journey, creating a sense of orientation that fuels your short term objectives and plans, leading to increased confidence.
When this is low, you become unsure about how your short-term efforts align to your long-term journey, and how you’re doing on that journey. That can create a sense of fear and foreboding, causing you to disengage and lean out instead of leaning in.
Attribute 3:
“Others have visibility into the scores I keep.”
When this is high, you have a sense of accountability, and the optics others have into how you’re doing increases the motivational effect of the scores you keep.
When this is low, your sense of winning or losing is isolated and only seen by you, making it easier to be OK with lower performance than if others were able to see your score and hold you accountable.
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Element Description – Momentum
The energy of motion. This is about the energy of movement and how that fuels even more movement. It’s about feeling like you’re making progress and finding motivation in that.
General Description:
This is about feeling a sense of progress, finding energy in that progress, and using small means to generate that progress in order to build and maintain momentum.
Essence Attribute:
“I have a strong sense of whether or not I’m moving forward.”
When this is high, the energy of your movement fuels more movement. You feel energized by the perception of progress and are anxious to make more progress.
When this is low you tend to lose energy and disengage because you’re not sure if you’re moving forward.
Attribute 1:
“I feel a sense of progress.”
When ranked high, you feel more engaged because you can tell that you’re moving forward. There’s an energy to movement that fuels more movement.
When ranked low, you’re not sure if you’re moving forward, and are likely to assume you aren’t. When you feel like you’ve stalled, you tend to disengage.
Attribute 2:
“I am excited about the progress I’m making.”
When ranked high, there’s added energy that comes from the movement you detect, because you care about the nature of the progress more than just progress itself.
When ranked low, you experience less energy impact from the progress you make, because for some reason that progress isn’t inherently motivating to you, indicating an issue with alignment.
Attribute 3:
“I make use of small steps to create energy.”
When ranked high, your ability to leverage small steps to make progress quickly creates a sense of momentum, where the energy of movement fuels more movement, leading to bigger progress.
When ranked low, the inability to leverage small steps often creates a feeling of a stall—or state of rest—where we feel like the only way to move forward is to do something big, which sounds hard and can be prohibitive.
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Element Description – Investment
Having skin in the game. This is about having a sense of ownership, or putting something on the line.
General Description:
This is about feeling a sense of commitment, about investing what is needed, putting something on the line, feeling a sense of ownership, and deliberately creating a cost to losing, which prevents us from just giving up and keeps us investing and moving forward.
Essence Attribute:
“I feel invested in what I’m doing.”
When this is high, you’re more likely to be engaged because you will feel a sense of ownership, of having skin in the game, and will fight to protect and not lose what you’ve put in.
When this is low, you’ll tend to disengage, feeling like you don’t really have anything to lose.
Attribute 1:
“I feel emotional commitment.”
When ranked high, you feel a deep sense of emotional commitment to your pursuits, and that sense of emotional investment drives you to engage, to keep investing, and to succeed.
When ranked low, you don’t have a sense of emotional investment in your pursuits, which results in feelings of being non-committal. Those feelings hold you back from investing what you need to succeed.
Attribute 2:
“There is something to lose if I fail.”
When ranked high, you feel like you have something to lose. That creates a sense of loss aversion, which keeps you investing, keeps you engaged, and drives you forward.
When ranked low, you feel like you don’t have anything to lose, so you don’t mind losing. You feel less engaged because nothing is on the line, and you’re more likely to hold back at key moments.
Attribute 3:
“I invest heavily to win.”
When ranked high, you are likely investing at the degree necessary to win. That level of investment keeps you engaged, moving forward, and investing more.
When ranked low, you likely aren’t investing enough to result in solid progress, feel like there isn’t much to lose, and are more likely to hold back instead of going all-in.