Some time back I was working with a leader who was having difficulty with his employees feeling empowered in their work.  Ned (not his real name) was frustrated.  "I don't understand it!" he stammered.  "I assign tasks out, stay out of their way while they're completing the tasks, hold them accountable to dates, and praise them when the task is done well.  I do all this yet my employees tell me I don't empower them.  I'm ready to pull my hair out (ironically he was folically challenged)".

Recently Patty and I met up with our financial advisor to walk through our long-term finances.  A key component of that discussion was about our net worth, defined as assets minus liabilities.  While we had a very fruitful discussion that resulted in some great take-aways, it got me to thinking about how easy it is to focus on a single aspect of one's life and derive how good (or bad) one might be doing based on that aspect.  Don't get me wrong; one's net worth is certainly an important measure that needs to be tended to.  My point is that there is more to life than net worth when looking at your overall contentment.   This hit home for me with the suicides of famous figures Robin Williams, Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, and others.  These are people who appeared to have it all but to them something was so missing that it caused them to commit a horribly sad act.  Lives ended too early; my prayers go to their loved ones.

In thinking about contentment, I looked hard at what, to me, are the most important driving factors behind contentment.  Keep in mind my analysis is not from a point of scientific expertise; rather it is from a point of practicality as to what I think are the most important drivers.  I've honed my list to 8:

Now I completely realize that some of these above drivers are extremely important to some or not at all important.  My point is not to second guess your importance level; what I do believe necessary is to decide how important each of the above drivers are to you.  If something is not at all important to you then that is certainly your choice.  Just be mindful of avoiding something that could adversely impact you later.  As example, if you say financial contentment is not at all important and you decide not to financially plan for the future then you might be creating a problem for yourself later in life.

So what now?  I put together a simple excel spreadsheet which allows you to assess, for each of the contentment drivers, how important it is to you, what makes you content, and how you could be more content.  I think it's important to articulate both what makes you content and how you could be more content for a couple of reasons.  First, it allows you to celebrate things you are already happy with.  Second, it enables you to improve on some things which you may already be doing well. 

If you find this helpful, you can download the excel template to help you self-assess yourself based on the 8 drivers.  Download it here. 

As always, would love to hear what you think.  let me know your thoughts in below comments.

Some time back I did an interview on the importance of dinnertime.  It reminded me of the importance of eating dinner as a family in the work/life balance equation so I thought I would post it here as well:

In your view, why aren't families sitting down to the dinner table like they did in the 1950s? 
Simple; families have allowed themselves to get so busy that they have come to accept that sitting down together for dinner isn't a necessity.  It all starts with the parents; if they don't sit down together or enforce that the family will be eating together, the family won't do it. Make sitting down together the rule and not doing so the exception.

Several years back I conceived and funded a small business.  My partner and I were very excited about the concept and had sky-high aspirations about the prospects of the business.  While the idea was great, I ultimately decided to shut the business down as I felt the cost of keeping the business afloat would continue to outstrip the revenue.  I'm not going to bore you with the details of the business; what I do want to do is talk with you about the decision process I went through and how the "morning after" decision making process tipped the scales for me.