In Part 2 of the Drive Test, we’ll rank your list of passions and drivers created in Part 1 of the Drive Test. We’ll also review a few additional questions around your passions and what your “ideal life” looks like (who are you with, what are you doing, where does it take place, and why do these things invigorate you). We’ll make sure to get a clearer view of your “ideal life” than you’ve ever had.
By prioritizing your passions, you’ll better able to plan around making your drivers and passion most important to you a reality.
If you want a reminder of doing the Drive Test and Lifestyle Design Exercise will lead to your best life, visit The Drive Test introduction page
DRIVE TEST CONTENTS
- Drive Test Part 1: Define your passions and what drives you
- Drive Test Part 2: Rank and prioritize your passions and “drivers” to understand what makes up your best life
- Drive Test Part 3: Create a plan, with small achievable steps, to make your ideal life a reality
- Drive Test Part 4: Polish your results, save them to review for motivation, and following up on your test every 6 months
Suggestions for completing the Drive Test:
- Do this exercise alone
- Encourage your partner to do this exercise (alone as well) and share the results upon completion
- Take note of “AHA!” moments and realizations
- Don’t edit yourself, and don’t rule out the possibility of drastic changes
- Consider keeping a notebook for the duration of this exercise and after to reference back to in 6 months
- Note interesting realizations, negative ideas that come up, realizations that something is important to you but neglected in life right now, or realizations that something is not important but heavily consumes your time, energy, and resources
Now, let’s continue with Part 2 of the Drive Test and rank your passions
Step 1: Rank the drivers and passions from your list
We’ll start with your list of Drivers and Passions from the past exercise and rank them.
- Start with the entire list of items. Compare the driver statement at the bottom your list to the statement above it and ask yourself which is more important in your ideal life? Then, compare whichever statement is more important to you with the statement above the last two. Continue comparing the preferred statement to the one above until you reach the top of the list with one statement. Write that statement in the #1 position in your list below (or on your new sheet) and cross it off on your old sheet.
- Return to the bottom of the list and compare whichever statement is now on the bottom of the list with the statement above it, continuing the process from the step above.
- Once you’ve reached the top of the list again repeat the process, transferring the new “top item to the next position down on your new list and then crossing it off the old list
- Repeat this process until your list of drivers and passions is ranked from most to least important in your ideal life
You should then have a list of your passions and drivers in life, prioritized by importance to you. Every very powerful list for designing your life
Ranked List of Passions and Drivers
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Step 2: Add clarity to your top Drivers
Review each of the top 10 drivers and passion statements on your prioritized list to ensure they each have enough detail to design your life based on them and to ensure they are based in your genuine needs, passions, desires, and motivations (and no one else’s). You can do this by asking yourself the following questions about each driver:
- What: What is happening in the scenario? What are you doing? What are the people are you doing?
- Where: Is anything about this passion location dependent? If so, is it in a certain geography (e.g., mountain, beach), living environment (e.g., urban, rural), or specific location? Does the location provide certain requirements (e.g., museums, markets, hippies, conservatives, intellectuals, yuppies, etc.)
- Who: Who else is involved? Specific people? A type of people? How are they connected to you? How do they interact with you?
- When: When does this take place? At a time of the year? At a time of your life? What frequency do you experience this passion or driver?
- Why: Why will this driver or passion lead to fulfillment and desire? Is it because the driver fulfills your own genuine desires, needs, and beliefs? Or, are you accidentally incorporating societal pressures and unquestioned dogma into your “ideal life”
Without a doubt, the question of “why” is the most important question to ask for each passion and driver. If you, for any reason, strive to achieve an end simply to please someone else, you won’t be nearly as happy or fulfilled as you would be if you had dedicated the expended time, energy, and resources to a passion that genuinely drives and fuels you.
If you realize that something is on your list because “it should be”, scrap it immediately. Write it down in your notebook, annotate it in your final notes, but do not prioritize it in your life.
Now…get after it!!!
Step 2: List the full statements on your passions and drivers, questioning what, where, who, and why along the way
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Post-exercise food for thought
Look at this list and think, have your efforts and conscious priorities over the last year and 5 years matched up with how you have prioritized the components of your ideal life in this exercise?
If there is a mismatch between the priorities of your ideal life and your current life, why do you believe this is? From what you’ve realized in this part of the exercise, if you could change just one thing now…what would it be? And what advice would you give “future you” a year from now?
As always, write down any great epiphanies in your notebook to reflect on later.
You now have a prioritized list of statements that embody the relationships, activities, places, and things that you are most passionate about, that motivate you, and that drive you to thrive and grow
We’ll take this list into part 3 of the Drive Test & Lifestyle Design Exercise to create a plan of how we can make these 10 things a reality
Continue to PART 3 of The Drive Test & Lifestyle Design Exercise>>
Was this exercise helpful to you? Share the love and send the Drive Test to a friend you know could use a push towards their ideal life
Other Great Links
- Overview of the Drive Test & Lifestyle Design Exercise
- The LivMin philosophy
Interested in sharing your results or have questions? Drop them in the comments below, we’d love to see how your progress is coming. Or, email me at Carlos@ABrotherAbroad.com with thoughts, questions, or suggestions
