Adding Structure To Your Life

by Jackie Woods

Was your response “eek” when you read the title? For most people the very thought of adding more of anything to their life, that feels already overloaded, is an abomination. Before you stop reading, just give me a few minutes to explain. Adding structure to what already exists in your life will actually simplify instead of complicate things. 

Most people’s lives consist of a whole lot of disjointed activities that need to be accomplished. There is usually no symmetry or continuity—just The List. Actually, for some people a list is a step towards structure. While a list is a good starting place, I want you to think with me beyond The List. 

Everything and everyone you have drawn into your life should fit together under a grand theme, much like the pieces of a puzzle fit together. If the most important people and events in your life spell family, then family is your grand theme. If the most important people and events in your life spell mission, then mission is your grand theme. And on you can go. The number of themes possible is infinite, but each person has a purpose and their life’s structures should support that purpose. 

Structuring your life so every person and event supports your reason for being alive allows each activity on your list to support every other activity on the list. No task will be small or tedious when it is seen as one more stone being laid to support your reason for living. The big tasks won’t consume you because they will be held in perspective by the overall structure. Adding structure is about adding meaning. Therefore, all non-supportive people and events will have no meaning and can be easily eliminated. 

As you have figured out by now, you must have a central energy that is clearly defined in order to begin the structuring process. Then you will need to decide what other energies will support you in carrying out that central theme. Next comes the matching. This means looking at activities and people to see if they fit one of those support energies. This step may require the deleting of existing structures or the adding of new ones. You don’t have to do this all at once, but the goal is to accomplish symmetry and continuity around the main purpose of your life.

You will need to be clear about why you are doing each activity before you take action. When this intent is not a priority, you will lose power in your actions and eventually either become robotic, inactive, or driven. Each activity will become separate from the rest, and life will lose purpose. 

But since we are human and make mistakes, we will forget at times what has meaning to us. When this happens, we need to have a reminder action in place. A reminder action is a predetermined “consequence” that will help us get back on track. This kind of “consequence” is not a punishment but simply an action that will help our unconscious get reprogrammed so it will fit our goals. And action is always necessary for unconscious reprogramming since mental reasoning has absolutely no effect in bringing about change. 

For instance, if health in your eating is a support to either your central purpose of family or of mission then you must define exact ways that you will eat. You can’t just say, “I’m going to eat healthy.” That kind of lax structure never lasts more than a few weeks. You need to say what you will eat and what you won’t. And if you don’t stick to that definition, you need to do your predetermined reminder action to get back on track. In this example, you might agree to eat the same thing for three meals in a row if you get off track. 

Be patient with yourself in adding structure to your life—do it one step at a time. But always be careful that all additions are solid. Solidity will be there if intent takes the lead in this restructuring process, and reprogramming is used to cement in that intent. The choice is yours—a united life bound together by purpose or a life of separate actions where meaning must be squeezed out of each one.

Jackie Woods, founder of Adawehi (Ah-dah-way-hee) Institute Healing School and Wellness Center, is a published author and an expert in the field of self-actualization. Visit   www.jackiewoods.org  

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