10-3-1 is a simple strategy to get clear about who you are, and what you are doing in your life.
This is an idea that I have shared with many folks during office hours. How do we talk about what we are doing and have it make sense to others? We are often doing a lot of different things and have not spent time seeing how they fit together. How can we take the ten things we are doing and turn them into 3 bigger categories? Is it possible that there is one story that makes sense of all the things you are interested in or working on? You don’t need to be doing ‘one thing’ but having a sense of clarity around a single narrative can be helpful. One clear narrative can help you see how things fit together and is super helpful if you are pitching an idea, communicating to others about what you are interested in or just feeling clear about your current path in life.
How does it work?
Make a list of the 10 things you are doing and if there are 20 perhaps find a way to make a list of the 10 big things. Now try to imagine there are 3 categories that they all fit into. Tell a story about each category and name it something that you love. The goal is to try to make it one story.
Why only one story?
People respond well to clarity and often this is achieved through storytelling. When you are trying to communicate who you are and what you do it is important to have this clarity so others can help you succeed. It is easy to feel scattered when you are working multiple jobs and jumping between work, life and school. lt can feel overwhelming. The 10-3-1 exercise helps to create a simple response when folks ask “what are you doing these days?”. Let me know how it goes or sign up for office hours and we can work through it together.
