Frequently Asked Questions

1) Given there are 10 competencies (and around 40 activities per stage), do I choose competency or activity first?

Select your top 3 activities, then notice what competency they belong to.

a) Choose the three activities that most matter to you; it doesn’t matter whether they are in 1, 2, or 3 competencies.

b) In making your choices, go with your gut, then review if necessary. Don’t over-think it.

c) Most people find they can make their choices within 15-30 minutes.

2) If I feel overwhelmed by the many activity choices, are there other options?

There are three options for choosing activities. The 10 x 10 meets learners where they are. Appreciating the need for agility, we expanded beyond our initial comprehensive list (of 40+ activities per life stage), to include two additional options. If overwhelmed by the comprehensive model (all the available activities), you can use the streamlined version that has a one activity per competency (e.g., narrows choice from 40+ to 10) found in this chapter or a third option of reading through the model and drafting the activities in your own words and language.

3) Given how busy I am, how much time does it take to work on each learning activity?

Make the action steps easy to do in the next quarter of your life, including micro-learning. You don’t have to make a major commitment; some learners choose to take minutes a day while others may choose 3 hours one day per week. The time you spend on each activity will vary dependent upon your interest level, your personal calendar and how important it is to you. Motivation science teaches us the importance of simply getting started and building momentum!

4) What if the activities in my life stage don’t seem to match my interests and life

While development unfolds in these 10 stages, the pace of development is different for each individual, not always following chronological age. So please: Feel free to look at adjacent life stages, to see and choose alternative activities. Some clients are interested in looking at the adjacent life stages (e.g., stage 5 may look at stage 4 and/or stage 6). This is particularly true for learners at the beginning or end of a particular life stage. Or, when an individual may be developmentally far ahead (or behind) in a particular competency. For example: We've seen this in Entrepreneur/CEOs whose age placing them in Stage Seven, but whose financial skills are more akin to Stage 9-10! Carrying this example forward: When a family member finds that he, she, or they want to develop the competency of financial skills, but do not resonate with the learning activities in their particular life stage, they should be encouraged to look at activities in prior or later years as they see fit. Or, build their own learning activity in collaboration with their advisory team. Thus, learners may want to review different activities that are not always based upon one’s chronological age.