Ep. 20: How to Live A Fulfilling Life With The “3c Framework”! - a podcast by Josh Becker: Speaker, Author, Teacher

Last week I was feeling in a bit of a “funk”. So much so that I knew I needed to do something about it. I came up with 5 different ways I could get out of it. It took me doing all 5 of them but eventually it worked! To find out exactly what I did you can listen to last weeks podcast!

While I don’t get in a “funk” all that often I can find myself stuck on Facebook, surfing the web, or even reading great content from people I admire. These things aren’t bad in and of themselves and in fact I learn a lot from doing each of them. The problem is when I find myself spending more time doing those things and not enough time doing things that will get me closer to where I want to be in life. I wrote this post on Facebook last week…



This has been a theme with me lately. In fact I had a friend of mine share his frustration with his lack of time management. He wasn’t able to say, No, and when he said, Yes, it was hard for him to commit. I shared with him a technique I have for keeping lists using a very cool system called, Bullet Journal. It allows me to really keep track of where I’m spending my time and to ensure I’m keeping on track for accomplishing the things I want to do in life. Of course, you have to do more than just write down your intentions you also have to act on them! This morning I posted this to Facebook and it got me thinking…



I don’t and certainly shouldn’t spend all my time either creating or consuming. There’s a missing “c” to this equation and that’s cultivating. It led me to create what I’m referring to the “3c Framework for a Fulfilling Life.” So what exactly does this mean and how does it look? Let’s break it down some more…

The framework assumes we can break down our time into 3 separate and distinct (although, sometimes overlapping) categories. Consumption refers to information, entertainment, and material possessions. Create refers to anything that we produce. Art, blogs, podcasts, books, websites, products, and anything else we might make. Finally, and this was the piece I was overlooking in my Facebook post, we have Cultivation. We cultivate relationships with others, the relationship with ourself, our physical, mental, and spiritual health, as well as the physical world around us (volunteering, charity, recycling, etc.).

For most of us, myself very much included, we have times in our lives where all 3C’s are at play but they are off balance. When I was in my funk last week I was doing a great job of consuming (websites, Facebook, etc) but spent little time in creating and even less time in cultivating. My balance was totally off and this probably explains why I was in a funk and/or at least what contributed to it.

It seems to me that the correct ratio and proportion of each C to the next might vary slightly per individual, and depending on where you are in your life. Take for example the last couple months of 2013. I was caring for my mom who was on in-home hospice. During this period of my life I was was into the cultivating area (nurturing my mother’s health, and bonding with her and other family) but did very little creating and consumption. Different times will call for different flows in and out of each of these areas. However, to get us all moving in the right direction and towards a fulfilling life let’s look at what this should generally break out to. Keep in mind that this may vary slightly for you but here’s what seems to be the right mix.

It seems to me that under “normal” (figure out what normal is for you) circumstances we should be spending 40% of our time in Creating, 40% of our time in Cultivating, and 20% of our time in Consuming. Again,

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