As before, take some time to review previous modules, your Ideal Day, your Soul Work, your Whole Work, your Values and your Motivations. Now we're looking at what's called the boundary conditions, the things that will mean you absolutely wouldn't, or absolutely have to, include something in your Genius.

Boundary conditions

Boundary conditions are the edges to the Values you will include in living your Genius - at what point is there too little or too much of something for it to really satisfy you fully.  It is important to understand that these are NOT limits, they are simply where you are choosing to put the boundaries right now.  Nor are they cast in stone - you can change them any time they stop serving you.

Positive

We'll start with what absolutely must be included in your Genius. These positive boundaries tend to be quite general, things like an ability to contribute, or challenge. The point here is to identify what is the minimum level of each value that needs to be present in your Genius. It's best to come up with some examples, so you can get a real sense of what the feeling is at the boundary. And now, think of something that's just outside the boundary, that doesn't quite provide enough of the Value to satisfy your requirements.

To use a slightly cheeky example, let's say one of your values is intimacy.  You might decide that if you were getting a cuddle at least once a day, that would be nicely inside your boundary, and perhaps having sex less than once a week would fall outside of it (or whatever those frequencies were for you).

Negative

At the negative boundary, it means this gets excluded from your genius. Usually, negative boundaries are more specific, and it's easier to come up with examples of what's just beyond the boundary. For example, if one of your Values was Trust, what action would someone have to take to break that trust? And what's the most of that sort of behaviour that you would tolerate?

Internal

An internal boundary relates to, or affects just you and requires action only from you. So this would cover Values like 'excitement' or 'challenge' - what is the point at which you would feel there wasn't enough feeling of these Values.  Or, when would you feel there was too much, where your motivation is Away.

External

External boundaries relate to or affects others, or is a result of others' actions. So these boundaries are about the behaviour you expect, or will tolerate, from others.  Again, think about not just the behaviours, but the degree or amount of them.  And they are not judgements, just awareness.

Chosen boundaries

OK, it's pen and paper time again. For at least each of your top 5 Values, identify where the boundary conditions lie – in 5 years’ time, on your Ideal Day! For Values where your motivation is more Away than Towards, concentrate on the negative boundary. And where the motivation is predominantly Towards, the positive boundary will be the most important. Don't take too long over this exercise - the boundaries will normally be quite clear once you start thinking about them.

That's it, that's the final step – in Unit 8 we'll put it all together.