Sound too good to be true? It’s not! I have personally used these steps to create my ideal life and I want to share them with you.
Are you someone who…
- Struggles with time management?
- Has a hard time saying no?
- Has difficulty with prioritizing?
- Is unsure of life purpose?
- Lives each day out of fear?
- Makes daily decisions out of desperation?
- Has a hard time making decisions?
- Has difficulty setting boundaries?
If so, this will ROCK YOUR WORLD!
Every single thing we do in our life matters. Every action, every inaction, every decision, every habit (good or bad), every choice steers out lives in one direction or another. Most people are on autopilot and don’t make intentional decisions because most people think it won’t make a difference…until they wake up one morning and realize the life they are living is nothing like the life they desire.
That was me! I was in that position about 10 years ago. I woke up unhealthy, unhappy, with no control or hope for anything different.
I don’t want that to happen to you. But I know it already has for most people.
I want to take you through my 10 year journey with 7 simple steps…cutting the fat and fast forwarding through the things that didn’t work for me. You must commit to the steps and you must be willing to take an honest look at yourself and your life. Lying to yourself won’t help you in this path. Make sure you spend TIME on each step and only move to the next step when you feel ready.
One final note…during this process, three things will accelerate your success…
1. Keep a journal and write in it daily…just whatever comes up
2. Also keep track in your journal of everything you are grateful for in your life…at least 3 daily.
3. Share your plan with someone you love AND trust…ask them to hold you accountable.
Hey…they may even want to join you!
Now that you KNOW you want to make changes in your life, you HAVE your journal (notebook) ready, and you have the SUPPORT of a close friend or family member, you are READY to begin.
Plan Steps
Step 1: Write out a 5 year vision of what you want your life to look like. Use the following categories: Finances, Career, Relationships, Hobbies, Personal, Community, Health, and Family. This should be what you WANT your life to look like in 5 years, not what you think you can HAVE. You are describing your DREAM LIFE in 5 years. Write it in complete sentences like it has already happened. And be as specific as you can. Example: I am happily married with two kids living in a house with lake access.
Step 2: Now read it out LOUD to yourself or someone you trust (ideal is someone you trust, but I know that is super risky, so for now, reading it out loud is perfectly fine). On a scale from 1-10, how excited are you about this life?? If it is under an 8, re-write it. If this isn’t what YOU truly want (maybe you’re trying to please someone else or living someone else’s dream), then you will NEVER get it!
Step 3: Set a 12 month goal for each category you wrote about. It should be a goal that will move you TOWARD what you want in 5 years. This can be in a full sentence or just a statement. Example: If you said in 5 years you will have run a marathon, maybe a 12 month goal is a half marathon. Or if in 5 years you want to lose 50 pounds, your 12 month goal is 10 pounds. If you want to own your own business and quit your job, your 12 month goal may be to make a list of all the businesses you could start and begin to look into them.
Step 4: Now set a 30 day goal in each category that will move you to your 12 month goal. So you are breaking down your 12 month goal. Example: If you want to have $10,000 in savings in 12 months, you will have a 30 day goal of saving $850. Or if you want to write a book in a year, you may start with making an outline of what you want to write about in the next 30 days.
Step 5: For each 30 day goal, write down 1-3 SIMPLE daily activities that you can do toward your 30 day goal. Example: If your 30 day goal is to go back to college to finish your degree, you can go online and look at admission requirements to the colleges near you, you can find out the website to apply for financial aid, you can locate your high school/college transcripts, you can start a separate savings account to add $5 a day into, etc. Make sense? So these all need to be super easy activities, like something that will take you less than 15 minutes.
Step 6: Pick one action from each category and write it down on a checklist and commit to doing ONE each day for the next 8 days. Let me be clear, that is only one action per day, so less than 15 minutes of your time each day. If you have less than 15 minutes each day, break down your activities even further. Like if you are wanting to lower your blood pressure to get healthier, your activity that day may be to eat a giant salad for dinner. The key to this working for you is to make the steps easy enough that you will do them.
Step 7: The last step is to pick another activity from each category, write it on your checklist, and commit to doing ONE a day for the next 8 days. If you only had ONE activity for that 30 day goal, just repeat that activity each week. If you find one activity is producing better results than another, do more of that one. This is an ongoing process and you need to be evaluating it on a constant basis…that is why you have your journal.
At the end of the 30 days, you will have spent a total of about 5 hours doing what it takes to move toward your IDEAL life you wrote about in your 5 year vision. Over the course of a year that is 60 hours and you will start seeing some AMAZING results.
Every 30 days choose the next 30 day goal to get you toward your 12 month and every 6 months chose another 12 month goal to get you toward your ideal life. The reason I re-evaluate my 12 month goal every six months is because our lives are changing so quickly these days AND we can see what is working and what is not working sooner…and fix it! Effective activities are vital!
The keys to making this work are:
1. Consistency. You must develop a habit of doing something easy, tiny, and simple every single day
2. Evaluation. You must constantly be keeping track of which activities are effective and which are not. If you get to the first 30 day mark and you have one of your goals that you aren’t even close to reaching, you need to evaluate if you are doing the correct activities to get the outcome you desire.
3. Prioritize. If you are adding new things into your already crowded, busy life, you need to start thinking about what you are willing to give up that doesn’t serve you anymore. Often times when we start doing work toward what we love, we find joy and a new lease on life, so some of the things that aren’t as important to us anymore or aren’t having a positive effect on us, will fall by the wayside…this is a GOOD thing!
4. Beware. Not everyone is going to support you going after your dreams! Focus on what YOU want. Hang your vision where you can see it. Read through your goals daily. Gravitate toward people who are positive and encouraging. Steer clear of those who are negative and make you feel self-serving or impractical. Read inspiring books, listen to great music, watch motivational movies, and KNOW that you are doing what you WANT and NEED to make your life better.
The last thing I want to mention is that YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO YOU WILL BE WITH FROM THE DAY YOU ARE BORN UNTIL THE DAY YOU DIE. You must make yourself happy. You must be willing to let go of what others want for you and attach yourself to what you KNOW is right for you. Saying NO to them is saying YES to you. And that is what will give you the strength, courage, and tenacity to step up and create the life of your dreams.
