Re-Designing Your Life

Keeping Your Goals Achievable

Many, when confronted with goal setting are far too ambitious to the extent that they do not break down the goals into manageable steps. For example if you want to reduce your credit card debt and it stands at say, $20,000 and you want to do it in one year, you need to allocate a certain amount each month if youre paid monthly and if paid fortnightly you will need to allocate fortnightly amounts for that purpose. If you are self employed on the other hand you will need to devise other more specific strategies to liquidate the debt without this goal distracting you from the original goal of your business. There are a few prerequisites for instance if you want to lose weight, you will have to begin a fitness and health program and enlist the help of someone who has done it in a healthy and intelligent way. Not only that you will have to have a commencement date and a time frame each week, so many times a week and for a specific period of time, say one year. Whatever you have in mind it will have to be achievable and conceivable and it will help not only if you can see the end but you will have to feel the goal attained. The feeling, of the goal accomplished can rapidly accelerate your process as the emotional factor will ramp up your attainability factor. Perseverance and determination are two qualities that are similar however perseverance keeps on when determination may have let you down. When you lose determination feel the goal again accomplished and the emotion behind that memory will enable you to keep your action on track. You may have read many times that emotion is feeling in action and this feeling is one of the strongest drivers to assist you in accomplishing your dreams and making them come true. When you have come this far you need to see that your goals are realistic otherwise when you falter as often happens the distance from the goals is often too far and we become disheartened. Remember to break them down into small bite size pieces. If you want a massive property portfolio first see if this idea fits your psychological profile and secondly start with buying one property. From here to there does take time but it does not always have to be so slow. Your goals have to be seen, felt or observable, namely they have to be tangible and real. If in the beginning you cannot see them you might be able to see those same goals realised in other peoples lives and manifested so that you can trust that if they can do it you can do. This is where a mentor sometimes helps or a role model who has walked the path and faced similar constraints and restrictions as you. Such a person can also be an inspiration and that alone might do the job for you; alternatively, you will have to find the goals you have set sufficiently inspirational enough for you to persevere so you achieve them. So to recap, your goals have to be specific enough, you need to be able to break them down into smaller more measurable components, they need to be achievable, real enough to see, feel or visualise or you need to see them manifested in someone elses life. The most important quality of all is that the goal or goals will need to inspire you with spirit and a fire to ignite the fuel needed to overcome all the negative feedback from yourself, from others, your natural laziness and the many obstacles life provides irrespective of your greatest dreams and hopes for your future.

Some Key Elements Needed for a Successful Life

There are a few key elements to designing and redesigning the life you want1. You need to develop a balanced emotional approach to your life, both work and pleasure. In fact it has been determined in many different studies that the separation of these two is often enough to create inner conflict. That does not mean we should be working all the time or simply doing nothing. 2. You need a certain financial intelligence which is not ordinarily acquired either by education or by emulating our elders and peers unless they happen to have mastered this particular skill set.

3. There are also five attributes that are necessary to navigate your way through the often treacherous waters of commerce, rewarded creativity, relationships, health and happiness. A certain creative thinking that is a right hemisphere approach to solving the problems and challenges that life delivers. A superior level of communication beyond that which most people have. The power and skill to negotiate. This is not innate to everyone, namely we are not born with it; however as children we learn quite soon how to get what we want. This way of getting what we want as children often carries over into the real world which is counterproductive of course. Marketing abilities. You do not need a marketing degree but you certainly need the requisite skills to move forward with your plans. A grounded, centred or self aware approach to every single thing you do in your life; everywhere in your life. 4. The last attribute is the result for which you are aiming. Firstly you need to know what it is that you want and what the end result is; that is, you must start with the end in mind already. It is often easy enough to start with the end in mind, like Donald Trump did. He felt that it was as easy to go broke on a small deal as it was on a big deal so why not start with the big deal first. Having also adopted this approach I would not advocate it unless you have nerves of steel, so please forget it. Once you have ascertained what it is that you want, what the result is, it is important to know WHY you are doing it. This is known as the Purpose and I would call it more specifically the Primary Purpose. 5. An Action Plan is required to implement the steps necessary to achieve your goals, either short term or long term. However you need to have determined first, the other essentials mentioned above before you start on your action plan.

Adapting to Change
In the past, people thought that if they only did something different then their lives would change. They felt that it was only a question of "doing," rather than anything else. Of course this idea is erroneous and forgets the larger issue of the person's essence, being or existential reality. If we look at the bigger picture it can be seen that your problems and challenges are not just your problems but the problems of humanity as well. This understanding makes the whole concept of change less intimidating and more of a collective issue, even though each of us must address the issue ourselves. Our essential problems are created, generally speaking by the mindset we all carry inside us. This mindset is also cemented by our beliefs, prejudices, the identity we have constructed for ourselves, our role as mother, father, provider, nurturer, sister, and our work roles as baker, career woman, businessman, carpenter, shoemaker, doctor, lawyer, engineer or candlestick maker. It is acknowledged by many that a large proportion of people never achieve the life they want, let alone get to those loftier goals they were hoping would change their lives. One of the reasons is that they forgot to address the fundamental question of who they really are. Understandably, they were so concerned with making a living that they forgot to look at what they really needed from life. This identification with the roles we play is the primary cause of human suffering and one of the main reasons why people cannot adapt to change so easily. They think that making this change is such a monumental thing that the outcome could well be a far away echo of what they really want and that they could possibly end up with something worse than before. To achieve your goals you need to be accountable for where you are right now, to take responsibility for everything you have done and to even reframe your identity; it is not such a dramatic thing to change identity as many people do it every time they change jobs, houses or for that matter partners.

Become a Master of Persistence

Because of the nature of the mind it is often easier to sink down into the despair of the mind than to contemplate the hope of a better life. Mind is like water in as much as it finds the lowest level and that level YOU know without me or anyone else telling you. It is said that the only barrier stopping us attaining the crystal clarity of insight, intuition and real intelligence is the tendency of the mind to continually drag us down to the lowest point and we know it! The thing is that even though we know it, we usually find it impossible to break even the smallest habit, what to say about life long habits of emotional reactions, anger, envy, comparison or greed? There is a saying that inspiration gets you started and habit keeps you going. This is where our rituals come in if we want to become our own champions so to speak. When I say champions I simply mean we become proud that we can fulfil on the promise which life gave us without asking us. The truth may well be that if you are not having the life you want and most people are not, then perhaps give thought to establishing innocently a ritual which you keep every day; if you add a ritual to your goals, then your life can change in amazing ways. Habits and rituals can be a curse or a blessing; they are a curse if we are trapped by them and a blessing if we can be flexible enough to use them to break the domination of a lazy mind. Add a ritual to your goals, diarise it to take action in some small way every day, put it in a conspicuous place and make time to review it and do it every day. Then take more action and dont give up. Become a master of persistence. Without at least doing small things to change ourselves, we can never hope to achieve much in life, let alone having the life we need to have before we die. One small ritual could be to allow yourself some thinking time, each day to come up with some creative ideas of how to solve your life issues. When you have mastered that then you can allow yourself some time for watching the gaps between your thoughts.

Finding Your Primary Purpose

Many people are clear on this issue but far more are not. Why is that? Probably the real cause lies in the fact that as little ones we are conditioned to be other than who we really are. Now our parents, by and large obviously did the best they could but often the messages we get from them get scrambled by the time they reach our little grey cells. It is important to go through life unafraid as fear stops most people doing what they really want in life. However sometimes unfortunate events make us strong and they instil in us the will to succeed against all odds and to be truthful. Cast your mind back to an early age and what can you remember about those times? What fired you up, what stimulated your mind and heart and who was your most revered, even secret person, alive or dead? Find out whom that person was and you have your life thread already and your life purpose. If it was your father or mother as it usually is for most children how long did that period last? If it lasted forever has that been a good thing? If not when did you realise that maybe parents are meant to be parents not necessarily role models? My father was my greatest hero although I realised he did not really have a grip on his life, nor was the life he was living anywhere near the one I would ever choose and certainly not his life career. He worked himself into the grave literally. As a man he was pure, simple, and innocent as well as having a heart of gold, however as a man to emulate he was not that person because there were many things he had yet to discover about himself. Have you found your primary purpose?

RESEARCH QUESTIONS FOR YOUR FUTURE.

1. In what ways do you find fulfillment and meaning in your work? 2. What do you like most about your work? 3. What do you like least? 4. How did you get first involved in this work? 5. Do you ever feel you have completed this work cycle? 6. What was your training before this field? 7. Knowing what you know now, how would you have approached this career differently? 8. What would you recommend as the best course of action to someone coming into the field? 9. What talents or skills do you need for this work? 10 What attitudes and values are important for this work? 11 What do you see as the future for this kind of work? Do you see yourself in this picture? 12 What is your typical day like? 13 What hours do you work? 14 Do you feel challenged in the work or are you playing safe? 15 How do you get to the top in this field? 16 What do people in this career or work actually do in a day? 17 How well do your talents match those required for this field? 18 What are the general working conditions in this field? 19 What kind of training is required usually for this field? 20 Do you feel you need further training to improve your best? 21 What additional credentials do you feel you need? 22 Who are the leading figures in this field? 23 Could you ask for guidance from them? If so, what could you return to them by way of exchange? 24 How much do people in this field earn? 25 What is the social status of people in this field? 26 What are the positive aspects of the job? 27 What are the negative aspects of the job? 28 What is the market demand for people in this line of work? 29 What kind of lifestyle do people in this field enjoy? 30 Is this acceptable to you? 31 What personal sacrifices do you feel you have to make to succeed in this line of work?

32 What do you feel it will take for you to succeed at this work or job? Are you prepared to do whatever it takes?

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit."H.Keller