Stikkord: The best year of your life

In the previous installments, we inventoried your current assets, liabilities, strengths and weaknesses. We also looked at your potential opportunities and threats to your future. Before deciding where to apply those assets and the focus of your creative effort, we need to total the current balances in each account of your life.

This is a crucially important step for two reasons:

Imbalance = Disaster
We often see people who have become successful in one area of life, but are utter disasters in many other areas. Tabloid magazines are full of this kind of drama, with headlines of bitter divorces, drunk-driving arrests, family feuds, racist rants, bulimia, drug rehab, depression and suicide attempts. Many of these same people, the ones many Americans idolize, are some of the most unhappy, insecure and depressed people you will find. Why? Their focus on succeeding in one area of life created a great imbalance with the other areas.

Remember the final words given to me by dad’s wealthy friend the day before he died? Read them (and live by them) HERE.

Be wary of the price the rest of your life has to pay for the success in one area of your life.

Wrong Account
Someone recently shared with me an incredibly poignant distinction, he said before you build your business plan, build your life plan. Figure out what kind of life you want to have first—where you want to live, what type of people you want to be surrounded by, whether you want to work nights and weekends, whether you want to travel (and how much and where), whether you want to be home for dinner every night, if you want a short commute, what type of environment you want to go to each day, how you want to dress, etc.

He said to then build your business or professional plan around these criteria.

Whoa! I have been doing it all backward! You?

Most of us have done exactly the opposite—we build our business plan first. We outline all our big goals, plans and ambitions, and then figure out how to fit our lives around them (usually sacrificing much of the rest of our lives). Or sometimes we define a professional plan by outlining the money we want to make and titles we want to obtain—again, sacrificing much of the rest of our lives. If we continue to live this way, when we get to the end of our lives, we’re likely to discover we paid too high a price and sacrificed what was really important in life, for too little.

“Life without balance can cost you your relationships. Life without balance can cost you your health. Life without balance can cost you your spirituality. Life without balance can cost you your wealth and your happiness. So find things to motivate you from all areas of life. Your success depends on it.” —Jim Rohn

Don’t let that happen to you… and now is the time to find the right balance for you and your life’s desires.

Download and complete the LIFE ASSESSMENT Worksheet and WHEEL OF LIFE Chart. This is worksheet set 4. It will have to be printed first to complete. You will not be able to fill in the form fields on your computer. (NOTE: The link will be sent via the e-mail feed. If you are just registering now, the link will be in the next feed along with links to all prior worksheets. E-mail feeds typically distribute later in the evening following posts published earlier in the day.)

Have you learned some new things about yourself? Have you discovered some gifts, attributes, opportunities and hidden potential you didn’t fully credit before? Share your experiences with this ongoing process in the comments below. You are also welcome to ask any questions you might have.

Review: INTRO, WHY & HOW, PART 1 and PART 2

We’ve examined your life thus far and have looked into your future and established what direction you want your life to take from this point forward. You now know what you stand for (your values); you know the mission you will crusade for (your actions); and you’ve clarified the vision for your life (the outcomes you want to realize).

Before it’s possible to formulate the strategic life plan, you must first take inventory of your assets and liabilities. What are your distinct advantages? Where do you have unique leverage? What weaknesses do you need to shore up and what hazards do you need to avoid?

This is where I always start when preparing a plan to perform a turnaround on a company. Before you can make a plan of where to take the organization, you first have to figure out where it stands—you must know its current assets and liabilities. What are its current weaknesses and where might its most damaging threats come from? You need to be aware of its unique strengths as well as any unseen or underdeveloped opportunities. This is the same assessment necessary to do a turnaround on, or to accelerate, your life.

Your Personal S.W.O.T Analysis

STRENGTHS: We know we are most likely to succeed when we use our innate talents to their fullest extent. The problem is most people don’t do enough due diligence on their skill sets or introspection on their unique talents to discover their significant advantage so they can thrive—easily, joyfully and prosperously.

WEAKNESSES: Similarly, if you identify your weaknesses and build your strategic plan to work around those traits, by either improving, covering for or circumventing them entirely, it’s possible to avoid painful (and expensive) difficulties and potential setbacks.

OPPORTUNITIES: We are constantly surrounded by opportunities; unfortunately, they go unnoticed by most people. I will challenge you through a series of questions to identify and recognize some of the tremendous advantages and opportunities you have at your feet, but are not maximizing or might have missed altogether.

THREATS: It’s critical to identify where the landmines are before you march into the battlefield of life. In my mentorship of high-growth companies, I have witnessed that it is not lack of opportunity, lack of growth or lack of success that kills most companies, but the unplanned and unprepared for problems that arise which throw the organization into an unrecoverable tailspin. This is true for individuals as well. Our lack of threat assessment leaves us off guard. Problems seem to come out of nowhere and blindside us, resulting in disaster. I’ll help you identify your potential landmines so the course we chart for your strategic plan avoids those lurking dangers.

Using the S.W.O.T. framework you will come to better understand yourself. You’ll see the tremendous advantages you possess and how you can leverage them to begin to separate yourself from your peers. You’ll also discover special talents and abilities that you may need to further develop to achieve your most ambitious goals.

360˚ VIEW

Now I have a scary challenge for you. How committed are you to your personal growth? This part of this installment will test your mettle. If you want to break out of your rut and take your life to the next level, do this—I dare you.

I want you to ask three friends to answer a few tender questions, essentially asking them how you “show up” in the world. We all think we know ourselves and how we appear to others, but our perceptions might be one of our greatest constraints and limitations to doing better.

One year, a while back, I asked several people in my life how I was “showing up” to them.I was flabbergasted by what they told me. Wow, I had no idea I was “doing that!” I thought I was behaving one way, but I was being perceived completely different than I imagined. At first I was hurt; then I grew defensive. After receiving the same response more than once, I knew I was busted. I then realized why I was having difficulty advancing in certain areas of my life.

This could be happening to you… without you even knowing it. While it might be a scary and possibly painful process, it might also help you break through barriers that could be holding you back from your greater potential. It is well worth it.

Download and complete the S.W.O.T. ANALYSIS Questions and Worksheet. The 360˚ VIEW questions and tips are included on that document. (NOTE: The link to the download is sent via the e-mail feed. If you are just registering now, it will go out again with the next feed. E-mail feeds typically go out the same evening following the published post.)

This process will help you assess your internal and external advantages, as well as hindrances you might encounter so you can more effectively build your plan. Thursday I will guide you through the process of totaling your life’s current balance sheet. Where are you really in all the areas important to becoming a whole-life success? I think you might be surprised by the result.

This is one of the most important installments of the process.

Here, we will delve into some of the great This is one of the most important installments of the process.

Here, we will delve into some of the great questions of our humanity and individual lives: Why are you here? What is your life’s purpose? What difference will you make? How will you be remembered? Who are you? What do you stand for? What values do you represent, protect and fight for? What are you willing to die for and live for?

To read more, klick here:

darrenhardy.success.com/2010/01/db10-purpose-goal-setting/

For the worksheet, klick here:

www.success.com/pdf/DB10_worksheet_set_1.pdf

We are entering a brand new decade.

Think about where you were 10 years ago, when we began a new millennium, the year 2000. Seems like only yesterday, right?

Are you where you’d thought you’d be 10 years later, when you looked forward back then?

Are you leading the life you envisioned?

Do you have the income, lifestyle, freedom, health, relationships, poise and skills you thought you would have by now?

Well, now you get another chance to look forward to the next 10 years. This time, what are you going to do different so the next 10 years aren’t just more of the same?

What do you want to achieve in 2010? Have you developed your goals? Would you like to earn more money, grow your business, become No. 1 in your marketplace, energize your relationships, find your passion, get fit and feel good?

Based on 20+ years of refined study, practice and execution, the Design Your Best Year Ever workbook and planning guide teaches the specific system SUCCESS magazine Publisher Darren Hardy developed and used to design, execute, follow through on and achieve BIG goals.

Whatever your goals, there is a formula for planning and achieving big things in life. This system is that formula. You CAN achieve your wildest ambitions in 2010!

ONLY $24.95—includes workbook and downloadable e-book version so you can start right away! Watch a video introduction from Darren Hardy, and learn more here now!

 Design Best 10 Years