Imagine the
way you want your life to be in five years time:
More Money?
More Time?
Excellent
Health?
More Fun?
More Love?
More
Connection?
Better
Relationships?
More
Intimacy?
Less Work?
Less
Stress?
Less
Uncertainty?
More
Passion?
More
Energy?
More
Creativity?
More
Freedom?
More Joy?
More
Abundance?
Add your own desires to the list:
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This book is
all about taking you from where you are now to where you want to be.
Only you can decide what your Perfect Lifestyle will be, and only you
can plan for it and make it happen. You need to realize that you can and
will have the lifestyle you choose. Often we have been taught to react
to what life throws at us rather than to be proactive and make life
happen the way we want it to. Most of us have been socialized and
educated to believe we cannot break out of what society and our peer
group says is the norm. For this reason when we read a statement like:
I can have
any lifestyle I choose.
- We dont
believe it. If this is your reaction I recommend putting this statement
in a prominent place on your wall or on a card by your bed and repeat it
aloud two to three times a day.
This will
re-program your mind to accept that you can achieve your Perfect
Lifestyle. What usually holds us back the most is our own beliefs about
what we can achieve. There literally is no limit to what your life can
be. Anyone can plan to have a great lifestyle. I wish I had read a book
like this when I was a teenager. But whatever your age, today is the day
to start planning for a better life.
What
lifestyle do you want?
Everyone is
different, and no one can tell you what your Perfect Lifestyle can be.
Sure, use your friends, your parents and your colleagues as a sounding
board, but dont allow anyone to narrow your focus or undermine your
dreams.
First, you
have to dream. You probably already daydream about how you would like to
live. If not, allow yourself to dream and dream big dreams. Having big
dreams and big plans is crucial when you are getting ready to create
your Perfect Lifestyle. If you plan for a mediocre and just-get-by
lifestyle, that is what you will achieve. If you have a huge and
passionate plan, you will almost certainly achieve a huge and passion-
filled lifestyle. Dont follow the crowd or allow yourself to be
squeezed into a mould that has been made for you by others
expectations.
Here are two
quotes I love:
If you never
dream, you can never have a dream come true. - Anonymous
Your dreams
are your real job. - Joyce Spizer
A Note of
Caution
Lives that
achieve greatness always require sacrifice. Think about anyone who has
made a huge positive impact on the world. Their life involved sacrifice.
Examples
include:
Mother Teresa
Martin Luther King Gandhi
A friend of
mine wrote me this recently:
Melanae grew
up in Karlsruhe a beautiful city in southern Germany. It is located in
one of the richest parts of southern Europe only a short drive from
Switzerland. The city is full of quaint cafes and castles, and it is
surrounded by beautiful vineyards and the Black Forest. When I first met
her she had a successful career and a great social life, but she was
bored and lacked vision or purpose.
Now Melanae
lives in "Crackland", a desperate urban hell in Sao Paulo, a vast city
of 20 million people in Brazil. Crackland got its name from the many
street children that live on its mean streets who are addicted to crack
cocaine. One time when I was there, I saw a child that looked to be only
5 or 6 years old smoking crack curled up in a little ball on the filthy
street.
Melanie now
goes out with a team every week looking to rescue as many kids as she
can. She shows Gods love to these lost street kids, giving them medical
attention, food and a safe place to sleep. When I saw Melanae after she
had been working in Sao Paulo for almost two years, she was transformed.
She has never looked more beautiful, so happy, so full of purpose and
meaning. She has never been so alive because she has found her mission
and her destiny.
Because the
steps to creating a fantastic lifestyle are generic, you can use this
book to create whatever lifestyle you choose. However if you choose to
create a lifestyle that is built around getting more for yourself and
not contributing, you risk missing out on what is most important:
contentment, peace, abundance and love.
While you set
about creating your Perfect Lifestyle, think about the ways you can use
your talents and passions to make the world a better place. Remember
that the people who achieve most usually make the biggest sacrifices.
"Great
achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result
of selfishness." - Napoleon Hill
Dreaming Big
When it comes
to planning your Perfect Lifestyle, it is too easy to fall into the trap
of thinking small and dreaming small. This is a serious mistake.
Remember you are about to plan the life of your dreams. This is not a
time to be conservative or shy.
This is the
time to be imagining the best possible life for yourself and those
around you.
Here are some
examples of small dreams and big dreams:
Dreaming
Small
To have a
debt free house.
To travel
business class.
To help the
homeless in my neighbourhood.
To own my own
business.
To give
$5,000 a year to charity.
To have happy
healthy children.
To have 80%
of my present income when I retire.
To have a
steady career.
To be happy
to wait until something better comes along.
To do the
best I can in my job and support aid organizations with any excess cash.
Dreaming Big
To have a
beautiful, large debt free house with an acre of land and stables, right
by the sea.
To own my own
jet.
To help the
homeless in the whole country.
To own my own
business and earn $200,000 a year within four years and never work
weekends.
To give
$100,000 a year to charity
To have happy
healthy children who achieve great things and leave a positive mark on
the world.
To retire at
45 with a passive income of over $500,000 per year.
To be the
best person in my organization and to continually think about and
suggest ways of improving what we do.
To achieve my
dreams by actively looking and trying new things.
To do
whatever I can to make the world a better place and eradicate hunger and
poverty in the poorest places in the world.
Questionnaire
One of the
most important parts of this book is the following questionnaire. If you
are serious about creating your Perfect Lifestyle, I recommend you
complete this section. The questionnaire is only for your benefit. The
answers will help you define your goals in order to perfect your
lifestyle.
Questionnaire
1. What score
out of 10 would you give your life today if a score of 10 means that you
have achieved your perfect life?
_____________________________________________________________________
(If your
score is 4 or below you need a radical lifestyle change.)
2. What would
need to change in your life for you to be able to get a score of 10?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
3. What three
things do you most want to achieve in the next year?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
4. What three
things do you most want to achieve in your life?
____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
5. Imagine yourself at 85 years old looking back on your life. What sort
of life would you like to be looking back on? Adventure? Success?
Prosperity? Joy? Health?
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
6. In ten years from now, what annual income would you like (remember to
dream big)?
$
_____________________________________________________________________
7. If you had
a lot more time and a lot more money than you needed, what would you
like to do to help others and make the world a better place?
_____________________________________________________________________
8. What steps
could you take right now (TODAY) to take you towards what you have
written down for points 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (New job? More education? Making
investments? Learning a language? Setting goals?)
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Action
Step 1:
Read back
over your answers and make notes in the space below on thoughts that
have come to mind while you completed the questionnaire. If it has been
a long time since you thought about the direction of your life, these
thoughts and ideas will be invaluable in the weeks to come.