Do you want to find out how you can manage your life so that
you can be more productive, balance, and create lasting fulfillment?
Most people struggle with balance in their lives and are often
stressed when trying to manage all the different areas of life – whether
it be your career, business, finances, relationships, health, fitness,
family, friends, etc… that’s why it’s imperative to have a system that
you can follow so that you can really manage all the areas of your life
effectively and make continual progress towards where you want to be.
I have a specific system that I’ve modelled from Tony Robbins in his Time Of Your Life program – it’s called his
RPM Life Management System (RPM stands for Rapid Planning Method).
It’s really revolutionized my life in many ways, and I’ve since
modified it and created a spreadsheet (attached in this blog post) that
works well with the method.
In this blog post, I’m going to go into details about the entire
process – it will show you exactly how to create an ultimate vision,
purpose, identity, 1-year/90-day/30-day outcomes, action plans, and how
to measure yourself on a weekly basis. Not only that, but you will go
through this process and create a vision/purpose/identity for each area
of your life, which will create even more clarity to what you want in
your life and help you achieve it faster.
Your Ultimate Vision For Your Life
The first step in designing your life is to create a compelling
vision of who you’ll become and what you want your life to ultimately be
like. This is a very powerful part of the process, as your ultimate
vision is what will drive you and really excite you –
it gives you something to look forward to on a continual basis.
Without a vision, people perish.
I’ve found that what most people lack in life is a really compelling
vision. In fact, it’s not that most people are lazy or bored, it’s that
they have an impotent vision – nothing to look forward to. Without
anything to look forward to, what reason do you have to do anything?
What reason do you have to get out of bed?
In the video, you can see that I’ve used powerful language and really
described who I want to be and what I want my life to be about. The
key is to discover the right vision for you, as it’s different for
everyone.
What would really excite you? What do you want your
life to be about? If there were no limits or obstacles, what would you
want your ultimate vision to be? These are all great questions to ask yourself.
Take a moment and answer these questions. You can write it out in a journal, or you can use the
spreadsheet
that I’ve created that you can download and keep on your computer, or
keep it online using Google documents. I personally keep it online on
Google documents so that I can access it anywhere in the world, and I’m continually updating it.
Click here to download the My Life Plan spreadsheet.
- What is the ultimate vision for my life?
- What do I want my life to be about?
- If there were no limits, what would be possible for my life?
- What do I want for each area of my life?
Examples:
“To be a successful leader, coach, speaker, blogger, and internet
marketer that creates incredible products and services that makes a
difference in the lives of others worldwide.”
“To build my own foundation to help those in need.”
“To be 180 lbs at 8% body fat.”
Your Ultimate Purpose For Your Life
Your
ultimate purpose for your life is what will give you the fuel to really
go after your ultimate vision. It’s the REASONS to get yourself to
follow through – the fuel for the life.
It all starts with asking yourself, “Why do I want this?”.
For me personally, I just make a list of reasons of why I want to
achieve this vision – why I’ll do whatever it takes. You want to really
think about it, as when you want something bad enough, you will do
almost ANYTHING to make it happen. When you discover your powerful
purpose and reasons why, you’ll create ultimate leverage on yourself.
If you have a strong enough WHY, you can make anything happen.
Ask yourself these questions and get out
your spreadsheet to fill it in:
- Why do I want to fulfill this ultimate vision for my life?
- What will achieving this ultimate vision give me?
- How will achieving this ultimate vision enhance each area of my life?
- What will it cost me if I don’t make it happen? What are the ultimate consequences?
- What are my reasons for following through?
- How will I be able to help more people?
Examples:
“To be a role model and inspiration to others.”
“To be financially free – to do what I want, when I want.”
“To be happy and really live life to the fullest – to do what I was put here for.”
Your Identity
Your identity is essentially who you are and what your stand for in
your life. It’s all about how you define yourself, as your identity is
merely a sum total of your beliefs.
Human beings will do anything to remain consistent with how we define ourselves.
When you really discover who you are and begin living by it, your
entire life will change. To make your ultimate vision happen, you need
to grow and improve who you are – you need to become the type of person
that can make your dreams a reality. It all begins with defining who
that person is, who you ultimately want to be in this life.
Ask yourself these questions and get out
your spreadsheet to fill it in:
- Who am I?
- Who do I ultimately want to be in this life?
- If I were to look up my name in the dictionary, what would it say?
- If there were no limits, who would I be?
- How would I define myself?
Examples:
“I am an amazing son, brother, uncle, strategist, marketer, coach, speaker, etc…”
“I’m a mover and shaker of possibility.”
“I’m physically fit, healthy, and vibrant.”
Your Code Of Conduct
Your code of conduct are
the standards that you hold yourself to each day no matter what happens. I usually make a list of about
10
standards that I strive to live up to, which is a good reminder for
yourself to see how you’re showing up in your life. This is something
(along with the other sections of this blog post) that you can put up
around your house to remind yourself of continually.
Ask yourself these questions and get out
your spreadsheet to fill it in:
- What are the standards I want to hold myself to each day?
- What is my code of conduct?
Examples:
“To be fun, playful, and outrageous.”
“To be healthy and energetic.”
“To be an example of all the good thats possible in peoples lives.”
Your Categories Of Life For Continual Improvement
Now that you’ve discovered your ultimate vision, purpose, identity,
and code of conduct, next is to get into the specific categories of your
life. As we all know, there are categories for each areas of life that
we continually need to improve and grow. If you don’t grow, you die –
it’s as simple as that. The first step is to really identify the
different areas of your life that are important you to continually focus
on and expand.
I break life down into essentially
8 areas, but it
can vary for you depending on how many businesses you run or other areas
that are important for you to focus on. Here they are:
1. Health & Fitness
2. Emotions
3. Relationships
4. Finances
5. Career/Business
6. Family
7. Friends
8. Spiritual
You could always chunk family/friends into relationships, or change
it around – it’s totally up to you. It’s important to be flexible with
this entire process and customize it to fit your life.
It’s also important to make sure that you really make each category of your life compelling and exciting. The
way that I do that is by changing up the language so that I can
describe it in a way that sounds cooler. For example, instead of
“Health & Fitness”, I call it
“Physical Power: World Class Health And Fitness”. Which would you rather focus on? The latter sounds far more awesome to me.
Ask yourself these questions and get out
your spreadsheet to fill it in:
- What are the different areas of my life?
- Which areas of life do I need to focus on for continual improvement?
Examples:
“Emotional Power: Unlimited Juice and Vitality”
“Absolute Financial Freedom”
“Internet Marketing Freedom Facilitator”
Your Ultimate Vision For Each Category Of Your Life
Once you’ve discovered the different categories of your life, next is
to come up with an ultimate, compelling vision for each. You want to
go through the same process as described above. Also, I really
encourage you to be as specific as possible when describing your
ultimate vision.
For your health and fitness, what would your vision really be? What
would the weight be? What would your body fat % be? How would you look
in the mirror? How would you feel on a continual basis? How would you
feel when you wake up in the morning? You get the idea – but the more
questions you can ask yourself, the more specific you can be, and the
more likely you are to make it happen.
It’s also a great idea to get pictures or images that you can put
around your house, on your computer, phone, or anywhere that you can see
it on a regular basis. This will help make it more real for you and
really inspire you on a regular basis.
Ask yourself these questions and get out
your spreadsheet to fill it in:
- What is the ultimate vision for each area of my health/fitness?
- What is the ultimate vision for my emotional life?
- What is the ultimate vision for my relationships?
And so fourth, continue those questions for each area of life.
EXAMPLES:
“To be 170 lbs at 8% body fat, with unlimited energy and vibrancy throughout the day.”
“To be financially free, making $1,000,000/year passive income from my internet businesses.”
“To be in an incredible, loving, amazing, passionate relationship with the person of my dreams.”
Your Ultimate Purpose For Each Category Of Your Life
Next you’re discovering your reasons WHY and your ultimate purpose
for each category of your life. Again, repeat the same process
mentioned above. This is what will juice you and give you the
motivation to really go after what you want.
Ask yourself these questions and get out
your spreadsheet to fill it in:
- Why do I want to achieve this vision for my health/fitness?
- What will being financially free give me?
- How will having this amazing relationship enhance my life?
And so fourth, continue asking yourself these types of questions for each area of your life.
Examples:
“To be able to look in the mirror and feel proud.”
“To be able to travel the world and really enjoy my life fully.”
“To never have to worry or stress about money again.”
Your Identity For Each Category Of Your Life
Now it’s time to discover your identity and who you want to be in
each area of your life. By defining your identity and roles, you will
be more motivated and compelled to spend time in these areas. Again,
for you to achieve your ultimate vision, you need to enhance your
identity and beliefs to be the type of person that can make this vision a
reality.
If your identity for yourself is, “I’m over weight” or “I am lazy”, then how are you going to make any vision a reality?
You need to change how you define yourself, which will therefor change your behaviours and how you will show up.
Ask yourself these questions and get out
your spreadsheet to fill it in:
- Who do I want to be in the area of health/fitness?
- What’s a role or identity that will make me want to spend time in this area?
- How would I describe myself in the financial area of my life?
And so fourth, continue asking yourself these types of questions for each area of your life.
Examples:
“I’m a lean, mean, fat-burning machine.”
“I’m an agent of transformation.”
“I’m a creator of the good life.”
Your 1-Year/90-Day/30-Day Outcomes
Now that we’ve covered the higher purpose stuff, it’s time to really
focus on your specific goals and outcomes for each area of your life.
For setting any goal or outcome, you want to make sure you’re as
specific as possible and each goal has a deadline. For example, you
wouldn’t want to have your goal be, “I want to lose weight.” That’s not
clear at all – how much weight would that be? 1 lbs? 10 lbs? 50 lbs?
Clarity is power.
I usually set 1-year outcomes, 90-day outcomes, then 30-day outcomes.
Sometimes if your goals are too distant it becomes easy to
disassociate from them. That’s why having long-term and short-term
goals are important. You also want to break down each goal. For
example, if your 1-year outcome is to make $100,000 year, perhaps your
90-day outcome would be to make $80,000 a year, and then your 30-day
outcome be to make $60,000 a year. Get it?
Ask yourself these questions and get out
your spreadsheet to fill it in:
- What are my 1-year outcomes in each area of my life?
- What are my 90-day outcomes in each area of my life?
- What are my 30-day outcomes in each area of my life?
Examples:
“I will make $100,000 a year passive income by December 31, 2013.”
“I will be 180 lbs at 8% body fat and have unlimited energy by December 31, 2013.”
“I will spend quality time with each member of my family at least once a week by December 31, 2013.”
Your Action Plan
Once you’ve discovered your goals and outcomes, next you need to
discover the specific actions you need to take to make them a reality.
What would be the plan that, if you followed it, would guarantee that
these goals become a reality? This is essentially the steps, the
strategy, to reaching your destination. Again, you want to be specific
with this. Don’t just say, “I need to workout.” Instead, your actions
should be, “Workout 3x a week”.
Ask yourself these questions and get out
your spreadsheet to fill it in:
- What is my action plan for making these goals a reality?
- What steps would I have to take?
Examples:
“Do research on which niche or market to get into.”
“Run for 30-minutes, 3 times per week on the treadmill.”
“Call each member of my family once a week.”
Measuring Your Progress On A Weekly Basis
We’re almost finished! First, I want to congratulate you for making
it this far. If you actually went through this process and answered
these questions for your life,
you have a specific plan for your life that 99.9% of the planet doesn’t.
You’re ahead of the game. It amazes me how many people have no idea
what they want for their lives. But, you now do – you have a plan, a
future, something to strive for. Congratulations, you have my respect.
Once you have clarity and all the information set up, the rest becomes easy.
The final step is to make sure that you have a regular ritual of checking in and measuring each area of your life.
For me, going through this process and reading my vision, purpose,
goals, etc… every week works best. The more often you can measure
something, the better – it will help remind you of what’s really
important in your life and why you’re doing what you do.
As I said, the key piece is to make sure you’re measuring yourself on a regular basis. As I said in the video,
progress is the goal (not perfection)
– it’s what will make you very happy and fulfilled. And you must be
growing and making progress in each area of your life, otherwise you’re
dying.
In the
spreadsheet,
I have a certain section where you can add the date for the week and
then simply rate yourself on a scale from 0-10 in each area of your
life. This is a good way to measure yourself by giving yourself a
regular rating, so that you can see which areas are lacking and which
ones are strong. If some areas are falling behind, all you need to do
is put more focus into it for the following week.
Where focus goes, energy flows.
You can’t manage something if you don’t measure it.
The more often you measure each area of your life, the better. For
example, I always make sure I’m measuring my weight and body fat every
week. The same goes with my finances and where my spending is going.
Without measuring on a regular basis, how do you really know if you’re
progressing or not? You don’t. That’s why this has to become a MUST.
Putting This System In Action
We’ve come to the end of this massive blog post. It’s crucial to
make sure that you follow through and go through each of these steps –
you deserve it for your life. It will give you the direction that most
people lack. Not only that, but it will give you an edge over yourself
and others. Think about how much better your life will be by having
this system in place? How you will have more motivation, be more
productive, and more fulfilled?
Once you have everything set up, it’s imperative to make sure that
you implement a weekly ritual to review things and make any
modifications. Again, it goes back to the measuring piece. One of the
biggest mistakes people make in society is they set their goals or
outcomes for their life on New Years, and then they literally forget
about it… the next time they check in is usually the year after, which
is ridiculous. Don’t fall into this mistake.
There was an interesting study done at Yale University where they
surveyed their students about goal setting. Guess what they found out?
Only 3% of their students had set goals for their lives.
Isn’t that crazy? But here’s the crazier part – they followed up with
the students 20 years later and discovered that the 3% that had set
goals were much happier, more confident, and lived much more fulfilling
lives. But that’s subjective, right? Here’s something more specific -
the 3% of students had a net worth that was worth more than the entire 97% of students combined. Isn’t that staggering? THAT is the power of this – the power of having a life plan.
Give yourself this gift. It will change your life. If you have any
questions, post them below by posting a comment. Or, if you’d like to
share your vision or goals, I’d love to see them! Feel free to share.
One last thing! If you want to learn more about this, I recommend
Tony Robbins Time Of Your Life program, which goes into everything in much more detail.
Taken from www.projectlifemastery.com
