I often get told by people “Tony, I’m confused” or “I don’t know what to do with my life” or the ever popular “I’m not sure what I want”. Here are two exercises that should help you get clarity and focus. You can do both or pick whichever one looks best to you. The exercises are from the works of Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, and Bill McKeown.
Exercise 1: (A special thank you to Bill McKeown for this exercise)
I want you to go into a quiet room where you won’t be disturbed and for fifteen minutes I want you to write out everything you want to be, do, and have. Really run wild with this. Image that you had no limitations. Pretend that I gave you a magic wand and you could have everything you wanted from life. What would your life look like? How would you look? Where would you live? What would you do? Write non-stop for the entire 15 minutes. Take more time if necessary but don’t stop for at least fifteen minutes.
After you have this new image of your ideal life, it’s time to come up with a plan to make it a reality. Write out the steps it would take for you to begin bridging the gap between where you are now and where you would like to be. It’s okay if you don’t know all the steps. Just write as much as you can.
Now that you know what you want, and know the steps to take, it’s time to begin taking action on your plan. I’ve found that as you begin to take action, amazing new opportunities arise to bring you what you want, often in ways you couldn’t have possibly imagined. The main thing is that you begin taking action.
Now that you have this new image and plan for your life, I want you to spend a few minutes every day visualizing that you have your ideal life now. This impresses this new image upon your subconscious, which controls things like your habits and beliefs, and it will go to work on making it a reality for you. Also, under the Law of Attraction, this new vibration that you are putting out will begin attracting your new life towards you.
Exercise 2: This exercise is a combination of Anthony Robbins and Brian Tracy. Just as in Exercise 1, you are to go into a quiet room where you won’t be disturbed. Now for five minutes I want you to list all of your personal development goals. This could be things such as; bench press 300lbs, start teaching classes, tell my wife I love her, write my book, eat better, lose thirty pounds, begin taking karate lessons, whatever it is you want! Give yourself unlimited freedom! Pretend that you had no restrictions on you, that you could really have whatever it is you want. You could even think that you had a magic wand that could grant all of your heart’s desires.
Next to each personal development goal, you are to write a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 20, etc… indicating how many years you plan to reach each goal in. You’re to then circle your most important one-year personal development goal. Next, “Take two minutes to write a paragraph as to why you’re absolutely committed to achieving this goal within one year.” What will you gain by achieving this goal? What will you miss out on if you don’t achieve it?
I now want you to spend 5 minutes writing out your career, business, and economic goals. How much money do you want to make in the next year? Ten years? Your life? Do you want to be financially independent? Do you want to be a millionaire? Billionaire? What are your career goals? “What professional breakthroughs do you want to make?”
Now I want you to do as you did before and put a timeline on each one of these goals; 1,2,3,4,5,10, 20, etc… and pick the number one one-year goal for this area. Next, write a paragraph explaining why you’re absolutely committed to achieving this goal within one year. What will you gain by achieving this goal? What will you miss out on if you don’t achieve it?
I now want you to spend 5 minutes writing out your toy/adventure goals. What toys do you want to own? (yacht, car, etc…) What adventures do you want to go on? Do you want to travel? Go on safari? Cruise around in the tropics? Do you want to own your own castle? Jet? Island? Write out everything you want from this area now.
Now I want you to do as you did before and put a timeline on each one of these goals; 1,2,3,4,5,10, 20, etc… and pick the number one one-year goal for this area. Now write a paragraph explaining why you’re absolutely committed to achieving this goal within one year. What will you gain by achieving this goal? What will you miss out on if you don’t achieve it?
This brings us to your contribution goals. How are you going to give back? Are you going to dedicate your time, money, or love? Will you donate money to feed orphans? Build an orphanage in Mexico? Start a clothing drive for homeless people? Spend five minutes writing these goals out and then give yourself a timeline for committing each of these goals. Choose your number one one-year goal and write a paragraph explaining why you’re absolutely committed to achieving this goal within one year. What will you gain by achieving this goal? What will you miss out on if you don’t achieve it?
“At least twice a day, you must rehearse and emotionally enjoy the experience of achieving each one of your most highly valued goals. Now every time you do this, you need to create more emotional joy as you see, feel, and hear yourself living your dream.”
Additional Exercise For added “oomph!” you can also do this exercise by Brian Tracy. Get a blank spiral bound notebook and everyday write out your top ten goals WITHOUT looking at the previous day’s goals. This causes you to become REALLY clear on what it is you want. On some days some of your minor goals might change but overall you’ll start to get a very clear idea of what your important goals are. I feel like this exercise super charges your goals and sense of direction.
When writing your goals for this last exercise make sure they start with “I am” followed by the action you are going to take and a date they’ll be completed by. For instance, “I am driving my blue BMW 330I by January 31st, 2010” would be a good example of how to write one of your goals. Make sure to write your goals in the positive! Your subconscious mind cannot comprehend sentences such as “I am not smoking by January 31st, 2010” or “I am not overeating by December 1st, 2010”. Goals like that send the picture of you smoking or overeating to your subconscious. Instead list what you would like to happen “I am smoke free by January 31st, 2010” or “I am eating three balanced meals a day by December 1st, 2010”.
So there you have it! You have a proven means for deciding on what you want and how to get it. Take the time now to do these exercises. You owe it to yourself and those around you to enrich your life!
*Quoted areas come from Anthony Robbins’ book, “Awaken the Giant Within”
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