David & Sharleen: For the Life You Love

Eric Rothermel

Now, you know what you need to focus on. You know what your life will cost. Your job now is to sit down and make the plan. If you want to be making another thousand dollars a month by the end of the year, you need to know how many customers that takes. And if you're employed, just translate that to how much overtime, or what side gig will pay it? Maybe you can look at what you can do without? Maybe you've got a $50 a week Starbucks habit. That's $2600 a year. Maybe that's the vacation you want to take. Or maybe just drop one day of Starbucks a week. That's $520 right there.

Maybe you want to lose twenty pounds. Can you take on a ten minute walk three times a week? Would you be okay skipping dessert, or not eating after 6:30, or just getting enough sleep? Any of these could make a big difference.

At this point in time, it's about scheduling the small wins into your day. I'll leave you with a little wisdom from Jim Rohn:

• A few errors in judgment, repeated every day >> accumulated disaster
• A few simple disciplines, practiced every day >> untold riches

And if you want help setting yourself up to win, that's what we're here for.

This is the last post in this series, if you want to be on the regular list:

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Gemma Evans

Today's assignment is pretty simple:

1. Write down a list of your top twenty five goals in life. Include here things you are already achieving, like raising your kids.
2. Circle the top five.
3. Now consider the other twenty. And then forget them.

These are your distractions. These are the things that will keep you from having what you want. To these you must say no, that is if you want to achieve the top five.

Didier Weemaels

We'll start with Ben's suggestion: name one thing you can invest in that will amplify each category, figure out what it costs. Go look it up if you have to. Then total it up.

Now, if you're like some of my readers, you might just be saying to yourself, “But Dave, I don't know how I'm supposed to pay what I've got to pay right now.” And maybe you don't really know what your current life costs.

Now try this on. You go to the bank, you ask the clerk how much is in your account, and he says, “Well, that's a good question. I'll have to look into that. Why don't you swing by this afternoon? I should be able to figure it out by then.”

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Here's the thing: If you don't know what you want, how are you going to get it? How are you going to know if you won your game this year? And if you want to win your game, you might want a coach to help you do that. And if you can't afford a personal coach, at least find yourself a mentor, even if he's virtual, even if he's dead. One of my gurus is Ben Adkins who, fortunately, is among the living.

I've been growing as I've been watching him grow. He does this annual Better Life Sequence call. It's been getting simpler and simpler. He's been getting more to the point, and making it simpler and simpler to take the first steps.

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Kelly Jean

So, dear friends, I've been doing a lot of my own work around creating 2018, and have taken a little time to get a better perspective. I've spoken to my coach, taken actions I would not have otherwise, and already have broken promises to clean up. I've listened again to Jim Rohn's Best Year Ever. I've shared some of his ideas with my youngest son, and seen my second take on a daily reflection before he goes to bed. And finally, or perhaps most recently, I've listened to Ben Adkin's Better Life Sequence for 2018, which I'll come back to in the next few days.

For now, we want to really get 2017 behind us and complete, and we are going to do this by working with our promises:

• Make a list of the daily/weekly promises you made in 2017. Feel free to include things like brushing your teeth, getting your kids out in the morning, walking the dog, getting to work or the gym, doing the weekly reports. Don't worry if you missed a few days. You still have your teeth, and you are the kind of person who brushes. Acknowledge that. And if you need someone else to say thank you, ask for them to. Acknowledge where you fell short. If it affected or had to do with someone else, clean it up with them.
• Take a look at where your partner, family, or friends have kept their promises to you. Reach out and say thank you.
• Make a list of the big promises, to yourself or others. This could include getting to the gym, taking a vacation, getting a raise or the new job.
• Acknowledge yourself for the steps you took and the wins you racked up.
• Now for each promise to yourself that you did not keep, ask yourself if it is one you want to keep. Maybe you said it because it sounded right or good, but it's really not who you are. Let those go. And if it's one that you do want to renew, write it down for 2018. And if you made promises to yourself that are really about others (like to earn enough so your wife doesn't have to worry), share those with the affected parties and get them complete as well.
• For each promise to another that you did not keep, first note if it was one you really should have made. Sometimes we knew we wouldn't the minute we promised. Either way, reach out to the people affected and clean it up. If there is a new promise to make, make it, but only if you intend to keep it. For those you knew you shouldn't have made, you want to start looking at what you can bring in 2018 so that you stop doing this.

The important thing here is to get free. If you acknowledge it and get it complete, you won't let these be a drag on you going forward.

That's it, and should give you enough work for the weekend. We'll be back next week.