yourself and your life slightly differently. I’d like you to stand back for a moment and see the bigger picture before you get down to some of the finer details of how you want to transform your life. I want you to allow yourself the space – and creativity – to see your life from a broader perspective.
It’s an incredibly useful experience every once in a while to lift yourself out of the day-to-day pressures of your life and to look at things from a different vantage point. The benefits might not be immediately apparent, but stick with it – as you progress through the book your answers to some of these early questions could well prove to be invaluable to you! Take some time now to answer the following questions:
Life Perspective Questions
If you were totally financially independent and money wasn’t an issue for you, how would you spend your time? Be as specific as you can and write down what you would spend your time doing.
Now consider your current life. The chances are it’s hectic and complicated. Life is like that. Most of us are so busy, we rarely have time to think, let alone make long-term plans. Your days are probably jam-packed full of work, chores, dashing from A to ? and back again. Perhaps you get up, dash madly around the house preparing for the day, drop the children off at school, commute to work, rush through your day-to-day tasks, pop out for shopping at lunchtime, maybe squeeze in a brief workout or hour with friends, and before you know it the day is over, only for you to repeat the whole process the next day. This probably isn’t the way you want to live your life, is it? To help you find the time – and energy – to make changes, let’s start by examining what your life currently looks like.
The Wheel of Life
The eight sections of the Wheel of Life represent a balanced wheel. Take the centre or hub of the wheel as 0 (totally dissatisfied) and the outer edge as 10 (totally satisfied). Rank your level of satisfaction with each area of your life by putting a cross on the relevant spoke. Draw a line to join the crosses together.
How balanced does the shape of your wheel look? Which of the areas of your life are you currently happy with? Where do you want to make improvements? (You might want to refer back to this wheel when you answer the questions at the end of this step.)
Jim Rohn
The Wheel of Life
As you begin to transform your life there are a variety of personal qualities I’d like you to develop to help make your transition into the next phase of your life as smooth as possible.
Take a look at the statements below and out of 10 rank yourself to indicate which of the two descriptions is nearest to the truth for you at the moment.
Select the qualities you want to work on.
Take Responsibility for your Life
We each hold our life in the palm of our hand. What we think, say and do from one minute to the next can have a dramatic impact on our own lives and the lives of those around us. At the end of the day we are all personally responsible for our own life – and to a great degree, it’s up to us to choose what we do with it. Accepting full responsibility for your life is the starting-point in the 10-step process. When you accept that you create your own world, your life really can open up before you. At times it can be tempting to blame other people or circumstances for what happens, but when you do this essentially you’re disempowering yourself, which doesn’t really get you anywhere. As your coach, I want you to choose to accept responsibility for all that happens to you in your life from now on – good or bad, positive or negative. Whilst you can’t determine the behaviour of those around you or influence natural disasters or acts of God, you can choose how you react to them. I want you to acknowledge that your behaviour is the result of your own choice.
Develop a Strong Sense of Personal Integrity & Honesty
Life becomes significantly easier when you’re able to live honestly with yourself When you fully master this quality, few things can really threaten you. You’ll find you have fewer problems and possess an innate sense of inner peace and calm. When you know and accept yourself for who you are as a person and are genuinely giving of your best, you don’t have to waste your time and energy trying to be anything else.
Being ‘in integrity’ means not only accepting responsibility for your actions, but also being true to yourself, having self-respect and taking good care of all aspects of your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual being. Are you doing the best for yourself and your body? Are you stressed out? Are you eating and/or drinking too much? Are you running on adrenalin? Are you overlooking problems? Are you avoiding telling the truth? Are you not taking
