Break Free Tip of the Month
From the desk of Terry Taylor, Your Recipe For Living CoachSeptember, 2010 |
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| Greetings! |
Terry Taylor |
SEPTEMBER'S BREAK FREE TIP focuses on four steps for freeing yourself from the things that are less important to you so you can be sure to do the things that are most important to you. I'd love to hear how these steps work for you - feel free to email me at Terry@YourRecipeForLivingCoach.com or post a comment on my Break Free Blog at www.yourrecipeforlivingcoach.com. |
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Do Only What Is Most Important To You - There's No Time For Anything Else
| Live your life so that at the end of each day you can say,
- "I had a wonderful day today - I did what I really wanted to do," rather than
- "What! So soon! I still haven't done anything I really wanted to do today!"
This way, you can end each day with a feeling of fulfillment, rather than regret. You can start each new day with anticipation, rather than dread. And you can say at the end of your life, "I had a wonderful life - I did what I really wanted to do."
HERE'S HOW TO GET STARTED:
1. Treasure your time. Start caring about how you spend your time. Stop wasting your time spending your days without a plan and just doing whatever happens to come up. Stop mistaking being busy for being productive.
2. Know what's important to you. Start taking time to think about the things that are most important to you. Stop telling yourself you don't have the time! If you don't take the time to think about what's most important in your life, you won't know what's most important in your life - so you won't do what's most important in your life. Put the things that are most important to you in writing. Write them as they come to mind, in no particular order. Just get them written down so they are accessible to you whenever you want them.
3. Discover what you love to do. Don't let yourself get off easy by telling yourself you just want to "help others." You end up letting other people direct your life and substituting the things they want you to do for what you want to do. A meaningful, fulfilling life replaces "duty" and "random acts of kindness" with "purposeful acts of passionate value creation."
What is your passion? What do you love to do? Education pioneer Marva Collins stood up to the entire Chicago public school system because she was passionate about education. She sees learning as a way for human beings to get control of - and improve - their lives. She helps children learn and teachers teach because she is passionate about discovering the best ways to learn and the best ways to impart learning to others.
What do you feel passionate about? Some people discover their passion at a very young age. Some people have many passions, and they have to narrow them down. If you don't yet know what your passion is, it's time to do some soul searching and expose yourself to a wider variety of experiences in order to find something that stirs you up and sets your mind aglow - something that would give your life meaning and fulfillment.
Meanwhile, pick something that you already have an interest in or love doing - and get started. That will lead to more life experiences along the lines of what you already love. Along the way you may discover your passion - or you may discover that you are already following your passion.
4. Prioritize! Prioritize! Prioritize! I can't say it enough. Start right now to make your priority lists.
- Divide the things that are most important to you into three lists: - Your Values, Your Goals, and Your Plans
- Prioritize: Put your Values in their proper pecking order. For example, here are five values: - Developing good character traits in myself
- Supporting myself with meaningful, enjoyable work
- Making music
- Developing a romantic relationship
- Being a topnotch parent
- Prioritize: Put your Goals in their proper pecking order. For example, here are five goals, one for each of the above values: - Study people I admire
- Discover the kinds of work that would challenge and excite me
- Learn to play the fiddle
- Associate with people, groups and organizations that interest me
- Observe, take courses, and read books to study the best way to help a child develop into a healthy, happy adult.
- Prioritize: Put your Plans for each goal in their proper pecking order. For example, here is a three-step plan to implement goal "c" to learn to play the fiddle:
- Buy a second-hand student fiddle
- Find a good fiddle teacher
- Make my first appointment
5. Plan your first baby steps.- Pick Your Most Important Value. (Examples: Freedom, Dancing, Corporate Problem Solving)
- Select a Goal that is based on that Value. (Examples: Write editorials, Find a good dance coach, Form a Corporate Problem Solving Consulting business)
- Plan the first few steps you will take to get there. (Examples: Write my first editorial, visit four ballet schools, make a business plan)
You can have as many values, goals and plans as you want, but, as you know, your time is limited.
Pick the most important ones and concentrate on them first. For each Value, you can have several Goals, and for each Goal you can plan as many steps as is necessary to get you there.
Having do-able steps that are tied to you most important goals and values gives you the peace of mind that every day you are doing the things that are most important to you. This sustains your motivation and enables you to do your best work. And that is the way to live the most meaningful, happy, fulfilling life.
If you live in a civilized society, you can trade your best work for the best work of others. That way you can benefit from the personal passions of other people as well as your own. Scientists, inventors, and artists all follow their curiosity and passion and what is the result? You have access to life-saving medicine, labor-saving tools, and music to delight your soul.
The Wright Brothers followed their passion for flight and lifted us into the skies with their airplane. Thomas Edison followed his curiosity about electricity and invented the light bulb that lit up the world. Bill Gates a followed his passion for computers and invented the personal computer that enabled us all to be in touch with the world. The Founding Fathers followed their passion for freedom and gave us a nation free from the tyranny of religious clerics and secular kings.
Each of these human beings strove to learn, to invent, to create, and to produce something they felt deeply about. They loved the subject matter, the challenge, and the discovery. They valued knowledge as vital to the enhancement of human life. Their drive didn't come from a duty to "help others" with whatever momentary situation happened to crop up - if that had been their focus, they would never have had the time to pursue their passion. By pursuing their own personal passions they created things that enhanced human life and made this a better world to live in for themselves - and for us all.
You don't have to be a Thomas Edison to live a meaningful, fulfilling life. You just have to discover what is most enjoyable to you, what fascinates you, or what you would love most to do in your life - and then pursue it to whatever level it takes you. And then you will love living your life. |
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Always here to make your days more delicious,
Terry
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Terry Jean Taylor
Your Recipe For Living Coach, LLC
A
passionate motivational speaker and life coach with a new
reality-based, no-nonsense approach, Terry Taylor is the designer of a
unique strategy for reaching your goals and loving your life. A personal
counselor for over thirty years, Terry has helped women in all walks of
life break free from the contradictions in their beliefs that lead to
conflict, confusion, and guilt. Her CD program - 8 Steps For Reclaiming Your Life From Conflict, Confusion And The Control Of Others - is available at www.yourrecipeforlivingcoach.com, where you can also learn about her upcoming book, This Is Your Life: No Apology Needed.
Your are receiving this because you signed up for Terry's Break Free Tips. |
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