Take Charge of Your Life – 10 Tested and Trusted Ways
We continue in the series, Take Charge! This week, let’s find out how you can take charge of your life!
I have been thinking lately and some profound thoughts came to me and I would like to share it with you today. Here it is…..
If you knew how much you have left in your life, what would you do today?
I know this is one of the questions we are all scared to ask ourselves but because life is real, it is critical that we ask and answer this question. This is the only way we will have any chance to make our life worth it.
Before I go ahead, let me share a couple of ways the answers could go…
One is, if you have a short time to live, you will wake up today and take charge of your life and stop procrastinating or hiding behind your never-ending excuses.
On the other hand, if you have so many more years to live, then you WILL also wake up and take charge of your life because if you don’t then, you will end up a disaster; sick body, bank account and relationships.
Now you can agree with me that whichever way you answer this question, it is extremely important that you take charge of your life today. Let us find out how…
1. Wake Up & Take Responsibility!
This is your one and only life and you have no other chance to live it!
This is the unfortunate truth, your chance to make it groundbreaking is now, today, so wake up! Recognise that excuses, no matter how valid they are, will never help you to take charge of your life.
Irrespective of your life’s experience, situation or status, things will only change when you take responsibility. Don’t blame the government, your employers, background, sex, colour, other people etc. Life is too short to count all the valid excuses.
All of us have a fundamental responsibility of taking charge of our own life and when we are on track we can then help others. So see your life as number one responsibility and take charge of it. You and only you can make it happen for yourself.
So stop waiting to be chosen, choose yourself. Stop waiting to be reminded, wake up and take charge of your life…..
2. Make a Decision
After taking responsibility, you must then decide what you want out of life.
Sit down and think about this, how would you like your life’s story to be written? I cannot answer this for you as it varies for all of us individually. But whatever it is for you, create goals to help you get there.
Write your goals down and place them where you can see them everyday. Make them as clear as possible so that anybody can read and understand it. Write a date against each of the targets so you have something to work towards and deadlines.
3. Make a List of Stumbling Blocks
What are the thing that have challenged you in the journey of living a great life? Finance, bad habits like procrastination, laziness and foolishness etc?
Make a list of them. Remember that, if you cannot identify a problem, the solution is almost impossible.
I am sure that you will agree with me that these are your enemies so treat them accordingly. Having a list of them means that when you notice them, you will take immediate action to stop them before they stop you again.
Ask people you trust about the things you need to improve on, they will be happy to tell you.
4. Create Strategy
How will you tackle the problems in 3 above? Research and read lots of books especially autobiographies from the past to help you craft a strategy to tackle these problems.
What disciplines do you need to learn to achieve your goals? It may be that you need to take some new courses, join masterminds, get mentors or join associations. You may even need to read inspiring blogs or watch YouTube videos.
Your aims and dreams will drive this processes. It will be different for all of us.
5. Draw up a Plan
Make a list of all you dream to achieve, the tasks involved in achieving these and timing around them. It doesn’t matter if you do not hit your targets, so make sure that the targets are ambitious.
Remember, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
Place this plan where you can see it everyday to remind yourself and cross off completed tasks as you progress. Be willing to re-plan when things take longer or shorter than you initially planned. This is very likely to happen as in life most things do not go according to plan. Sometimes quicker sometimes slower, so embrace it.
6. Identify Who You Need
The great scientist, Sir Isaac Newton once wrote,
“If I have seen a little further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
Look around you, who is it that is doing and succeeding in the things you want to have success in? Approach them and ask for help or even become an apprentice. And be willing to accept “no” as part of the process and the fuel to the ultimate destination.
Research, LinkedIn, Facebook groups, Twitter and associations to seek out people with common who can help. From experience, most successful people are willing but most times, people are scared to approach them. I once email Seth Godin, the marketing guru, and to my greatest surprise, he replied. Not with many lines but he replied.
Try it and let me know how you get on.
7. Work Your Strategy
Then go to work relentlessly. Make no mistakes, it will not be easy, it has never been easy else so many others would have achieved it. Remember, you are planning to make yourself extra-ordinary, so be ready to do extra-ordinary things.
You may need to give up certain things and you may need to start doing certain things. It will be hard but if it helps you achieve your dreams and take charge of your life, then it is 100% worth it.
Work the dream, work the goals, work the strategy and the plans…. And determine never to give up”
8. Celebrate Your Little Wins
As I have mentioned earlier, this journey is not easy, so as you progress, take every opportunity to celebrate any successes. Irrespective of how little the wins may be, celebrating it will help motivate you to keep going.
Regularly review your goals to spot the successes and monitor progress. Tick them off as you journey on. Every little counts as Darren Hardy points out in his Best Selling book, The Compound effect, it is a combination of these small wins that will form the huge success you ultimately desire, so they are all worth celebrating.
9. Review and Continue to Improve
I will be excited to see you at this stage, when you have achieved some success and seeking ways to step up your game. Over the years, I have learnt that there is no such thing as a stable place or level in life, you are either going UP or DOWN!
When you have achieved some success, it is critical that you look back, review and continuously improve to keep growing. In this process, you will discover that there are some areas that need improvement.
When you find them, spend some time studying to understand these better and seek help if you need it. It may be that you need to acquire some new skills through coaching, reading, watching videos, mentoring or association. Whatever it takes, go for it and then repeat these steps.
10. Help others to Take Charge of Their Life
Thank you for reading this far. This step is one of the most important. When you have mastered the steps to take charge of your life, look around you and be available to those who are still struggling to get their lives on track.
Become a coach, teacher, mentor, speaker etc… Try in whatever way you can to help others.
Not only does this help create a ripple effect to help millions take charge of their lives, it is also a way to keep using what you have learned in this process. As you know, what you don’t use, you loose.
I look forward to hearing your good news. Feel free to add whatever I missed out in the comments and please share with any of your friends who will benefit from this message.
Remember, it is your life, One life to live so…. Take Charge of your life!!
To your success!