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Unfortunately, discovering your life’s purpose and generating a plan to achieve it won’t necessarily lead you to success. Sorry, but you have to actually take positive action steps in order to get to where you want to go with your life.

In Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich!, he provides a list of six definite, practical actions that need to be performed in order to start you on the road to success. These actions aren’t difficult. In fact, they are very easy to do (well, most of them are) and provide you with an excellent vision of what you want to achieve, when you want to achieve it by, and how you plan on getting there.

The six actions that Napoleon Hill lists in his book are focused on achieving financial success, but they could be used to achieve any definable goal, like painting your first picture, taking your first solo vacation overseas, selling your first article or e-book, etc.

The six actions are:

1. define the exact amount of money (or the exact goal) that you desire;
2. determine exactly what you intend to give or sacrifice in order to achieve your desired goal (a sacrifice could be anything from money required to pay for lessons, or spending time researching and writing an article rather than watching tv or spending time with friends);
3. pick a specific date that you want to achieve the goal you defined in step 1. Don’t just state that you want to achieve your goal within one year — pick a specific day, month and year that you want to achieve your goal by;
4. develop an exact plan that outlines how you will achieve your goal. No step is too small to be included in this plan, for example, if you need to find a phone number include “Locate XXX’s phone number” as one of the steps. The steps in this plan should begin from ‘NOW’, even if you aren’t ready to begin. Include all the steps you need to take in order to become ready to work towards your goal;
5. write steps 1 through 4 out in a clear, concise statement. This statement will include your exact goal, the exact date you want to achieve your goal by, exactly what you plan to sacrifice in order to achieve your goal, how you plan to achieve your goal, and will be written in the present tense, as if you have already achieved your goal. Use emotional and descriptive language in this statement. Draw on all of your senses to see, hear, feel, taste, and feel the touch of your goal. The more emotional, the more descriptive your statement it, the more powerful it becomes;
6. read this written statement out loud twice every day. Read with emotion, as if you have already achieved your goal.

Believe it or not, step six is the hardest of all of these steps to do, this is where most people begin to have difficulties, yet this step is the most important of all these six steps. Without reading this statement out loud twice each day, your desire, persistence and motivation lose power, making it difficult, if not impossible, to achieve your goal.

To increase the power of this written statement, try combining the statement with a vision board or vision journal. This combination provides extra focus so that your mind is constantly identifying the things (situations, articles, people, etc) that move through you life as having the potential to help you achieve your goal. Even though your mind constantly recognizes these things moving through you life, without this focus these things would simply slip by. Their potential to help you achieve your goal would remain unidentified.

However, once your mind is focused on your goal, it begins to notice specific, relevant ‘things’. For example, have you ever noticed that while you are thinking about buying a car, it’s hard to identify a specific make and model of cars driving past you on the highway. However, once you decide on a specific make and model car, there are a surprising number of that specific car on the road. Once the mind has something specific to focus on, like a specific goal, it begins working on helping you achieve that goal.

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of reading about planning, all types of planning, and began to feel somewhat overwhelmed by all the different things I should be planning for: Retirement Planning; Lifestyle Planning; Business Planning; Travel Planning; Health Planning; Fitness Planning; and the list goes on.

I was beginning to feel like I was spending so much time trying to sort out plans that there was only a little time left for actually living. Oh, how I began to envy those who could go with the flow and let life take them where it will.

But then I remind myself that I have places to go, things to do, successes to achieve, and, yes, fears to overcome. I am counting on my plans to help me with all of these.

So how can plans help me, and you, achieve everything we want in our lives?

There are two texts that I have read recently that keep reminding me of the importance of making a plan:

1. the first text is Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich, in which Hill emphasizes the significance of having a practical plan or plans that will take you to your desired goal. Without a practical plan or plans its too easy to become lost, or disenchanted, or disappointed, or misdirected, and not move forward. This is particularly important when you are trying to develop an unconventional lifestyle like becoming a Location Independent Professional, or when you are trying to design a uniquely personal lifestyle or online enterprise.
2. the second text was the list of fears expressed by aspiring and practicing Location Independent Professionals that I mentioned in my earlier post “Are You Fear Fit?”. This list reminds me that most fears can be addressed by creating a plan (or a Plan A plus a Plan B plus a Plan C…) that helps us deal with the source of the fear, expands our comfort zone and allows our self-confidence to grow.

source: savethedave, Flickr, Creative Commons

Let me explain that second point a little bit:
One of the big fears expressed by both aspiring and practicing location independent professionals involved the loss of income or clients. In a country where you don’t have a work visa, or in an environment where good paying jobs are few and far between, getting a part time job to carry you through the slow periods isn’t an option. So what do you do? How do you cope? Or do you let this fear prevent you from developing this type of lifestyle in the first place?

When my husband and I were planning our move to New Zealand we went through a whole bunch of “What ifs??”, including the “What if our income ended? How would we support ourselves?” The advice we were given at the time was to have enough money set aside so that we could move back home where we could receive support from friends and family until we were back on our feet. This became our Plan B — in fact it became a Plan B for a lot of fears we had about moving half a world away, so served us very well!  We never needed to put our Plan B into action, but knowing we had a Plan B gave us that extra bit of confidence we needed to actually make the move.

Had we not listened to our fears, identified what the fear was telling us, and then developed our Plan B’s, we probably would have let any number of fears overwhelm us and prevent us from have a great experience. Or we would have procrastinated until we no longer wanted to go. And that would have been a shame.

So, plans can help you:

• identify a lifestyle element, or business topic that is appropriate for you and what you want to do with your life;
• reduce the impact of fears, so that you can expand your comfort zone and explore new things;
• overcome procrastination so that you can keep moving forward with your life;
• continue learning and growing throughout you life; and
• achieve the successes you have been dreaming about.

Not bad for a simple plan — I guess I had better get back to working on my business plan.….and my fitness plan.….and my travel plans.….oh, and my.….….  

So, how do you feel about planning? Do you plan? If you do, have plans been successful for you? Or do they just get in the way?

.This is the final post for the series The 8 Key Elements that Make Up Your Authentic Life.

Are your finances supporting the lifestyle you want to be living right now, and will your finances continue to support you through your 30+ years of retirement?

That is certainly an important question to think about — but that is not the whole financial picture that you should be looking at right now.

To live your authentic lifestyle and follow your true path, your finances should come from a source or sources that enhance the quality of your life. Working at a career that you love, in a location that you love is really what living the good life is all about.

Helping you achieve this lifestyle is what Ageless Nomads is all about.

So, how much income will you need to support your ideal lifestyle?

If you are not sure, then try this Ideal Lifestyle Exercise:

Review the worksheets that you completed from the last 7 elements that make up an authentic lifestyle. Now imagine that you are writing a movie script that depicts a day in your ideal lifestyle.

Describe every detail of the scenery, your feelings, your activities, your home, the people you are interacting with, the sights, the sounds and the smells of your ideal life. Describe it in such vivid form that someone other than you could create a movie of your ideal life. Include your work, your home, your family life, your leisure activities, any special aspects in your environment, the pace, the people, and each activity you do from the moment you get up in the morning until the moment you go to bed at night.

Imagine there are no restrictions in time, money, or any other aspect.

Ready?

Take as long as you need to capture this ideal lifestyle by paper and pen, or on your computer. I’ll come back when you are finished .….….….….….….….….….….……→→→→

.….….….….….….….….….….→→→→→→→→.….….….….….….….….….….….…→→→→→→→

All done? Good. Now, what kind of financial resources do you need in order to accomplish this lifestyle? Are you thinking $5,000 per month? $10,000 per month? more??

How much of this income can come from financial assets you already have in place? And how much of this income needs to come from other sources, like a portable enterprise?

Yes, while this is a bit of a guessing game, knowing the ballpark income you will need to live your authentic lifestyle, gives you basic information that you can use to help you determine what type of portable enterprise you should be developing, and what income goals you should be setting.

Now is the time to start drawing up the plan that will help you create the Ideal Lifestyle that you wrote about above.

Until one is committed
There is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,
always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation),
there is one elemental truth
the ignorance of which kills countless
ideas and splendid plans:
that the moment one definitely commits oneself,
then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one
that would never have otherwise occurred.
A whole stream of events issues
from the decision raising in one’s favor
all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings
and material assistance which no man
could have dreamed would have come his way.
What ever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Begin it now.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)

There are literally millions of “ghost blogs” living on the Internet — blogs where the author’s have not been fully committed to their act of initiative and creation. Many of these “ghost blogs” were founded on great ideas and good intentions but, for whatever reason, the authors abandoned their creations.

In order to be a successful entrepreneur on the Internet you need three things:

1. you need to discover your lifestyle career — a career that you truly enjoy working on. One that makes time disappear and that you would do whether you earned an income from it or not. Commitment is easier when you have a true passion for what you are doing.
2. you need to be fully committed to your business. As enjoyable as you may find your lifestyle career to be, it is a business that deserves a consistent commitment from you. And
3. you need to give your business the time it deserves to grow and become successful.

As Goethe states, once you are truly committed, you will be amazed at what comes your way in due time.

Did you know that cities have personalities?? That in some cities you can feel at home, comfortable, like you fit in, while in other cities you can feel out of step with everyone else, like you are in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or that for some people, living in the middle of a big city makes them feel energized, like they feed off of the energy there, while for others the same environment makes them feel overwhelmed, like they are living in the middle of chaos and can’t find any calm.

Richard Florida, and urban economist, wrote a book a few years ago called Who’s Your City?, where he wrote about the personality of cities — how each city has a unique ‘personality’ that can either energize creative individuals, or can suck the creativity right out of you. Cities can affect your happiness level, your motivation, your ability to work, and a whole bunch of other psychological, sociological and economic factors. More information on this theory can be found on the page Does Your Environment Suit Your Personality?

Richard Florida’s basic theory of the personality of cities can be applied to any environment — rural, small town, beachfront community, co-housing community, etc.

Choosing the right environment for your personality is crucial to your designing and living your authentic life.

I grew up in the center of Toronto but moved to a very small town when I got married and couldn’t figure out why I was having difficulty fitting in. It felt like everyone else was part of a story that I just didn’t understand. This was well before I had read Richard Florida’s book and realized that there had been a personality conflict between myself and my environment.

The following worksheet can help you evaluate your environment: Your Environment

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