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Take Control of your Life

Posted on: April 30, 2007

By Alyson Carson

How often do you find yourself wishing your life were different? What is different in the life you imagine from the one you currently live? What would you give to have that life? If you had $10,000, would you give that? If you had a million dollars, would you give that? Now here is the clincher, if you had 24 hours, would you give that? How badly do you want things to change?

Guess what? The only person who can ever give that to you, if you want to keep it, is you. You have to seize hold of your dreams and make them happen. You have to be willing to sacrifice for those dreams. You have to choose specifically what you want, make a plan for its achievement, and then follow your plan.

Choose what you want
There are so many things available to you. The problem may not be that you don’t have any options. The problem may be that you have too many options to choose from. The problem may be that you don’t think you have any options. You do. How do you choose from the myriad of roads available for you to travel? Research what is available, and look inside yourself to find what you want. Also, research the many possible routes to get what you want. There are many roads to any given destination.

Ask yourself, “If I could only do one thing for the rest of my life, and I would be successful in whatever I did, what would I choose to do?” Go back to your childhood. What were you like as a child? What did you always want to do? What did you want to be when you grew up? Children know what they want. Use your childhood to rediscover what you want from life now.

Make a Plan
What is a dream without a plan? It is like the leaves of fall put at the mercy of the winter wind. Do you want it? Do you really want it? Write it down. Make a plan for how you will get it. Believe it. Take your dreams and think of all the things you need to do to bring them to fruition. Make a list of your major goals, and then break that list down. Break each goal down until you have a list of daily actions. Be as specific as possible.

Take the list of major goals and daily actions, and put deadlines on each action and each goal. Make sure every item has a date assigned to it. Organize your plan in any way that makes sense to you, so you know that you will do it. Congratulations! You now have a plan, and, therefore, a real dream.

Follow your Plan
The best definition of success I have heard is that you are successful if you are merely moving toward your aspirations. You don’t have to wait until you accomplish your goals to call yourself successful. Make every day a success. Take charge of your results and do something toward your goals every day. Use your plan.

Here are some suggestions for how to follow your plan:

1. Make a list of the 6 most important things to do the next day before you go to bed. Do this every night.
2. Plan out your day, making sure to schedule in your 6 most important things to do first.
3. Just do it. Overcome your natural tendencies, and make yourself do things you may not want to do in the moment. You will thank yourself for it later.

Call to Action
Here are the actions to take on this subject:

1. Spend some time with yourself. Rediscover what you really want. Find the best way for you to discover yourself. You can write, contemplate your childhood, read, or look at magazines. Do what works for you. If something isn’t working, try something else.
2. Research the possible roads to travel. What are all the things you can do with your life? What are all the different ways to get that same thing?
3. Make your plan for getting what you want.
   1. Write down your major goals.
   2. Break each goal into sub-parts.
   3. Break each sub-part down until you get to actions you can complete in one or two days.
4. Follow your plan. Be consistent. Do at least one thing every day that gets you closer to your desired outcome. If you don’t feel like doing something, do it anyway. You’ll be glad you did.

Alyson Carson is a small business coach who specializes in helping small business owners attain holistic wealth. She helps them thrive physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, and spiritually as they obtain their monetary wealth. If you would like help implementing these ideas, feel free to contact her. She can be reached at alyson@life-balance-institute.com. Her website is www.life-balance-institute.com.

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