9 Lessons to Create the life you Want

What do you really want out of your life? What do you want to be remembered for? Are you living the life you planned or are you reacting to life. These are some of the questions that are answered in the book “Living Forward” by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy. It is a really simple step by step approach to creating the life you want without drifting. Here are the lessons I gleaned.
Acknowledge the drift – All of us drift from time to time. We are not sure where we want to go or do with our lives but this doesn’t help. So first step is to be aware of your current location, then decide where you want to go, and finally start working towards your destination. Simple stuff but it works.  
Understand the mission – Here there is a mention of creating a life plan. This plan consists of eight to fifteen pages. It describes how you want to be remembered, your personal priorities, and has specific actions on how you move from where you are to where you want to be. A personal mission statement can also help.
Appreciate the benefits–Here six benefits of creating a life plan is mentioned. It helps clarifying priorities, maintaining balance, filtering opportunities, facing reality, envisioning the future, and it helps in avoiding regrets down the road in life.
Design your Legacy – Begin with the end in mind. What do you want people to say about you when you are not there? Work towards that vision now.
Determine your priorities – There is no successful person ever who didn’t prioritize their life. So go ahead and set priorities for your marriage, relationships, career and health.
Chart the course– Here the authors encourage us to have a purpose statement, envision a clear future, understand current reality and make specific commitments like setting SMART goals.
Dedicate One Day– Basically dedicate one day to just create the life plan you want. This is of course the best investment you can make for your life.
Implement your plan – Failing to plan is planning to fail. However you cannot just plan without taking action. You need to schedule your priorities and you need to learn to say no as well.
Keep it alive – Basically the premise here is to keep your life plan alive by reflecting and reviewing it on a weekly basis. Keep reflecting on where you are with where you want to be and make course corrections as needed.
If we adopt these 9 lessons we can create a meaningful life that we want for ourselves. These are really simple steps that can create clarity in our lives.
The views expressed here are my own and do not represent my organization.

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