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Source article: 101 Important Questions To Ask Yourself in Life

Once again, if you find any of the new manifestos helpful, please spread the love and share them Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Convenient share buttons can be found below this post. We’re already on our path of growth, but let’s help others create their best lives too. I’ll really appreciate that.

I hope you’ve found the manifestos helpful. That’s about it for now for the manifestos – I was thinking of doing a manifesto for 101 Ways To Be a Better Person, 101 Ways To Live Life To The Fullest (Personal Excellence) and a Happiness Manifesto, but those are not as simple as the first few I did and would take quite a while (like the Self Reflection Manifesto above). So I’m parking them for next time and continuing the regular blog activities for now.

The emotional eating series will continue soon. I’ll be reposting part-1 so everyone is on the same page.

PS: FYI – Today is actually the 3rd year anniversary for PE (Dec 14, 2008 was when I first started the site). Nothing fancy for this year’s anniversary, just lots of quiet happiness and appreciation of how far we’ve come. I reckon I’ll share more in the annual round-up post I do at the end of every year. So happy anniversary to PE!

Related Posts

• [Pic] 101 Things To Do Before You Die, Manifesto Version
• [Pic] How To Say No, Manifesto Version
• [Pic] How To Nay-say the Naysayers, Manifesto Version
• [Pic] What To Do When Things Don’t Go Your Way, Manifesto Version

Today, I’ve for you the Bucket List Manifesto. It lists 101 sample things to do before you die, which you can hang on your wall as inspirational reminders. Spans 3 pages long:

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Source article: What’s on Your Bucket List? 101 Things To Do Before You Die

I’ve deliberately kept the colors simple as most of you would probably want to print this one, so it helps to save ink.

You can also download the full bucket list article in the form of an ebook, in the Free Ebooks section. For newsletter subscribers (if you’re not subscribed yet, where have you been?! ), you should have received this as one of the 2 welcome ebooks when you first signed up.

And last but not least, as a special touch, I’ve included a blank bucket list template for you to write the things YOU want to do before you die.

(Blank Template – Click image for larger version)

Those taking Live a Better Life in 30 Days Challenge right now (Dec 2011 run) – You can print this out and use this in the bucket list task which will be coming on Day 27.

Feel free to like/share this on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc if you find it useful. Convenient share buttons can be found below this post.

Related Posts

• [Pic] What To Do When Things Don’t Go Your Way, Manifesto Version
• [Pic] How To Say No, Manifesto Version
• [Pic] How To Nay-say the Naysayers, Manifesto Version
• [Pic] How To Be a Dean’s Lister, Manifesto Version

(Click image for larger version)

Source article: 7 Tips To Tackle Naysayers in Your Life

Feel free to like/share this on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc if you find it useful. Convenient share buttons can be found below this post.

* Special thanks to my good friend Phoenicia for the creative spin on the title!

Related Posts

• [Pic] How To Say No, Manifesto Version
• 7 Tips To Tackle Naysayers in Your Life
• [Pic] What To Do When Things Don’t Go Your Way, Manifesto Version
• [Pic] 101 Things To Do Before You Die, Manifesto Version

(Click image for larger version)

Source article: How To Say No To Others: The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need

Feel free to like/share this on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc if you find it useful. Convenient share buttons can be found below this post.

How do you find this manifesto? Want to see more? Which ones are you interested to see? Let me know via the comments area.

Related Posts

• [Pic] What To Do When Things Don’t Go Your Way, Manifesto Version
• [Pic] How To Nay-say the Naysayers, Manifesto Version
• How To Say No To Others: The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need
• [Pic] The Self-Confidence Manifesto

Yesterday morning, I was busy writing the preparation post for upcoming 21-Day Meditation Challenge (Which is now up: 21DMC, Day 0 – Preparation. For those who don’t know about 21DMC, it’s a 21-day meditation challenge from Oct 8 to Oct 28. Read more: 21-Day Meditation Challenge).

As I took a quick glance at my Twitter timeline, I saw a message which said, “RIP Steve Jobs”.

When I first saw it, my first reaction was: “Is this a joke?”.

But things like that don’t get joked around. So I quickly did a search on Google for Steve Jobs, and was greeted with newly published articles (in the past few minutes) of Steve Job’s recent passing, along with other sites related to him.

I quickly scrolled down the searches, clicked into Steve’s Wikipedia (always a good objective information source) and saw that the page had been updated with the date of his death and a section on his passing. It appears that he passed away on Oct 5, 2011 at the age of 56, with his family issuing a statement saying he “died peacefully today“.

Now, I can’t claim to know much about Steve Jobs nor do I make a point to follow any updates about him, Apple, iPod, iPhone or any of the “i” products. I do not use any Apple products (not at the moment). I’m largely disinterested when it comes to technology news and developments, preferring to focus on development of our consciousness vs. tangible goods, and hence my work at PE.

But from whatever I know about him, he struck me as an incredible leader and game changer – someone whom I regard *and* look up to as an inspirational figure in living a life of highest excellence. If you have read the other articles here at PE, you’d know I frequently cite Steve Jobs as an symbol of excellence and success. Steve Jobs had repeatedly proven that limitations are in our mind, and it’s a matter of challenging them to achieve our dreams.

Given his impact in our lives, be it his work in the personal computers (Apple, Macintosh), mobile phones (iPhone), mp3 players (iPod), music distribution (iTunes), tablet computers (iPad) and animation (Pixar), I thought Steve deserved a tribute post at PE. Even though I don’t use any Apple products, Steve (and his team) has undoubtedly made it much easier for people to work, live, and play, with his creations.

This is not something I normally do (writing tribute posts or posts about people for that matter), but Steve has been a true role model to many, in terms of how he lived his life and pursued his dreams – something which many may not be aware of. We may know him as the man behind Apple/iPhone/iPad/etc, but there is much more to Steve Jobs than being just the leader of one of the world’s most valued companies.

By way of this post, I would like to drive awareness on how boldly he had led his life, and 11 personal development lessons we can learn from him.

If you’re neutral to Steve Jobs or not a fan of Steve, that’s fine – for what it’s worth, I’m largely neutral to Steve Jobs and uninvolved with his life’s work (as I mentioned above), and see myself more as someone who distantly respects him as an individual, visionary and game changer. Don’t let your neutrality or bias stop you from learning important (personal development) lessons from this man.

As you read this post, think about how you can apply the lessons to yourself. Don’t just read this post and nod away at each point, then forget about everything you’ve read minutes later. That’ll truly be an incredible shame for yourself. Steve was born a regular person just like any of us, not given anything more or less in terms of his life. At the end of the day, it was how he led his life that made it different from everyone else.

1. Life is what you make it out to be

If you don’t know anything about Steve Jobs other than generic public knowledge, here’s a quick run down of his background:

• He was born out of wedlock, to graduate student parents who gave him up for adoption thereafter.
• He was adopted and raised in a working class family. His foster father fixed cars for a living.
• His biological parents wanted a girl, not a boy.
• He dropped out of college, after only 1 semester. His highest qualification was high school.
• While he was attending Reed (his college), he would be “sleeping on the floor in friends’ rooms, returning Coke bottles for food money, and getting weekly free meals at the local Hare Krishna temple”.
• In 1985, he was fired, very publicly, from the very company he founded (Apple), after losing a power struggle with the board of directors. (He would then later return as CEO (in 1997) after Apple bought over NeXT, the company Steve founded after leaving Apple.)
• In 2003, he discovered he had cancerous tumor in his pancreas. He would then engage in a long battle with cancer for the next 8 years, till his recent passing.

Most people who didn’t know Steve would assume he probably had a privileged life, had a silver spoon in his mouth, and had his path to success laid out before him.

But it wasn’t the case, as you could see above. He was born out of wedlock. He wasn’t the child his parents wanted. He was given up for adoption. He was fired from the company he created. He was publicly humiliated during that time. And he was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer, which ultimately took his life.

While he was not necessarily dealt with the best cards, it didn’t matter a single bit. Rather than complain or let himself be paralyzed by the situations, he made the best out of what he was given – then went to create the kind of life he wanted, eventually becoming the CEO of one of the most valued companies in the world, a billionaire many times over, and one of the most respected people in the world today.

When life gives you a curveball, what do you do? Do you (a) sit and whine about it (b) make the best out of it or (c) throw the curveball back at life and create your home run? Most people do (a) – these are the whiners. Some people do (b) – these people generally do good, but that’s about it. Few people do (c) – these are the true winners.

You always have a choice in how you live your life. Don’t victimize yourself because no matter how bad things may seem at the moment, there are hundreds to hundred thousands of people out there who are worse off than you. When you rise above what you are given, that’s when you soar.

2. Dream big – very big

Before Apple’s rise in the last decade, Microsoft was the undisputed giant in the world of personal computers. Before iPod, mp3 players were known only as mp3 players. Before iTunes, it seemed almost unlikely for anyone would pay for music online, when music piracy was so rampant. Before iPhone, Nokia was the long-time market leader for mobile handsets. Before iPad, there didn’t seem to be a need for tablet computers – PCs and laptops seemed to do the job just fine.

In each situation, no one would have ever thought things would change.

But the status quo was broken, each time, with exceeding results. With each product release, Steve Jobs (and his team) revolutionized the industry and created a new movement – from personal computing, to mp3 players, to music distribution, to mobile phones, to tablet computers.

iPod became integral to the lifestyle of masses, became synonymous with mp3 players, and paved the way to the collapse of CD sales. iTunes became the #1 music vendor in US in 2008, with 10 billion song downloads as of 2010 (after just 7 years of being online).  iPhone created a demand for touchscreen phones, broke Nokia’s long-time market leadership and changed the game of the mobile phone industry. iPad 2 sold more than all other tablet PCs combined since the iPad’s release (in 2010) and is expected to account for 83% of the tablet computing market share in US by 2011 (source).

These happened because Steve allowed himself to dream big – to see beyond what was in the present, to think outside the box, to go where no one had ventured before.

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Apple’s Think Different commercial (#9 on the list)

3. The greatest things started somewhere

Steve Jobs started Apple in his parents’ garage, along with high-school buddy Steven Wozniak. Not exactly the most glamorous start for the world’s largest technology company today – Not that it mattered, because it would never have grown if there was never a start in the first place.

I often hear of people saying that they can’t do X because they need to wait for A, B and C to be in place. Fair enough, but are these prerequisites really necessary or are they just excuses not to take action? If we are forever waiting for things to be perfect, when will we start taking action then?

I started Personal Excellence 3 years ago with a free basic WordPress template, a semi-casual introduction post, and no readership to boot. Today it has evolved into one of the top personal development blogs online. As of Oct ’11, we are tracking to hit almost hitting a million pageviews a month. We got from A to B because I didn’t wait to take action. I just launched the blog, despite having and knowing nothing, and took things from there.

Likewise for you, how can you get started on your dreams today, even if in a small capacity? It’s from starting that you get to somewhere. The greatest things were at a time, but just a dream.

4. Certifications don’t matter

“Truth be told, I never graduated from college. And this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation.” – Steve Jobs, during his address at Stanford Commencement 2005

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.” – Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed after just 1 semester. His highest education qualification was high school level. He would become one of the many billionaire school dropouts today who would put the age old belief that certification is essential for success in life to shame.

I’m not saying to quit studying or not to have any cerification. After all, I myself am a college graduate and a product of the formal education system.

All I’m saying is that whether you succeed or not in life is independent of your certification. There are people who succeed in life and are graduates, just as there are people who succeed and don’t have any certification. What’s more important is your skill level, your attitude, and your aptitude (which can subsequently be honed through 10,000 hours). I shared the same thoughts previously in Ask Celes – Are Coaching Courses Necessary To Be a Coach?

If you are studying at the moment, or if you have plans to study/get some form of certification in the future, be conscious of why you are pursuing it, and whether it meets your needs.

For those who are in school – Are you drifting your way through school so you can get a piece of paper at the end of your course, as a ticket to the working world? For those who have earned your certifications – Are you hiding behind them as a safety shield and using them as an excuse not to grow? And for those who don’t have certifications in what you want to pursue in – Are you letting this be an excuse not to pursue what you want to do in life?

5. Live every day like it is your last

Steve Jobs was a strong proponent of living life to the fullest – every day. This was clear from many of his quotes:

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.”

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”

If you reflect it on yourself, as you living your life to the fullest? Or are you wasting your days away, sleepwalking? If you were to die today, will you die happy or with regrets? What can you do about those regrets now, before it’s too late? What are all the things you want to do before you die? How can you start working on them now?

6. Stop listening to what others say

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

Steve Jobs faced his fair share of naysayers in his lifetime. When he was fired very publicly from Apple in 1985, he was dismissed by the industry as a “flash in the pan” – i.e., had a showy beginning, but with nothing to tell at the end. Business leaders and press saw him as a has-been.

What followed though, was one of the most remarkable comebacks in business history.

After getting fired, Steve went on to create NeXT, a computer platform development company. He also purchased the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd, and later spun it off as Pixar (which was subsequently acquired by Disney in 2006).

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” – Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

In 1996, in an ironic twist of events, Apple, after a decade of steady losses since firing Steve Jobs, acquired NeXT for the computer platform system which it was missing. Steve stepped in as interim CEO in 1997, before being appointed as official CEO in 2000.

Under his leadership, Apple was brought back from the brink of bankruptcy, and is today the largest company in the world (surpassing Microsoft in 2011) by both revenue *and* profit. He continued to serve as the CEO until 2011 this year (when he quit to tend to his health).

How’s that for size?

If Steve Jobs had listened to his detractors when he was fired, he would never have achieved the success he did. Rather, he listened to his heart and did what he felt he had to do. Being guided by that led him to realize his goals – many times over.

“People sometimes have goals in life. Steve Jobs exceeded every goal he ever set for himself.” - Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder, on Steve Jobs

Whatever your dreams are, follow them. Don’t listen to the naysayers, the people who discourage you from living the life of your heart’s desire. Following their words will only make your life a shadow of theirs’, not the life you’re looking for. Listen to your inner voice and follow it, because you can never go wrong with it.

7. Do not underestimate the impact you can have on the world

“I want to put a ding in the universe.” – Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was just 1 person, but look at how he revolutionized the technology industry and impacted masses with his work. It’s safe to say that iPod, iPhone, iTunes, iPad, among his other creations have positively impacted millions (if not billions) of lives around the world. This would have never happened if he didn’t pursue his dreams.

Likewise for you, there is a world out there waiting for you to impact it. Are you ready to start your revolution?

“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?” — Steve Jobs’ legendary pitch to John Sculley (then PepsiCo CEO) in 1983, to get him to run Apple (Sculley later pushed Jobs out of Apple in 1985)

“We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?” – Steve Jobs

What is the change you want to bring to this world? What do you need to do to make it happen? How can you start your revolution, with effect from today?

8. Failure only happens when you deem it to be so

Steve Jobs was fired from the very company he created. By most people’s standards, this would be the epitome of failure. Most people would give up, hide from the world and wallow in self-pity, right at this point.

Not him though. As I detailed in #6, he went on to create 2 successful companies (NeXT and Pixar), got rehired into Apple, turned it around in one of the biggest comebacks in business history, and made it the biggest technology company today. He never gave up on himself and fought for what he believed in.

Many of you often ask me how I got the confidence to quit everything in my life and plunge right into pursuing my passion back in 2008. How about failure – what if I failed? What would I have done?

Here’s the thing about failure – The biggest lesson I learned about failure is this: There is no failure until you deem it to be so. This means even if you lose all your money, go bankrupt, lose your housing, suffer some major setback, or fall flat on your face, you have not failed. It is only one of the many, many mid-points towards your end goal. The only point you fail is when you give up – because that’s when the story ends.

That’s the reason why I was able to pursue my path so relentlessly, without hesitation, even in the early days when I had no supposed reason to believe everything would work out. I knew as long as I kept going, it was a matter of time before I reached my goal. Anything that was going to happen before that would merely be an occurrence along the journey – nothing more, nothing less.

So if you often hold back in your decision making because you’re afraid to fail, know that failing doesn’t exist until you declare you have failed. So as long as you keep going, and have no intentions to give up on your dreams, you can never fail. It’s a matter of time before you get to where you want to be.

9. Do what you love

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is [...] to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs

I talk about the importance of pursuing your passion all the time, with good reason. You have the rest of your life to work, so rather than do something you don’t like THEN retire and do the things you’ve been meaning to do all your life, why not pursue your passion and make that your life’s work? Sure, you *may* have to backtrack a bit where income is concerned, but that’s just temporary. As long as you deliver top value, and keep outdoing yourself (see #11), it’s a matter of time before you achieve *both* passion AND money.

Don’t make yourself work in a job you dislike, because that will be to waste your life away. Do what you love, because that’s what life is about – doing the things you love.

10. Have faith – Never lose hope

“Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” – Steve Jobs, on getting fired from Apple back in 1985

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” – Steve Jobs, Stanford Commencement Speech 2005

Even when things looked bleak, Steve always had faith that things would work out okay one day. It kept him going and allowed him to make the best out of his life (see #5).

No matter what rough patch you may be going through now, don’t give up. Don’t lose hope either. As long as you keep going, you will see the light at the end of the tunnel. You are not here to suffer – you are here to blossom as an individual. Everything happens for a reason, and it’s up to you to assign that reason. (see #1)

11. Outdo yourself – Over, and over again

As I mentioned in the beginning of the article, I don’t follow any of Apple’s news or of its product releases/updates. Hence, news on iPhone 3/4/5, MacBook Air, iPod mini/nano/shuffle/touch/etc are lost on me.

However, the fact that people care about these models, discuss about them at length and continue to buy them (over and beyond initial hype), shows they do find value in the new models. Be it thinner, lighter, faster, longer battery life, or increased functionality, these upgrades are things which consumers find valuable, and have their lives improved as a result.

“You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.” – Steve Jobs

“None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.” – Jobs responding to whether he did market research for the iPad

What I love about Steve Jobs is how he relentlessly pursued betterment, both in his life and his work. He was already successful in his early years, but this didn’t stop him from wanting to become better. Beyond settling for status quo, he kept pushing for innovation – each time creating one game changing product after another. Because of that, he kept growing, and so did Apple.

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” – Steve Jobs

If you look at your past 3-5 year history, have you been outdoing yourself? Or have you been stagnating? What can you do to outdo yourself? As the CEO of your life, what is the new trajectory of growth you want to embark for the next few years?

Concluding

I hope you found this tribute meaningful in some way, and got a few lessons out of it. I learned a few new things about Steve Jobs and Apple in writing this article, which made me even more respectful of their success today. Steve Jobs was indeed an inspirational man with an incredible spirit.

If you could apply just a couple out of the 11 lessons above, I’m sure it will make a world of a difference in your life.

RIP Steve Jobs (1955-2011) – A visionary, genius, and legend.

Feel free to share this article with whomever you think would find it useful. As usual, the social media share buttons can be found at the end of this article.

For more about Steve Jobs:

• Steve Jobs: Wikipedia
• All About Steve Jobs
• Steve’s 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech (#1 on the list)
• Steve Job’s resignation as Apple CEO (Wall Street Journal)
• History of Steve Job’s Health (CNN; Written in 2008)
• Piecing Together Details of Jobs’ Health History (CNN)
• Tributes to the Apple Co-Founder (Telegraph)
• Top 10 Magical Moments in Steve Job’s Career (Mashable)
• Memories of Steve (Interviews & Inspiration) (Mashable)
• Steve Jobs Through the Years (Pictures) (ABC News)
• Remembering Steve – GMA Live Coverage (ABC News, Video)

Hi Celes! I want to make a big comeback in the game of life, I really want to live the life of my dreams. I tired of being a spectator just existing and not living on this earth. How do you suggest I prepare for my comeback? – Desiree

Hi Desiree, my first thought is that if you are using the word “game” to describe life, you may want to rethink how you see it.

While some gurus or experts like to refer to life as a play/game/show, and that we are the characters inside, I think these are delusional thoughts. It’s perfectly fine to use them as analogies to bring out a point, but ultimately life isn’t some stage play or video game (unless we’re in some computer simulation that we don’t know of, like in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time). Life is what it is, and we are here to make the best out of it.

That said, let’s get to the question – How can one prepare for a comeback in life?

My answer is simple – Just start living it.

To prepare for a comeback, it sounds like there’s a desire to stage for a big entrance and blow people away. And as exciting as that sounds, it sounds like it’s done as a display or front for others, when really, the only audience you should care about is yourself.

You don’t live life for anyone else. You live life for yourself.

So if the only audience in your life is you, what do you care to do then? What would you like to see? What would you like to achieve? How can you start living life?

The first place to start off would be to design your ideal life. Those who have Live a Better Life in 30 Days Program (30DLBL) will recognize this as the Day 2 activity. Think about what your ideal life is – including your ideal career/business, ideal relationships, ideal income level, your ideal home, ideal lifestyle, and so on. Set your highest vision on what you want your life to be.

Following which, set your life goals based on your ideal life (Day 3 of 30DLBL). Set your 10 year goals, based on your ideal life. From there, create your life map (Day 4 of 30DLBL), which is your map of where you want to be in the next 1, 3, 5 years of your life.

When that’s done, identify your top goals, and create your action plan for those top goals (Day 6 of 30DLBL). Depending on your goal, set your yearly/monthly/weekly targets. Get down to action. And start bringing those goals to life. Have a weekly review with yourself. (Day 7)

In time, you will start to see results. Most important of all, because you are taking action, you are living life. You are no longer watching it pass you by.

I highly recommend you check out Live a Better Life in 30 Days Program, which is essentially a program to help one live a better life, in just 30 days. I created this with my best strategies and principles in life development. 30 tasks for 30 days, for a month of conscious action.

While there has been many challenges conducted at Personal Excellence in the past year, but this remains the premium, life-changing program ever. Hundreds and thousands of people have taken part in it and had their lives transformed as a result.

(Speaking of which, the next 30DLBL run is coming soon, on 1 Dec 2011. For many of us, this will serve as an annual review for 2011, so be sure not to miss it. Join the newsletter so you will be notified when that happens. Note that only those who purchased the 30DLBL program will be able to join in.)

All the best in creating and living the life of your dreams!

Check out:

• Live a Better Life in 30 Days Program - Days 1-30
• Successful Goal Achievement: ESPER (7-part series)
• Are You Sleepwalking Your Life Away?

Related Posts

• Ask Celes – How Do You Know If Your Life Purpose Is For Life (and Not Short/Medium-term)?
• Ask Celes – How Do I Take My Goals Seriously Enough To Achieve Them?
• How To Know What You Want To Do In Life
• Ask Celes – Are Coaching Courses Necessary To Be a Coach?

Hi Celes! I have a question. I’m having a hard time getting to where I want to be on life, because I feel like I’m not taking myself seriously, and hence wasting my potential. How do I take my goals seriously enough to achieve them? Because I find myself slacking and being late to important places. – Mirna

Hi Mirna, about 2.5 years ago in 2009, I did an exercise to predict my future. (For those with Personal Excellence Book, Volume 1, check out the bonus article on The Future Prediction Exercise which details how you can do your own prediction.)

I predicted where I would be a year from then, based on how I was leading my life. The evaluation was done based on the key areas of my life wheel. I was already taking action on my goals then and building up my personal development business then with good results, but I felt that I was not moving as fast as I could. I felt like I was stagnating, in a way.

The results I got jolted me out of my state. What I saw was nothing to be proud of.

In my career, I was working on my personal development business almost every day at that time. However, I was doing it in an untargeted fashion. I was spending a lot of time on unimportant, 80% low value tasks, vs. what mattered. I predicted that by continuing what I was doing, I’d have a bigger blog a year from then, with 4-5k subscribers (I was at 1-2k subscribers at the time).

While it was higher than my subscriber base of 1-2k subscribers then, it was nothing impressive. It was a given that my blog would grow, since I was devoting due time and effort, but 4-5k subscribers wasn’t anything to shout about – not especially if that was my key metric of performance, and not if I had been running it for 2 years.

Finance-wise, I was earning about 1.5-2.5k SGD a month then, a positive start for a new business. However, I was focusing on building up my business vs. revenue generation, and was not executing any new monetization strategies. Hence, I predicted little change in my income a year from then. I predicted I would probably be earning about the same amount.

Health and fitness-wise, it wasn’t good too. I was on a vegetarian diet but was bingeing ever so often and eating junk food here and there. I was making an effort to exercise, but it wasn’t as frequent as I would want ideally. Prior to that, I was slowly gaining weight year-on-year for the past 5-6 years. I predicted I would gain 1-2kg every year moving forward.

With my relationships, I predicted I would be with the same friends, at the same level of connection, not having moved forward in how we relate with each other. With my family, I predicted it would get better since I was making effort, but only marginally so. With love, I predicted I would still be single, and not having found someone I was truly interested in.

The picture I saw was depressing. It wasn’t in line the ideal vision I had of myself. For sure, I saw myself to be doing much better in my career. I wanted to be at my ideal weight, eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly. I desired to have even more meaningful friendships than I was having. I wanted to be in the best possible relationship with my family. Income-wise, while I was able to sustain myself on that income (then), I wanted to see progress, as part of a growing business.

It was a huge wake up call for me. From that moment on, I was on a mission to get my act together.

I prioritized the areas to work on, with career being the first, followed by health, then relationships. I saved the prediction results in a simple text file on my windows desktop (which remains there today), as a reminder of what my life would be if I continued what I was doing. I would open up the document every now and then as a comparison checkpoint on I was doing vs. the prediction.

For my career/business, I set myself out to achieve 10k subscribers and more for PE. I devised a traffic generation plan, and set out to execute that. I went on a massive guest posting spree, writing over 40 quality guest posts in the next year. I advertised my blog on selected, targeted sites. I also marketed my content regularly via key social media channels.

By the end of 2010, Personal Excellence hit 20k subscribers, was featured in international media such as CNN and Business Insider, and became one of the leading blogs on personal development. I was featured on national TV (Channel News Asia, a reputed Asia news broadcaster) for the first time, a huge milestone in the development of my business.

Income-wise, it has grown multiple-fold in the past couple of years. Today, I earn more than enough to sustain my goals and expenses. The bulk of my income is also now passive, whereby I don’t need to trade my time for money, hence allowing me to pursue my personal endeavors such as traveling and connecting with new people around the world. Read: Ask Celes – How Are You Earning Money When You Don’t Have a Job?

While I continued to grow my blog/business, I worked on my health and fitness next. In Jan this year, I conducted the 21 Days To Live a Healthier Life Challenge, as part of my desire to improve my own diet and fitness. In Feb ’11, I went on a 21-day fast, and cleansed myself physically and emotionally. I lost 8kg of actual weight from the fast, and took on a healthier diet thereafter, and restored my relationship with food.

In the meantime, I worked on improving my relationship with my parents. In May this year, I finally achieved resolution, which I wrote in the series: How I Found Peace in My Relationship with My Parents. Today, I’m at peace in my relationship with my parents. We’re able to speak to each other in a way we were never able to do so before. We express concern in our language of love and appreciate each other for who we are.

For my friendships, I developed closer bonds with my friends. I established new friendships with like-minded people. My travels in the past few months (around Europe) have led me to meet many amazing people, a number of which have come to be best friends, and who are so close that I’d regard them as my family.

As for romance, I came to many new realizations in this area recently. I gained insight on the kind of person that I would be interested in. I realized I was layering a lot of expectations on someone who didn’t even exist in my life yet, and began to let go of these expectations. I realized that to be with someone should not be a goal, but should only happen when I meet someone who shares similar values and agendas in life as I do. I realized that I’m totally okay not to be with someone or not to get married, because I’m complete as myself.

My reason for sharing all of the above is to let you know the point at which things changed was when I decided to stop screwing around and get my act together. I realized that unless I changed my actions, nothing was ever going to change.

Life is a choice. Our life is what we make it out to be. If all we do is sit around and slack, while lament about how we are slacking, then we *really* can’t blame anyone when we end up with a life of nothing, because that’s our fault. If we decide to get our act together and take action on our goals though, then that’s what we will get – due results in those areas.

If you feel that you’re not taking yourself or your goals seriously, you need to ask yourself this – Are you okay to live a life of mediocrity? Are you okay to waste your life away? Are you okay to screw up your life, which you only get to live once, or are you prepared to get your act together?

Because if you truly understand the above, you wouldn’t be waiting around for things to happen. No one’s going to come in and achieve your goals for you. You’ll be taking action as if your *ss is on fire and like there is no tomorrow, simply because you know that nothing is ever going to happen as long as you don’t act on your goals and dreams.

Stop being the howling dog. It’s time to get our act together and live the life we are meant to live.

Be sure to read:

• The Future Prediction Exercise (bonus article in Personal Excellence Book, Volume 1)
• The Howling Dog Story
• 12 Useful Ways To Get Out of Ruts (bonus article in Personal Excellence Book, Volume 2)
• How Are You Faring In Your Life Now? (The Life Wheel)
• Live a Better Life in 30 Days, Day 2 – Your Ideal Life
• Live a Better Life in 30 Days, Day 3 – Life Goals
• If Your Life Was A RPG, What Type Of Character Would You Be?
• Are You a Self-Help Junkie?

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• Ask Celes – How Are You Earning Money When You Don’t Have a Job?
• Ask Celes – How Do I Prepare For My Comeback in Life?
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