The Old Self Development Plan

This is how I used to look at life, chapter by chapter.

• What’s the next self serving mission?
• How will I know I’ve completed it?
• What’s the Stuff I want at the end of the mission?
• Work on traditional skills that help me to get said stuff.
• Got stuff.
• Happy Ending.
• Fleeting feeling of Accomplishment.
• Shit, I want more…
• Rinse & Repeat

My self development plan was based around being just good enough to accomplish said self serving missions.

Self development plan that suck, keep you just good enough.

The MLM & network marketing industries are littered with this mindset because they want you behind their vision and to sell you on valuing money, cars and lifestyle over your own personal purpose.

I’m not discarding the value of someone going into those industries. Shit, I did it for 10 years with one company. It helped me escape out of a 60 to 70 hours a week work week.  Just realize there is a ceiling in these industries too.

Anytime someone else creates the systems, creates the reasons for the systems and takes responsibility over how that business is run, you’re under their vision, direction & purpose not necessarily yours.

As long as you realize this and are Ok with it in your journey. Cool.

However, I feel this is why lots of people don’t make it in those industries or in any sales industries for that matter where you’re an independent rep.

What these people are chasing isn’t congruent with what they really see themselves doing or why.

I found myself always more concerned with asking questions like:

• How do I make $100,000 a year?
• How can I get that Lexus I want?
• How much stuff can I sell so I get to the Atlantis in the Bahamas for 7 days?

I was chasing the stuff instead of pursuing my purpose.

I was bombarded with the idea that this stuff represented my freedom.

A friend of mine from Facebook recently said this:

“I think that we have lost this world to the material needs of incomplete people..”

I don’t believe we’ve lost this world. But I knew the person he was talking about because I realized not long ago, I was one of those incomplete people. And in many ways I still am.

Never before had it occurred to me to ask:

“How can I create something where I contribute to leaving this world a better place than when I came into it?

• What would that world look like?
• What would the change need to be to make it happen?
• What would be my part?
• What skills do I already have that I could contribute to that change?
• Who could I partner with to help me do it?

Now there’s a few questions to ask yourself.

Do the answers come right away?

If not, don’t be surprised.

I’ve been asking myself those questions everyday.

I now look at the network marketing industry as a boot camp that prepared me to go into the solopreneur world I’ve moved into. It taught me a lot.

It prepared me for this:

I came across a formula from one of my digital mentors and thought I’d share their take on how this all comes together from the formless goo of our thoughts to designing a life of purpose.

I’ve been implementing these 3 steps as well as sharing it with everyone I come across because I believe it’s just that powerful.

• Excellence-Pursuing something through years of time, learning, mastering and practicing for the sake of just becoming excellent at it.
• Purpose- You’re someone who can see a bigger vision for how the world could be or is going to be better. You just get this is what you’re here to do and this is how you’re here to contribute to this change. That combo of this vision of how things are going to be better and how what you’re going to do is going to connect and drive that, that’s what we’re calling purpose.
• Collaboration- Developing relationships with like minded people where you work together on a project an idea, a strategy, a vision, something you and the other person can collaborate on and create that you’re passionate about. It’s a container you can work inside of together and your relationship with those involved will be different and better.

I’m going to share with you how these come together so you can begin to put together you’re own self development plan.

One that works with you and is congruent with your self identity. One that won’t have you fighting the heavy current while using your will power to try and make changes.

Theory Behind A New Self Development Plan

I’ve implemented the 3 steps above and it’s helped me discover a new self development plan and I’ll show you why.

Excellence-Have you been pursuing a skill or endeavor over the years that you’ve become or are becoming excellent at?

Maybe it’s:

• Writing
• Acting
• Singing
• Painting
• Speaking
• Coaching
• Writing code
• Communicating
• Listening
• Organizing
• Marketing
• Mixed Martial Art
• Sports Activities

The list could be endless.

Whatever it is, has it been a lot of work or have you just flat out enjoyed the hell out of it? (Probably both I bet)

It could be something small or even seem insignificant to you but it could be huge to someone else. It could be huge in the context of creating change to make your world and the world around you a better place.

I’ve been so guilty of discounting my own excellence in the past.

Hell I’d even dare say, I’ve been excellent at discounting my excellence!

Enough already, let’s let go of that story and its attachment!

It’s time to see yourself as accepting, able to receive and sharing your gifts in the world.

I refused to think I was excellent at something because I confused excellence with innate talent for years.

Is there such a thing as Innate Talent? (Innate = Results produced by the mind rather than learned through experience)

You know, the people who just seem to be naturally gifted.

Malcolm Gladwell says in his book Outliers, that it requires 10,0000 hours (10 years) to become an expert at anything.

Achievement is talent + preparation.

The equation means you are purposely and single mindedly mastering your craft with the intent to get better.

Excellence requires a minimum amount of practice in order to achieve mastery. Period.

Based on Gladwells research the average amount of practice required is 10,000 hours which equals 3 hours a day or 20 hours a week over 10 years. (How many people do you think watch 3 hours of TV or play video games 3 hours a day?)

Chances are you’re already excellent at something depending on how long you’ve been on this big blue marble called earth. If not, acknowledge what it could be, do it purposely and singled mindedly with the intent to get better. You’ll be way ahead of the curve by making the decision to start now.

Purpose-I’ve heard the nonsense that not everyone has the ability to be successful. Or to become a CEO or a business owner.

Well who the hell says as a kid, “Mommy! I want to be a CEO when I grow up!”

Or a dishwasher for that matter to hit the opposite end of the spectrum.

None that I know of.

All of the people I know of that became business owners, entrepreneurs or CEO’s of companies just had an idea or a picture in their head that they could do it.

I don’t feel it’s nearly as important what you call yourself as long as you’re following your calling.

Sure, maybe they wanted freedom but they also dared to dream & think bigger. Something that would contribute to a better world around them.

They were excellent at something and put forth the work.

Many of them didn’t have PHDs, college degrees or even high school diplomas.

They simply took the time and were able to see how they could make the world a better place. Plus they collaborated with others to make it happen.

Of course they wanted to be profitable too but they didn’t go into it and say I’m doing it just to make money.

Running a business normally isn’t a charity. (non profits aside) The profit is a result of the value they provided or a way of measuring the value they have distributed or the change they have created.

Besides starting and running an online business, and literally being your own boss or CEO, hasn’t ever been as easy as it is now. But it does start and end with what’s going on in your head.

So what derails someone from daring to think bigger?

Lets start by allowing me  to ask you a question.

Have you ever found yourself questioning your abilities and wanting to quit something because you didn’t get a particular result in the endeavor? You would if you didn’t have a bigger picture to compare the challenge to. In the scope of things it would have been a small set back in your journey.

Without the bigger picture (vision) you’re hosed and you quit pretty damn quickly.

In my early 20′s I’d take something out of context like failure to close a sale and then tell myself I just wasn’t cut out for it.  Then I’d consider quitting.

I was pretty miserable in those days because I wasn’t doing what I thought I was made to do. Since I was motivated by exterior factors to get the money, a shit storm of drugs & empty sex ensued. Oh and I nearly died twice.

People who are consciously on purpose (See a bigger picture of the world and how they contribute to it) don’t see those situations as losses though. They seem them as stepping stones towards the bigger picture they hold fast to in their mind.

Why?

Because they realize they are working towards that bigger vision or purpose and everything that happens in between is just part of the insides that make up the purpose sandwich.

Losses don’t equal loser to them.

As long as you are drawn forward towards your vision of contributing to your specific betterment of the world, you’re learning how to be a winner even when it doesn’t seem easy.

Collaboration- Earlier in the post I quoted, “…your relationship with those involved will be different and better.” When you collaborate with others there is a deeper bond that is created.

“No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.”- Napoleon Hill

To Collaborate is to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor.

When intellects work together good stuff can come about of it.

Not only is your relationship with your collaborator different and better afterwords, but so will the lives of those who you touch with your vision and/or project.

Ironically even as a solopreneur I still collaborate with others. Some of that is just giving or requesting feedback, advice or even working on projects together because we have a mutual respect for one another and we’re on the same page with our vision.

I learned in the network marketing industry that business was not at all like school where you weren’t allowed to collaborate, (otherwise known as cheating) on the answers of a test. In business we collaborate on the answers all the time!

The How To Make It Work

Here are the steps I took to begin this process of creating a new self development plan.

1. How could you begin to leave this world better than you found it?
2. What would that better world look like?
3. What are some of the challenges that you see people facing in the world?
4. Describe it in detail.
5. What would be a favorable outcome these people may seek?
6. How could you contribute to to the change?
7. What skills or specialities that you’re excellent at do you feel would aid you in your contribution to that change?
8. Would you need to develop any new skills or mindsets and are you willing to become excellent at them?

Time To Assess

Does your current self development plan support:

1. What you’re excellent at? (speaking, writing, coaching, teaching, creating, etc) Are you reading, practicing and implementing direct focus on what you’re excellent at? If the 10,000 hours freaks you out then maybe you need to reassess.
2. Defining your purpose?
3. Seeking out relationships where you’re able to collaborate with others to make it happen?

I realize this post is somewhat general. It’s not meant to be a detailed self development plan. It’s meant to give you a view from 30,000 feet of what your current efforts are. (Hopefully you have some current efforts but if not, contact me)

Is your current self development plan leading you closer to living a life of purpose & fulfillment?

Or is it leading you farther away and leading you down a path of chasing more stuff.

You can align your plan in a manner that is much more congruent with your values and how you really perceive yourself.

Next Step:

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What’s Your Current Model Of Possible

Maybe you have a good life, a good job, a good marriage and good friends. I think that’s great. How about if it so resonates with you, that you remain in that good place.

But I want you to ask yourself…

• Is there something about good that satisfies you?
• What about good leaves you dissatisfied?
• Is good living fulfilling right now?
• Or does good really just feel like existing?
• As you reflect on this does it anger you to experience good?
• Or does it sadden you to experience good?
• Does it frustrate me that my life is just good?
• Is there more to living than at the level of good?
• What is my attachment to good?
• Am I living at my potential of contribution?
• Am I purposely expressing or accidentally living?

Let me just state, good is fine for lots of people. If you’re one of those people who read this and your buttons get mashed, then discovery is right around the corner for you I bet.

If you feel I am threatening your relationship with good, for fear that you may find risk in experiencing something great, then so be it.

I’ve had an attachment to good too so I’m not pointing fingers.

I look at my personal story around good and some of those questions came up for me. Some of this hit home and I felt the questions resonate.

I had reactions.

First sadness, then resentments and finally anger.

I knew this way of thinking had to stop.

Then I started comparing myself to other people who’s story looked more enticing than my own in order to validate how mediocre my story really was.

That just pissed me off worse and I began to beat myself up for not being good enough.

I knew this way of thinking had to stop.

I convinced myself I was doing all I could do to better my life and would then entrench myself in my story for safety.

I knew this way of thinking had to stop.

I felt that I lived below the surface of good for years. So if you’re life is good right now, then you’re one step ahead of me when from when I became conscious of good.

When you shed the blanket of good, you begin to discover things in and around yourself. You begin to create and own your personal possibilities.

Yes you want to take a moment to appreciate your where you’re at right now. Especially if it’s good.

I could rest under a thick blanket of good right now and feel safe & warm, but I’d know it would be a comfortable lie.

The lie wouldn’t be congruent with who I see myself as.

There’s no light under the blanket. Ok so you may have a pocket flash light

I accept responsibility that I’ve lived in the box of other peoples expectations so that I’d be accepted.  So that I’d feel as if I’m part of something. That’s human nature. We’re built to exist in tribes and community. To feel accepted.

However if we’re honest with ourselves we don’t want to lose our individuality either. That’s our egoic selves. What we really want is to live free of attachments that bog us down and keep us from being in the now.

But within a herd of others trapped by the near genetic requirement to define us as a whole, claiming your individuality is like pushing wet spaghetti up a hill.

Later on in life in business I chose to stay in story every time my choice of personal freedom felt questioned. Why? Because dare I be ousted from the tribe of course.

• Your attachment to your story is stronger than you think.
• Your attachment to your story  is what keeps you in that place of good.
• Your attachment to your story around good is what keeps you from taking risk.
  
• Your attachment to your story around good has arrested your imagination.

If you find yourself in a place of discovery and wishing to explore it consider this:

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”- Albert Einstein

Maybe you’ve decided your relationship with good has become stale. If so then you’re prepared to have an open mind.

So how does one shake up their model of what’s possible and think differently?

“Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

You need to access your creative imagination.

You may have simply had your creative imagination hijacked at some point.

Why Creative Imagination Shakes It All Up

I’m going to give you some tools so you can use your creative imagination to shed more light, to experience more optimism and create more possibility but first what about creative imagination works?

We all have the ability to create and imagine things.

You and I do it all the time. But do we use creative imagination?

To purposely imagine what it is you desire most in life is a powerful tool because you are powerful enough to do this. Even if that means purposely imagining you have no great desires.

Our imagination is driving us all the time but when we find we’re unhappy about where we are it’s because we haven’t been consciously at the wheel or we’re not grateful for what we have created.

You decide today if you want to take the wheel.

You see, you can start today by vividly imagining your health in an optimum state, your finances finally in order & abundant as well as your relationships totally kicking ass.

You can visit your theater in your mind any time you choose and play out what you want your lifes direction to look like.

• Athletes have been using creative imagination via the theater of the mind, for years.
• Writers have been using creative imagination for hundreds of years
• Walt Disney created entire cities that continue to run and grow today, long after this death because of creative imagination.
• Musicians, artists and actors use creative imagination to see themselves performing expressing in advance if they choose.
  

Creative imagination isn’t just something artists, musicians, actors or even athletes use though. It’s done in business all the time. It’s worked for thousands of people and it can work for you.

Creative imagination is a tool you possess right now and you can use it to create your new story starting today.

But be careful not to confuse imagination with creative imagination.

What’s Behind Creative Imagination

There’s a difference between just imagining things and creatively imagining.

It’s necessary that we just imagine things such as:

1. Without the ability to imagine negative outcomes, we may do crazy stuff like not run when we see an animal that wants to attack us. We’d have no fear or flight response and we’d end up missing body parts, or worse dead.
2. Without the ability to imagine the outcome of a destination we’d never decide to take a vacation.

Maxwell Maltz discovered that the subconscious mind and the self image cannot discern the difference between real experiences or vividly imagined images.

Vividly imagined experiences are also called synthetic experiences and they have very real value in creating your reality. Just ask any successful athlete who envisions themselves making the shot, crossing the finish line or making the touch down.

Imagination is the driving force of all personality and behavioral change.

“Learning can be gauged by behavior change, if there is no behavior change then no learning has taken place.“-Wyatt Woodsmall

If you want to go from not good to good or from good to great, then creative imagination will be your tool.

“The pictures you create in your mind that are the most vivid and that you react to with intensity and you return to repeatedly are accepted by the self image as truths about you. Then they are translated as commands to our servomechanism which acts to verify those truths.“-Dan Kennedy

If you keep telling yourself, “I’ve just always been like that,” don’t expect your behavior to change or your model of what’s possible. You’re not giving your self image definitive positive mental pictures to latch on to in order to create change.

By not providing your self image with finite pictures of your outcomes this creates the long zigs and zags of you reaching your goals.

Decide you want to consciously guide these pictures rather than outside experiences to unconsciously guide you.

This is the difference between imagination and creative imagination.

Creative Imagination means you are the creator.

You create your reality and through your creative imagination you have the means to alter or improve your personality, your behavior and your habits without pain & struggle or the use of willpower.

Your health, your income, your relationships and your circle of life will be in a place of unconscious incompetence until you bring these next steps into action through creative imagination.

Steps To Activating Your Creative Imagination

So here are some exercises in creative imagination:

Step 1: Assessing

• What area’s of your life are you dissatisfied with?
• Now what would be the opposite of those dissatisfied experiences?
• Write just a sentence or two for each opposite experience.
• Now what area’s of your life are you satisfied with?
• Ask yourself why you’re satisfied with these area’s and how you arrived there so you can replicate the process with your opposite dissatisfied experiences.

Step 2: Creating

• Now go beyond your opposite, more positive experience and ask yourself; “if there were no limits on time, money or geography how far would you see yourself taking each item?”
• With that question in mind create and write down your perfect day down to the smallest detail. Leave nothing out.
• Keep this focused on having experiences rather than just the accumulation of stuff.
• Are these pictures & experiences in alignment with your values?

Step 3: Acknowledging

• What behaviors would you need to implement or improve upon to support your picture?
• What behaviors would you need to let go of to support your ideal picture?
• What habits do you currently have that don’t support your ideal self?
• What habits do you need to put in place to support your ideal self?
• What skills would you need to acquire or learn to support this vision?

Step 4: Planning

“What is possible is accomplished through planning it out.“

How to Engage Your Imagination In The Real World

Now to get this into action so you can get some feedback and some results.

Implement what you write out in Step 1 and 2 starting now:

• Prepare and plan for tomorrow the night before. Wake up ahead of the curve not behind it
• Take 15 minutes a day for the next 2 weeks to re-read your perfect day outline from “Step 2: Creating”
• If you require new skills, quickly research the resources required (I love to Google stuff) and take action on acquiring the info or training.
• Take time to go within your theater of the mind each day and play out the movie of you performing your new routines or habits in advance. See yourself experiencing the feelings you wish. You’ll find your current moment dramatically shifts and you feel more present and in the moment than ever.

The End Of The Beginning

This isn’t the end, it’s just the beginning of what’s possible for you you and I to create.

You may be thinking with all of this imagining, what about our present moments and just enjoying them?

Well a good side benefit is this:

You’ll find that the more you intentionally create these pictures of your experiences, via your creative imagination, the more possibility you have of experiencing positive feelings in the now.

You’re attitude adjusts as well it will also elevate above your current circumstances. You’ll find you enjoy more of what you’re doing in the moment. Even if it’s not exactly your passion your working on, your attitude is deeply nestled in what you know you’re going to experience.

Maybe this is why you’ve seen a guy who washes dishes for a living and has a great attitude. He’s doing his current duties purposefully because he knows it’s a means to an end.

Some might call this having hope or faith.

All I know is a purposeful & creative imagination is freak’n hard to stop when it’s set in motion.

“Winners Learn from their losses“

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