The Practical Guide To Exceptional Living: Creating and Living The Life of Your Dreams
148
The Practical Guide To Exceptional Living: Creating and Living The Life of Your Dreams
148Paperback
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Overview
Forget the old work ethic of putting in 60-80 hour weeks and not having a life outside of your work and office. Stop being a victim of email, cell phone, and information overload. Whether your dream is more time with your family, better health, more money or simply more control over your life, the information inside will show you the way.
This simple 132 page guide teaches:
· How Jim went from a stressed out, neurotic business owner who never left his business, to 10 weeks off a year. He took 40 days off in a row and only called the office twice!
· Learn how to effectively manage your time and the ever invasive email, voicemail and 24 hour accessibility we all suffer from.
· Discover and create Your Ultimate Life Experience™ and how to design your life for the realization of that dream.
· How to regain your health and energy and get to your ideal weight by changing just a few things in your life. How I got my cholesterol from 277 to 217 naturally.
· Learn about The Money Flow Rules™ and The Financial Stability Table™ and gain control over your finances and create lasting wealth.
This book provides easy to understand and easy to use concepts that can be put to use immediately. From the house mom to the executive and from the student to the small business owner, anyone can read this book and start learning today.
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781600377167 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Morgan James Publishing |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2010 |
| Pages: | 148 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Are You Living the Life of Your Dreams?
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you have imagined." Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American author, poet, and philosopher
Are you living the life of your dreams? What would the life of your dreams look like? How would you envision it? Many people shy away from these questions because they are so direct; they really hit you in the gut and make you start to think and that is the idea. I want to get you thinking about what the answers to these very direct questions should be and how you would describe, in detail, the life of your dreams. You must know what you want and where you want to go. Answering these questions is where the journey begins.
By the end of this book you will have developed a new strategy for how you look at life and a game plan for deliberately designing the life you desire on every level. The subjects on the following pages will help you define what it means to have a truly exceptional life. As you read, think about how these subjects relate to your daily life.
Time: Your Most Valuable Asset
At the beginning of my business career, I was taught by my colleagues that working long, hard hours was not only necessary but was required as a means to success. It was almost like a badge of honor to work 80- 90 hours per week. If you wanted to succeed you had to put in the hours at any cost and if you didn't, you were not worthy. As I began my journey as a small business owner, I focused on two things:
1. Work as many hours as humanly possible
2. Accumulate as much money as humanly possible
As shallow as it seems, that was it. Work hard to make money. I was 21 and single and this seemed like a great philosophy. What it actually produced was a very tired body and mind, a business that could not be left for five minutes without my hands in everything, a girlfriend, and family and friends who wanted to know why I worked so much. Unfortunately for me, I had put no value on time and measured my success by how many hours I worked. This is a sure formula for failure on every level and I was proving it to myself.
As time went on and my business continued to grow, I realized more and more that the additional hours I was working were becoming less and less productive. It was at this point that I realized I had to let go of some of the responsibilities of the business and allow others to take charge. To delegate effectively you need patience, trial and error with many different people and a willingness to understand that many mistakes will be made and corrected, along the way. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do; however, as months and years passed, I became more effective at building business systems and designing clear divisions of authority and responsibility. My business continued to grow, I began to gain more and more control over my time and more of my employees improved their management and leadership skills.
Thanks to delegating successfully, my philosophy and life have changed 180 degrees. I now believe that time is the most valuable commodity I have and how I spend it is paramount. I no longer work weekends or 80 hours a week. Don't get me wrong, I could. I just have chosen not to, and with that choice have designed my business and my life so I control how I spend my time. How did I do it? How is this possible? I made a deliberate decision to redesign my life and business. I have assembled an unbelievable team at my company, Sharp Details, Inc. and it is this team that has been built over many years, that has allowed me the benefit of spending my time as I choose.
The amazing thing is that since I have set the business up in this way and delegated tasks I am not good at (in an effort to achieve personal freedom) my business has improved tremendously. It runs more efficiently without my hands in everything, it provides jobs for more people, it serves our customers better, and it generates greater revenue than ever. I have finally begun to achieve true success. To me, that means having the ability to spend my time the way I want to spend it. This control over my time has allowed me the flexibility to spend valuable time with my wife Carrie, our children and at the same time, grow my company 30% per year over the last three years. It has provided me with the luxury of being able to pursue other interests including creating a foundation, starting a new company and writing this book. I also have plenty of opportunity for recreational activities I enjoy, such as traveling with my family and surfing and golfing with my buddies.
The average person will spend 110,000 hours of their life on their career (commuting and working 50 hours per week for a 44 year career from the age of 21-65). This means you spend more time working and commuting than you will ever spend with your family. Is this what you want? Do you so love your job or your business that you would spend this much time at it, or do you need to make a change? Outside of work, the time you spend with others is another critical amount of time you should analyze. Who are you spending your time with? Do you hang out with people who support you and give you encouragement on a daily basis? Are they positive and fun?
What about your loved ones? Most of us spend time planning for work, exercise, special events, dinner and a host of other things. How much time do you actively plan to spend with your loved ones or do they just get whatever time is leftover?
To design the life of your dreams, you must gain control of your time. This is the first step and here are six guidelines to help you get started. They will help you begin thinking about how you spend your time. Remember, your time is your most valuable asset and it is the biggest factor in designing the life of your dreams.
1. Start every day with a plan. I write my daily plan on an index card every night before I go to bed. This keeps you organized and on task.
2. Ask your workplace to offer you opportunities to work from home, or pay you for your results instead of your time.
3. Ask your workplace to offer you flexible hours. Maybe you can go in early some days and late on others.
4. Explore opportunities/companies that offer jobs working from home utilizing today's technology
5. Manage how you communicate:
– Turn off all email alerts on your computer and phone.
– Put your phone on vibrate.
– Put an auto response on your email letting others know you will respond at certain times or days so they do not expect an immediate response.
– Plan time with your spouse and kids first, and then fill in around that.
– Designate 1-2 days per week that you do not check email or work phone.
– At dinners out, ball games, and special events leave your communication device in the car.
6. Before making commitments to others, ask these questions: Do I like being with this person? Do they make me feel good? Do we have fun together? If you answer "no" to any of these questions, rethink spending time with this person. If you answer "no" and you are married to this person, get professional help! Life is too short to spend time feeling angst towards the person you have married.
How is Your Health?
Good health is essential for achieving and living a life that is full of joy and happiness. Good health will provide you with the stamina to face life's challenges, the energy to play, and the stamina to take a long walk. It will give you a mental awareness and strength that can only be discovered when you are in good shape. It will also give you the energy to balance your time between family, work, social commitments, and travel. Most of all, great health will provide you with longevity and extra years that will allow you to more fully enjoy all of life's pleasures.
For any of you who have been overweight and then been disciplined enough to lose it and get in shape, you know there is no comparison between how you feel at your ideal weight and how you felt when you are heavy. Imagine yourself enjoying working out five days per week, eating fruits and vegetables (colorful and vibrant), getting plenty of rest, reducing your stress and being your ideal body weight. Ladies, imagine getting into your size 6-8 jeans you haven't worn since high school! Just the description of this makes you feel good. Now imagine yourself 30 pounds overweight, always tired, eating a regular diet of french fries, burgers and cookies (brown, bland, mushy, greasy), getting no exercise, wearing clothes that don't fit and always exhausted from lack of sleep. Now, how do you feel? You see your health and weight immediately affect you mentally as well as physically. Most people don't get this.
The biggest reason I work out five to six days per week, eat a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, limit any kind of prescription drugs, drink plenty of water, try to sleep at least six-plus hours every night, quit chewing tobacco after 25 years, and try to stay as close to my ideal weight as possible is simple. Why? I want to live as long as possible. Have you ever thought about this? How long do you want to live? One of my sisters was killed at 19 in an alcohol-related automobile accident. My mom was a heavy smoker and died at age 53 from cancer. It is heartbreaking to think of all of the things they missed because of poor choices in lifestyle: so many birthdays, ball games, dance recitals, grandchildren, weddings, baptisms, family gatherings, sunsets, and adventure. I want you to think long and hard about your current lifestyle.
Will you be here to see your children mature and grow old? Will you be here to watch them raise their families and pursue their dreams? Will you be here to enjoy and support them? Be honest with yourself. Are you going to make it to see the grandkids? Or are you going to be gone from this earth because of poor health brought on by poor choices. How is your health?
Achieving the life of your dreams will require energy. You should want as many extra years as possible to enjoy. You are also going to need the self confidence that comes with looking and feeling your best.
Here are a few statistics to think about:
– The average American female lives to be 77 years old, the average male 73.
– Smoking cigarettes can take an average of 10 years off of your life.
– Being overweight by 20-30 pounds can take an extra five years off of your life.
– According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), heart disease is the number - one killer in America. One person dies every minute from a heart attack.
– Being overweight by 20-30 pounds can increase your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other weight related diseases. Obesity (being more than 20% over your ideal body weight) greatly increases the risk.
– The average male exercises 1.5 times per week and the average female 1.1 times per week. Sixty minutes of exercise five days per week is recommended.
How Are Your Relationships?
Those who have achieved great things in life most likely have not done so by themselves. They have had the help of many different relationships, usually involving a spouse, business partners, work colleagues and friends. You need support from a variety of people, and that requires you to maintain healthy relationships. How are your relationships? Are they caring and loving and supportive? Do they give you inspiration and energy or do they drain you of your energy? Are they filled with anxiety and stress? Are they antagonistic?
If you are married or have a significant other in your life, this is the most important relationship to help you achieve the things you want in life. You must constantly work at this relationship through the inevitable disagreements, arguments, good times and bad times. It will get stronger as you go. What I find with many people is that they don't understand how much you need to work on a relationship. The couples I have seen that are the happiest are constantly communicating with each other, not always agreeing, but constantly communicating. This is critical, especially in a day and age when there are so many distractions.
Relationships take time, commitment and most of all patience. What was the last thing you said to your spouse before you left today? When was the last time you showed up with flowers or a gift for no reason? When was the last time you told your spouse how beautiful or handsome they were? We often forget these simple gestures because "life" tends to get in the way. Work, email, the kids' schedules and many other commitments occupy our time. As I said earlier, one of the first steps is that you must look at how you truly spend your time. After you do this, you must first schedule time for yourself, your family and your spouse. Then think about friends, old and new. Call them, email them, or invite them for dinner. Go out of your way to be loving and kind to the people you care about most.
My wife often reminds our children, "We are here on earth for one reason and that is to help others and make others feel good." I remember the first time she said this, and I realized that I had never looked at it like that. If everyone went out each day with this philosophy, can you imagine how your relationships with all those around you (including complete strangers) would change? The purpose of our relationships is to help others reach their highest potential and to nurture one another to reach our goals.
We also need others to be around us to give us a sense of worth and a reason to rise each day. We need that sense of camaraderie as humans. Remember this as you leave in the morning to go to work and you look into the eyes of your spouse or children or you wave to your neighbor. We need a connection to other human beings. When you think of the people you have relationships with, think about what you can do for them, not what they need to do for you. And by doing this, you will find that they will help you along the way to create the life you want.
How Is Your Faith?
My faith is a big part of who I am and is an important part of my relationship with my family, especially my children. Your belief is what it is. If your belief is strong, I encourage you to nurture it. If you have no belief or very little, I encourage you to try to discover it. My faith in God and the strength that faith gives me has allowed me to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles and taken me from a place of fear and failure to a place of absolute joy and success.
My faith in God gives me the strength to be a loving father and husband, business owner, friend, and good citizen of this great country. My belief has helped me through the deaths of a sister and both of my parents. It has provided me strength when my business was on the verge of going bankrupt and was under siege from a lawsuit. And most of all, God and my belief in God bring me great joy on a beautiful spring day when all is going perfectly. When I look at my beautiful family and all of the joy that nature and my many friends bring, who else can receive the credit but God?
I want you to give great thought to your faith and what it means to you and those around you. We will discuss gratitude and faith to a greater degree in Chapter Three. For now, answer the question, how is your faith?
What Is Important to YOU?
To design the life you have always wanted or to make any positive change in your life you have to know what is important to you. Many people will say that their family is important to them, but then they will work 80 hours per week and not spend time with their family. Or someone will say their health is important, but then they will not do anything to support good health. So, what is important to you? Is it the accumulation of toys and possessions or is it the accumulation of experiences that you share with those around you? I used to struggle with this until a good friend of mine posed a question to me one day. I now call it the Christmas Gift Question.
As I talked with my friend David Allen, describing the book I was writing, we discussed a struggle I was having. I explained to him that I had a lot of ambitious business goals and like to own nice things and have the ability to travel, but that was causing a strain on my family and my relationships. The conflict I faced was the choice between spending time with my family and pursuing my business goals. With that, he hit me with the following question: it is what I call The Christmas Gift Question.
"Tell me one gift you remember getting for Christmas each year as a kid from the age of five to fifteen," David said. I stammered for a moment, not being able to think of any, and then I did manage to remember getting skis one Christmas when I was probably about seven and the football game with the guys that would vibrate up and down the field and the field goal kicker that you hit on the head. That was all that I could clearly remember over ten years of Christmas during my childhood.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Practical Guide To Exceptional Living"
by .
Copyright © 2010 Jim Garland.
Excerpted by permission of Morgan James Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Chapter 1 Are You Living the Life of Your Dreams? 5
Chapter 2 Your Health and Longevity 25
Chapter 3 The Power of Gratitude and Faith 47
Chapter 4 Attitude and the Law of Attraction 61
Chapter 5 The Money Dance 77
Chapter 6 The Life of Your Dreams: Setting and Reaching Your Goals 105
Chapter 7 Proof and Resources 123
Resource Guide 131