Lifestyle Mastery Boxed Set

by Scott Allan

  Success is rarely accomplished alone. Friends, business partners, or family members can add a lot of weight to your success. As you succeed and raise the quality of your own life, you raise the bar for everyone. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?

  4. Take one action every day

  As soon as your goals are set, get busy! People with ambition are never bored. We always have something to work on, even if it’s a small task. The achievement of a goal is a daily effort.

  On the days you don’t feel like doing anything, even ten minutes working at something can account for a lot. If you take two or three days off, this leads into a week, and then a month, and before you know it you’ve lost sight of everything. It’s happened to me several times, and it was a lot of work to pull myself back on track because I had derailed so far.

  Do something every day that contributes to your future. Don’t worry about doing it perfectly. Your actions will stimulate the motivation you need.

  5. Read material that influences you

  Motivation is like a wave; it rises and falls. When you have a bad day during which you don’t accomplish much, find something stimulating to read.

  Listed below are my recommendations for personal development. Some of these books have helped me, and when I felt lost, the wisdom and advice of others paved a brighter path for me. Read the works of people who encourage you, because it will have a profound impact on the way you think and feel.

  Here are some reading recommendations:

  1. The One Thing by Gary Keller

  2. Do It Scared by Scott Allan

  3. Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins

  4. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose by Eckhart Tolle

  5. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

  6. The Miracle Morning: The 6 Habits That Will Transform Your Life (Before 8 AM) by Hal Elrod

  7. Living Forward: A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy

  8. The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do by Jeff Goins

  9. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

  10. The Power of Positive Thinking: 10 Traits for Maximum Results by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

  11. The Success Principles by Jack Canfield

  12. Habit Stacking by S.J. Scott

  6. Keep track of your progress

  A lofty goal could take as long as five, ten, or even twenty years to reach. Most people find it a challenge to maintain that much patience or level of persistence. This is why we need to monitor our success as it is happening. The completion of a goal, after all, is a combination of all the little things you are doing every day.

  You can start by making a list of all the short tasks and small goals you are going to accomplish for the week. Create an action plan and stick with it by performing small tasks daily. Print out your list of tasks and tack it up on your wall.

  At the end of the week, when you are finished with that piece of paper, file it away. Don’t get rid of it. You want to be able to look back at your task sheet and see that you have been making progress as the action steps you achieved are crossed off. Keeping score will make you feel good. You can see the progress happening because it’s measurable.

  My suggestion is to put aside ten minutes a night to read your goals over and plan ahead for the following day. Then, monitor your progress and keep score of your achievements.

  7. Keep a goal-mapping journal

  A goal-mapping journal is a great way to keep track. Several years ago, I started a goal-mapping journal, and to this day I use it to measure where I am, as well as update and add new entries whenever I need to.

  A goal-mapping journal is used to record your intentions. You’ll use this to list your dreams and goals. I like to use goal-setting templates. Then, using tape or glue, I will fix the template inside my goal-mapping journal.

  For some goals I include magazine or Internet pictures, as well as any articles or sources of interest about the goal I have. A goal-mapping journal keeps things neat and tidy. It’s also a great way of staying on track.

  Goal Building Action Plan

  1. Looking back over your goals, how do you feel about what you have written down? Do you feel energized and excited about the path you detailed for yourself? Is there anything you want to change right now? If so, take the time to think about it and alter your goals.

  2. What is your lifetime goal? What is the deadline you have set for this goal? What category does this goal fall under? Write down as much detail as you can.

  3. What is your number one power goal for this year? What is your number two power goal? What is your plan for reaching these goals? Describe them here.

  4. Have you shared your goals with anyone else? If so, what was their reaction?

  Is there someone you know who could use your help? Is this person interested in what you are working on? If so, what can you do to help them?

  5. What are the special skills you need to develop before you can achieve one or more of your goals? Is more research necessary?

  6. What are some goals that you’ve already accomplished? Were they important to the purpose in life that you have now?

  7. Sit quietly for ten minutes and give yourself time and space to think about this. Imagine yourself twenty years from now. You are looking back at what you have accomplished.

  Imagine that you have succeeded at many of your goals and your life has changed incredibly—and so have you. How does this make you feel? Spend ten minutes every evening visualizing this.

  Destiny Builders Checklist

  Commit your goal to paper. Write a brief statement about the goal.

  Create a working list of steps necessary for achieving this goal.

  Visualize the goal coming true.

  Create a deadline.

  Place the goal into a category.

  Define the desired result(s) of achieving your goals.

  Monitor and track your progress.

  Review your progress.

  Revise your goals on a regular basis.

  Describe the expected life impact of achieving your goals.

  Describe who you will become after achieving a lifelong goal of significant importance.

  Create a personal philosophy statement.

  SECTION IV:

  Building Better Habits

  “Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones.”

  — Benjamin Franklin

  Habits of Destiny

  “Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.”

  — Warren Buffet

  Your habits, for better or for worse, have had a massive impact on defining who you are today. The habits you focus on will determine who you become in the future and the kind of work you do. Habits, and the repetitive actions that make them, will ultimately define the quality of your lifestyle, for today and in your future.

  Habits don’t just happen. They are formed from a young age, and will transition throughout your lifetime. But if you just let your habits “happen to you” rather than choosing the habits you need, you will become a slave to your circumstances. You cannot be in charge of your destiny if you are not in control of the habit that governs your actions.

  We have to create a pattern of consistent actions that move us closer to our dreams and goals.

  How can we do this?

  First, by making yourself aware of the good and bad habits you have. You might have more good than bad, or vice versa. Either way, by replacing (not eliminating) your bad habits, you can open up the channels for better productivity, less stress, and alleviate the frequency of your boredom cycles.

  For example, I have a strong desire to wake up early every morning. Why? I want to write a book, and I can use that time to write. But if I am used to waking up at 6:30 every
morning, getting up at five a.m. will be challenging. I might struggle and find an excuse for not getting up early. Chances are, if I try to do this, I’ll end up hitting the snooze button and sleeping until I am ready to get up, which is usually 6:30. But I could get up at six.

  So, I start small. I don’t start by waking up at five on the first day. I start by waking up fifteen minutes earlier. You can even try ten minutes earlier each day.

  What are the kind of habits we should be focusing on?

  If you hold the desire to be a wealthy person, you must forge the behavioral habits that create wealth. If your desire is to create change in the world, your habits must be in alignment with the right actions to create these changes.

  Positive habits, such as exercising and eating well, create richer lives. Poor habits, such as smoking or impulsive shopping, can lead you to poverty in both health and personal finances.

  The Repetition of Habit

  Through consistency, you can have life-shaping experiences. Your habits are the thick roots of destiny. When molded in childhood, habits transform our lives in countless ways, affecting life-making decisions and future events. Good habits form character, broaden your mindset, and generate positive energy to reduce stress and anxiety.

  The nature of any habit is repetition. The force of that habit is decided by the results you get from the action. If you have a bad habit or an addiction such as gambling, your reward is the euphoric high you feel when you win. But the result is that you could lose all your money.

  A better habit would be to invest your money. While you may not see the return on your investment as quickly as you would from winning a game, over time you’ll be rewarded. The nature of your success depends on the habits you feed.

  First of all, a behavior is only a bad habit if it harms you in some way. While most bad habits are obvious, such as smoking or gambling excessively, we continue to do them because of the perceived reward.

  You might spend money frivolously, leaving nothing at the end of the month because of the high you get from buying something. Compare that to someone else who has saved their money, putting away just five dollars per day. At the end of the year, they can fulfill one of their dreams, such as taking a trip to Europe.

  The habits you adopt have a direct influence on the fulfillment you experience in your life. Habits provide a sense of order and organized structure to daily living, regardless of whether they’re good or bad.

  Similar to our DNA, your habits are a unique part of you. While we can’t change our DNA, we can change our habits.

  Habits designed specifically with your purpose and core objectives serve to help you in ways that nothing else can. How you think, how you act and react, how you work, and how you respond to your emotions serves as the benchmark for what you’ll achieve, who you will become, and where you’re going to end up.

  In order for us to master anything in this world, it is imperative that we first learn to master our habits. Whether you consider yourself a success, a failure, or a mediocre achiever, your habits have played a powerful role in the path you have chosen for yourself.

  If you can accept this, you can realize this one important point: You’re either in control of your habits, or your habits are in control of you. Unfortunately, many people fail to master their lives because they never gain control of their habits.

  If your goal is to make lasting changes in your life, you have to gain control of your most prominent habits. You have to remove the repetitive and damaging actions holding you back and replace them with massive, mind-blowing habits that generate real results.

  Habits can be molded, and how you mold them is up to you. Your habits build character, and then your character builds your life.

  In the first section of this book, we looked at the vision you have for your life and how critical this is. As important as it is, your vision needs action, and those actions can be found in your daily habits.

  Just as they can provide us with everything we’ve ever wanted, a lack of positive habits leads to lethargy, poor decisions, confusion, wasted time, and self-destructive behavior. Feeding into this chaos leaves you with weak choices and limitations that lead to undesirable results.

  Think about the people in your life. What habits are they implementing? Are they in control of their habits, or are the habits controlling them? What habits do you have that you’re controlling? What do you struggle with?

  Answering these questions can help you focus on the habits that matter, training your mind to cut away at those habits that derail your focus and productivity.

  Building Positive Habits

  A habit is a learned action acquired through conditioned responses that take years to build. You can choose to act out the habits you have always had and achieve the same repetitive results. Or you can try new things by taking the initiative to build a set of actions that lay the foundation for new patterns. In doing so, you choose to live the life you want instead of being conditioned to live the one you don’t need.

  Many people have the desire to change and do something different, but they fail to change the habits that lead them to certain failure. The level of success you will achieve in your lifetime is easy to predict; just look at your present habits and you will know exactly what you’ll end up with.

  Excessive TV watching, excessive shopping, and excessive pleasure-seeking devices become the standard for out of control patterns that lead to dead ends. Either you will gain control of your daily habits, or they will control you, and they will damage your self-esteem and confidence.

  We form habits that waste time and trap us in a system of repetition that we later regret.

  Some of these habits could include:

  Watching TV in excess

  Smoking

  Trolling the Internet with your smartphone

  Eating junk food

  Playing video games for over three hours a week

  Impulsive shopping

  Complaining about your family, friends, and coworkers

  There are two types of habits—passive and active. We don’t have to think about passive habits. They are so ingrained in us that a decision isn’t required to take action. For example, if brushing your teeth after dinner is something you have been doing for twenty years, this is a passive habit. As long as a passive habit isn’t causing you any harm, there’s no need to change it. Besides, brushing your teeth is always a good thing.

  Another passive habit could be watching television every night. It is so ingrained in you that you turn the TV on as soon as you get home from work. The next day you get up and go to work again. Again, there’s nothing wrong with this routine—unless you are miserable and you want to change it. If so, you know that you have the ability and the choice to turn any habit around.

  Forging Patterns for

  Lasting Success

  “Change might not be fast and it isn't always easy. But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.”

  ― Charles Duhigg, author of

  The Power of Habit

  The moment you stop letting life happen to you and start making things happen, you have the advantage. Instead of saying, “I’ll just wait and see what happens next,” take a position of power in your life, make a proactive choice, and say, “This is what’s going to happen!” Make a habit out of taking charge.

  Ask yourself whether you want to live the remainder of your existence doing the things you’ve always done, using the same worn-out habits that bring the same disappointing results. Or would it make more sense to adopt a new way of thinking, a different way to respond to circumstances and people instead of letting the situation dictate your next step?

  In this section, we’re going to cover the habit-building process, and then learn how we can eliminate habits that keep us from living our destiny.

  You don’t have to live in the past anymore. Whatever you did or didn’t do, however you may have lived your life yesterday, the only thing that matters now is how you live to
day. Are you ready to commit to creating a powerful mental highway that provides new experiences, choices, and emotions?

  The Power of Repetition: Building Blocks of Destiny

  Through building a system of actionable habits, you will be able to think more clearly and stay focused on your objectives without getting distracted.

  By building a new habit that is in direct line with your goals and values, you can gain control of your life. Through constructing a system of new habits and actionable patterns, you can replace outdated thought patterns and train your mind to act in accordance with your values.

  You can identify what matters and ignore what is irrelevant. Many people fail because they have built a pattern of habits that bring trouble. These are habits that are reactionary, and they will fail you. A reactive habit means you’re reacting without intention.

  By building powerful, repetitive habits, you are laying down the foundation for a new life. Habits practiced with consistency create opportunities that never would have existed otherwise.

  You can change anything in your life if you stick to these steps:

  Know what you want to achieve.

  Know the reasons why you’re on this path.

  Know how you’ll accomplish what you’re trying to do.

  Continue to reinforce new patterns on a consistent basis.

  Continue to substitute old behaviors for healthier choices.

  Review your current actions and habits on a regular basis.

  Follow these steps and you will acquire the skills to transform your life. But first you must acquire the habit, and the habit, once formed into an unbreakable chain, will bring what you desire.

  Constructing a System of Good Habits

  Let’s take a few minutes to do a simple exercise. I want you to make a list of habits you’re willing to change today. I use the word willing because—even if you fail at your first attempts—as long as you keep trying, your chances of success increase with every failure.