| Before you begin reading this page I suggest you grap a pen, or pencil and a blank piece of paper, and as you read this page complete the action sections.  1. What do I know? Ok that’s the first dumb question. No! Why I asked this is because I bet you could list all those things that you consider your weaknesses. You’ve probably had them drummed into you since school and by your friends and family. At this point I say so what! So commence with those skills you have … not with what skills are absent, or with what is problematic, or which you think you need. Because this process is skills-based, it is by necessity “internally abundance focused” not “externally deficiency focused”. There is little future for anyone having strong weaknesses (which are what you will achieve otherwise). So what contributes to what you know? - Your formal education received
- Your life skills
- On the job training
- Skills picked up in community and volunteer organisations
You can also look at the concept of “emotional intelligence” at this stage as well. Action: List all the skills you have. Don’t be modest; be fair, to yourself and your innate skills. We all have knowledge and skills that we take as “given”, and assume that every one else has them and therefore they don’t count. Well this time count them. Make the list long and detailed, pages long. The more you can put down the better.
Get cracking and enjoy learning about what you know.  2. What’s on my check list?
So you’re planning an overseas holiday for 3 months. What do you do at the beginning? Make a list of all those things that need doing and when they need doing by and by whom. Things such as passports, tickets, immunization and insurance are all supplied by others. But where do you record when you need to have things done by, and when you must do things by? These are tools to ensure you stay in control of what needs doing. In your every day activities at home or work you have systems to record all sorts of activity. - Diaries
- Contact lists
- Accounting/bookkeeping software
- Quality Assurance Software
- OH&S records
Having all of these in place and functioning well in the background removes a great deal of environmental stress from you. Action: So what key points do you need to monitor and what tools do you use to keep a record of the activity? What is critical and what to you need to have some control over?  3. What’s out of my control?
Will it actually rain on your parade? Will there be a strike?
Will the network go down?
Will there be a power blackout?
Will the stock market crash?
Will you have any mobile phone service? Ok so I’m being negative here. What I’m asking you to see is that you can’t control everything nor should you want to. This may be against the innate nature of some, but this is not necessarily “bad”. So you can’t control the weather and it’s an important factor, what do you do? Assess the risk of getting adverse weather. What if it rains?
What if it’s windy?
What if it’s a real scorcher of a day? How will that affect your activity and what contingencies can you put in place. Look also a little deeper at this concept of control and risk. What about risk of failure?
What about risk of success? How would each of these affect you and the activity? You see being in control doesn’t mean controlling those things we can’t. It means being in control of our reactions and planning for contingencies and adverse scenarios. What’s out of your control?
What are your plans to manage its impact on you?
Can you pass the risk onto someone else more suited? (With their knowledge of course) Action: Itemise what things or events could cause you grief. What would be your reaction if these actually happened? What could you turn to your advantage?
 4. What do I want? Success?
Money?
Happiness?
Popularity? So what does success mean to you?
Without a definition of where it is that you are going your decision making will always be clouded with endless soul searching and sleepless nights. When is enough … enough when it comes to money?
When I have a million dollars in the bank. Fine … but isn’t that a bit fixed, unwavering and limiting. What happens when you get one thousand or one hundred thousand dollars more? Will you be even happier? What happens if you aren’t there … will you be unhappy? What is it that the million dollars represents? Security? Freedom? Why not redefine that to ….. I’ll have enough money when I have little need to worry about my income. This definition is broader and covers more issues than just dollars. A lot more factors come into play here and they must be coordinating to achieve the outcome. When will you be happy? What does happiness mean, really mean to you?
Think about the feelings and emotional rewards not the structure and financial. So here’s the question again. What do you want?
What are you seeking? Be really sure that’s what you want, that the outcome of all of this is clear. Action: Write it down. Clarify it!
 5. Who’s in charge?
Many people don’t like being “in charge”.
Others love it … they’re the control freaks. Hold it!! Being in charge isn’t about control or power. So let’s begin again. Are you organized?
Do you have procedures in place to ensure that things get done?
What do you do with the information that your check list generates?
What mechanisms do you have to respond to changes in the risks we discussed earlier?
What happens if your computers crash?
How will you respond? Managing yourself and your business is an important part of working through the change process. What do you have in place to manage what happens in your life? If you can’t do it, who can? Action: List the skills that are important to managing the task or the outcome you are trying to achieve.
 6. Who cares?
Nobody cares now days … they just drop rubbish, drive on the road as if they are the only ones there, verbally and physically abuse others and in general respect no one else’s feelings. Things have changed so much from when we were growing up. So what are we really saying here? Don’t worry about anyone else. Look in the mirror. Do YOU care?
What about?
Who? Do you take care of your health?
Do you care about what you place in your mouth?
Do you care how well groomed you are?
Do you care about the clothes you wear?
Do you care about your friends and how they may be feeling?
Do you care about the customers or clients you serve? Or is this just all talk? Do you care about what you read or say about or to others? You see if we don’t care, what right have we got to complain about others? So begin with yourself … in a respectful way.
Then look at those in your family?
How about your work place?
What about your community? Do you care … or is it just words? Action: Write down what you care about and read what it is that you’ve written. What changes would you like to make?
Are there any groupings from this list that arise?
What do you think this indicates?
 7. I’ve always wanted to …
Nirvana Bliss Challenge Inspiration Yeesss!!!! This is the place we all want to be. “I’ve always wanted to …” gets the juices’ really flowing, doesn’t it? We all have things that we would just love to do and to see happen that we can place at the end of this. So what about it?
What have you always wanted to do? The conundrum here is that in setting out what it is that you’ve always wanted to do immediately I would ask you “What do you know that can help move this forward?” and the whole process starts again Rather than do this and cut short the exercise lets look at this further and learn something from it. Action: Write down your list of “I’ve always wanted to’s”.
Make it long and descriptive as many as you can. Now see if you can categorise this list into groups. It could be personal challenges; it could be things to do with your family or financial or business issues. What can you learn from this? Is there a message that something is missing in your life? Or that there is some bigger challenge that you really want to achieve but have placed hurdles in the way.
My observation. Most people will have read through these words and agreed to some of the questions, disagreed with others. I would most likely be right to say you haven’t grabbed a piece of paper and written anything down, or scrawled any notes in the gap around the page if you printed this out. Have you taken any action?
Why is it that some people will make the effort to change, whilst others will not? And why some people read through these words, accept what I am saying … and yet do nothing? The answer is unnervingly simple. I’m not offering magical solution. • In the end people make changes because they choose to change, they choose to act.
• Most people do not make these choices., even though they may be unhappy with their life.
• Many people complain vehemently and yet take no action to deaden the pain. What many do not do, is make two key steps……
decide to change and take action. Many will take a stab at the first area ... yeah I would like to change. I think things could be better. They then proceed to take tentative steps. They might try something, buy a book or even attend a seminar. How would you rate their (your) commitment to action? Australians are the largest consumers of the output of the personal development industry, in the world.
Many of these people do little other than observe?
Are you one of these? If you think you are one of these people then I strongly recommend you try working through this document again. Lock onto your purpose, find the energy that surrounds it and find the energy to take action. The people who get the most out of life choose to take action. Sometimes the catalyst is not internal; some outside force has created the impetus. Other people can’t wait to be proactive. They decide that they aren’t doing what they want and choose to change. And more importantly choose to take action. I trust that you will make a similar choice. You’ve got this far so you’re on your way. If you haven’t completed the activities then go back and do them. There’s no substitute for action. Before you go on and do something else stop here! Do you like where you are at present? Do you want to continue to live this way or run your business this way for the next 5, 10 years? Then just do it! How about an alternative: I can hear the sighs of relief already. A short cut … something that will get me to where I want … now! WRONG!!!! What I’m offering you is a process where you direct change for yourself but not by yourself. The process is where you work with me and where I support you in the following roles. As a mentor to believe in you and help you set bigger goals for yourself...
As a manager to break down the goals into 'do-able bits'...
As a personal trainer that will keep you moving along your path and
As a sports coach to give you feedback to help improve your game. Like to know more then make contact with me here or read about the challenges here . I won't say good luck ... it's good strategies, management or planning you most likely need. I look forward to your feedback. 
Andrew Young | 
