"Mastering the 7 Decisions" from the Travlers Gift by Andy Andrews > Decisions 1-4

THE RESPONSIBLE DECISION – The buck stops here

Taking Personal Inventory

To take responsibility for your life, you must first take a ‘personal  inventory’ of where you are right now. In your journal, on a scale from one to ten – one being miserable and ten outstanding – rate how you feel you’re doing in each of the following categories: Emotionally, physically, financially, spiritually, socially, professionally, and with your family.

Learning from Failure

What has been your biggest failure so far in your life? Think about it.

What came out of that experience? What did you learn? How is your life now different or better as a consequence of this ‘ failure’? Write down in your journal what you learned from this failure.

The Impact of our Decisions

To fully understand that you are where you are as a result of your decisions, do the following:

Choose an area of your life from the Personal Inventory exercise.

1.      Reflect on the choices you’ve made in the past that may have contributed to your current situation. Remember, every decision not to do something is still a decision.

2.      List at least five decisions (big or small) you have made or didn’t make over the last five years that have contributed to where you are in that area of your life.

Do  you notice any pattern? Are you beginning to see how you have greater power to influence your results than you may have previously realized?

Crafting your Ultimate Vision

Many people complain about where they are in life; however, very few people know where they want to be. In the Personal Inventory exercise, you rated each major area of your life from one to tehn. Do you know what a ‘ten’ would look like for you?

As Yogi Berra said “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

Think about the overall lifestyle you want to create and craft the Ultimate Vision for y our life – what will it look like when it’s a ‘ten’? Here are a few questions to consider:

1.      What will your relationships be like – within your family, socially and professionally?

2.      What will your finances look like? What will your business affairs look like?

3.      What will you overall emotional patterns look like? Will you be a master of your emotions? How will you know when you’re truly happy?

4.      In what areas of your life will you grow the most? What will you attract into your life as a consequence of your growth?

5.      How will you handle yourself in difficult situations?

6.      How will you evolve spiritually?

Realizing your Future Identity

Now that you’ve identified your Ultimate Vision, ask yourself Who do I need to become to realize this vision? Albert Einstein said, “A problem cannot be solved by the same consciousness that created it” Like it or not, you are where you are because of what you are right now. As a human spirit with infinite potential, you are bound only by your self-imposed limitations.

How will you need to treat other people? How will you need to treat yourself? What will you need to ready and study? What lessons will you need to learn? With whom will you need to surround yourself? What will you need to think and believe about yourself? What will you need to believe about those around you?

Capture as many ideas as you can in your journal.

THE GUIDED DECISION – I will seek wisdom

Constructing your Personal Library

Wisdom in the words of successful men and women throughout history can be found in books. You are who you spend time with, and you are what you read. There’s nothing wrong with reading fiction or magazines for entertainment, but wisdom is generally found in nonfiction books.

Oftentimes, we ‘accidentally’ get conditionad intro reading only nonfiction books that are related to our primary field of interest. Sometimes, it’s useful to explore subjects that seem to have nothing to do with your occupational endeavors and let your mind make its own connections.

In your journal, list ten subjects you’ve always been curious about. Within the next 24 hours, go online or visit your local bookstore or library to pick up a few titles that spark your interest.

Harnessing your Inner Circle

The Guided Decision teaches us that to a large degree, we are who we spend time with.

1.                  In your journal, list everyone you consider to be in your ‘inner circle’ – those closest to you who influence your life, including family members, friends, and colleagues.

2.                  This decision teaches us that our peers either stretch us or burden us. Next to each name, put an arrow to denote which direction the person is leading you.

3.                  Do you see any pattern? Are there a few people with whom you spend time who generally sour your life experiences? Or do you invest most of your time with those souls who challenge you, uplift you and help you to become aware?

Creating your Board of Directors

With whom might you cultivate a relationship (or make use of an existing one) to create your own personal board of directors? You may choose advisors for various areas of your life. We must become masters at knowing where to seek the appropriate counsel.

In your journal, list the names of potential board members and the area of your life in which they would advise you. Don’t limit yourself to people within your inner circle. Remember,  you don’t even have to tell these people they’re on your board – it can be your own little secret. And sometimes,  the information you receive will be more to the point and pure without your director aware of the pressure of ‘mentoring’!

Cultivating the Servants Spirit

What can you do to begin or continue cultivating a servant’s spirit? Can you volunteer at your church or community center? Can you visit the elderly at your local hospital? Can you spend more time with your family? Can you schedule a call to a family member, just to make him/her smile? Can you commit random acts of kindness?

Brainstorm a list of ideas and commit to doing at least one in the next five days.

The Legacy Experiment

What if your life was an experiment? What is the legacy you would like to leave? How will you serve the generations to come?

Your choices will determine the answers to this question. Capture your living legacy right now in your journal.

THE ACTIVE DECISION – I am a person of action

Overcoming Fear

Fear debilitates action. Where has fear hindered your progress? Has fear kept you from pursuing a job promotion, diving in a new career,  going after a big account, innovating, or reinventing your business? Fear of failure, humiliation, or making mistakes hinders our creative impulses and our ability to create extraordinary changes in the world.

1.      To overcome fear, we must first identify it. Identify five places in your life and business where fear has hindered your progress.

2.      What if fear was no longer a factor? State an affirmative decision for each of the fears you listed in 1. What actions are you committed to taking (on a consistent basis) to make your fears irrelevant? Create a list of action steps for moving beyond each fear.

The Deathbed Exercise

Write a glowing, incredible eulogy you would like to have read aloud at your funeral. Here are some key questions to help:

1.      What was your life’s work about?

2.      Who was affected as a result of your actions?

3.      Who was made a better person because of you?

4.      What were three biggest events that happened because of you?

5.      For what will you be remembered?

6.      How was the world different because of you?

Write your eulogy in your journal, then type and print it. Carry it with you  wherever you go.

1.      Share your eulogy with the three most important people in your life. Ask them for their feedback and suggestions on what needs to happen for you to become the person in the eulogy. Practically speaking, to make your eulogy a reality, where do you begin?

2.      Put your eulogy into a Power Point Presentation to help you visualize what you want to do.

Embracing the Power of Action

In the realizing your future identity exercise in the Responsible Decision, you identified the person you need to become in order to realize your Ultimate Vision. Now, you need to identify the steps to take today, tomorrow, and in the weeks, months, and years to come to help move you toward that self-actualized person.

Quickly scan what you wrote for both the Crafting you Vision and Realizing your Future Identity exercises. Next, capture ten things you can do in the next 24 hours to move you in that direction.

Who can you call? What can you research? What book do you need to read? What action can you take to help move you toward your Ultimate Vision? List ten actions that you are committed to taking in the next 48 hours.

30 Day Early to Rise Challenge

I present to you the 30 day challenge. For 30 days, get up an hour earlier before the rest of your family.

Your objective when you wake up in the morning is to come up with several new ideas that motivate and inspire you. Keep a pen and paper nearby and jot down the first twenty ideas that come to mind. Think quickly. Brainstorm. Circle the idea that most stands out to you or is most important to you. To set that idea into motion, quickly brainstorm 5 ideas you can take within 24 hours to accomplish the idea and do them.

Over thirty days, you will have come up with 30 new ideas. Any one of these can take your life in an incredible new direction.

Capitilizing on Your Strengths

We each excel in certain areas. Some of us are fast runners. Some of us are sharp thinkers. Others might be better at managing finances or communicating. Some are more caring, loving, uplifting, loyal. You get the idea.

We don’t want to only identify areas we need to improve; we want to capitalize on our God given strengths! If we capitalize on our current strengths, we can create momentum and take on the challenges that await us.

Clarify what you’re great at – what you do best and enjoy most. What’s your hot zone? What your current areas of mastery? List your strengths in your journal?

Your Roles in Action

John Adams knew his role: “I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”

How do you see yourself? Write down three roles that you feel identify who you are what your life is about (i.e. visionary businessperson, extraordinary father/mother, etc…)

What specific actions can you take that are linked to each of these roles?

THE CERTAIN DECISION – I have a decided heart

Identifying your Drivers

At this point in our exploration of the Seven Decisions, you’ve identified numerous areas for growth and even committed to some actions. Now, based on what you’ve learned about yourself thus far, choose three specific decisions you have made in the course of working throu this book.

For each decision, write all the reasons why it is important-why it is a MUST. What will following through on this decision give you? How will your life change? The drivers behind you r decisions are what give you the energy to see them through. The more powerful the driver, the more committed you’ll become.

A Mini-Goal Setting Workshop

You never lack time or money-only an idea. Linus Pauling, the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, said, “ The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.”

Now it’s time to figure out some of the major goals you want to achieve. In your journal, brainstorm a master list of goals you have for this lifetime-big and small. Do you want to write a book? Do you want to run your division? Do you want to start a company? Travel to Australia? Read more poetry? Take a wine-tasting class? Learn a foreign language? Take martial arts? Master calligraphy?

Upon what new adventure do you wish to embark? What new skill must you master? Your goals should help you more toward your Ultimate Vision of the life you want to create. Capture your goals for your professional and personal life.

Unlocking your Hidden Dream

If you had one ‘hidden dream’, secretly nursed close to your heart, what would it be? In your journal, describe it in great detail.

 Eliminating Debilitating Beliefs

Some of the greatest challenges to having a decided heart are our conscious and unconscious limiting beliefs. There limiting beliefs often translate into negative self-talk.

Many of these debilitating beliefs are hidden safely away from our conscious mind. They remain destructive to our growth until they are uncovered and understood, dismanteled, and released. Often, simply becoming conscious of the limiting beliefs can  help dissolve them.

What are five limiting beliefs that you have about yourself? Think back to the fears in the Overcoming fear exercise. Behind every fear is at least one debilitating belief about yourself. Uncover your destructive beliefs and write them down.

Architecting a New Self Image

The five beliefs you highlighted above represent the major blocks to your decided heart. It’s time to dismantle these negative beliefs and replace them with uplifting ones.

1.      For each negative belief, determine its polar opposite.

2.      Write down a new positively state belief for each negative one.

Recite these new statements as positive affirmations over the next thirty days. Through continual repetition of your affirmations, you’ll ‘reprogram’ your subconscious mind with our new belief.