“What goes around comes around.”
– Unknown
What you get is closely related to what you give. What you give comes back to you many times over. Therefore, you want to focus on giving as much as possible. Don’t be concerned about the getting. Trust that once you give, the getting takes care of itself.
When I say giving, I am not talking about parting with your money or other possessions in a careless way. By giving, I am talking about contributing value to other people. The more value you can contribute to other people, the more you give and the more you will get back.
The sum of your giving is equal to what you give multiplied by the people who receive it. So your challenge is to give as much as possible to as many people as possible.
Why do pop and rock stars have such rich lives? Because they give a lot. My life, for example, is better because of the work that Elvis Presley did and the songs he “gave” me. I have spent a few hundred U.S. dollars buying Elvis records, CDs, and DVDs over the years. I have worked a number of hours for those dollars, so in effect I have given Elvis (or his heirs) those hours of my time. The same has been done by millions of people.
Combined, this has sent millions and millions of hours of work to the Presley family, which translates into a huge fortune. In the same way, people have given us inventions, media, culture, medicines, e-mail and workbooks on life planning. They have given all of this to the world and received great rewards for it.
Giving is so powerful because we live in an interconnected world. Your life can be connected to millions of others. What you want out of life, to a very large extent, can be gained by other people giving it to you.
See my YouTube channel for more materials.
You can also buy a hardcopy of the book here on Lulu.com.
Free Workbook: “what do you want to do with your life?”
Allowing Ourselves to Ask the Question
Table of Contents
I. Chapter One: Introduction to Life Planning
- About Awareness
- Alternatives: “An Answer”
- An Alternative That We Choose as The Answer – Not an Epiphany
- Balance
- Dynamic Goals Versus Static Goals
- Happiness: When Are You Happy?
- Pain
- Pleasure
- Pleasure versus Pain
- Positive Mental Attitude
- Smart Goals
- The Method
- The Model
- Volition and Determinism
- What You Want are Feelings
- Who are You?
- You Life Goals
- Your sense of Life
- Parents
- Your Parents’ Wishes and Hopes for You
- How This Book Came into Being
- The Approach of This Workbook
- The Binder is the Key
- Why the Answer Matters
- Why This Workbook
- Keep Working On It – Refine and Mitigate
III. Chapter Three: The Influence Of Generations
- Action Items
- Exercise: Other Influential People
- Exercise: Defining Moments / Turning Points
- Exercise: Defining Moments / Turning Points
- Exercise: Things That Have Given You Pain
- Exercise:Things That Have Given You Pleasure
- Family Legacy
IV. Chapter Four: Your Present
- Exercise: Describe your sense of life
- Exercise: Happiness
- Exercise: Level of Awareness
- Exercise: Philosophy
- Exercise: Role Models and People You Admire
- Exercise: The Major Areas of Your Life
- Exercise: Values
- Exercise: What Are Your Current Goals?
- Exercise: What Do You Give?
- Exercise: You are what you constantly think
- Getting and Receiving
- Giving and Contribution
- Interests
- Moving Forward
- Self-Esteem
- Your Sense Of Life
- Belief
- Believing it is Possible
- Creating Your Alternatives
- Exercise: Create the ideal day in the ideal life
- Exercise: How can I give more?
- Exercise: If I could do anything…
- Exercise: Today my father would want me to…
- Exercise: Today my mother would want me to…
- Exercise: Today some significant others would want me to…
- Exercise: Write your own obituary/legacy
- How
- How as a Process, Not as a Recipe
- Persistence
- Personal roles
- Professional roles
- Trap #1: Do something now for just a bit and then tend to the dream
- Trap #2: Acquire money first and then tend to the dream
- Trap #3: Living glamorously; being cool and hip
- Trap #4: Only do what you are good at
- Trap #5: Belief that you can change people or culture
- Trap #6: Guilt
- Trap #7: Keeping your doors open
- Trap #8: Striving for the big goal
- Trap #9: Owning everything
- Trap #10: Stacking commitments
- Trap #11: Going after the sure thing
- Trap #12: Fear of success
- Trap #13: Staying on the wrong track
- Trap #14: Not being ready to make the decision
- Trap #15: Letting a major change paralyze you
- Trap #16: Falling in love with The Question
- What
- When
- Where
- Who
- Who, Where, Why, What, How and When
- Why
VI. Chapter Six: Your Alternatives
- Alternative 1
- Alternative 1:
- Alternative 2
- Alternative 2:
- Alternative 3
- Alternative 4
- Alternative 5
- Alternative Answers to The Question
- Certainty/ Risk/ Likelihood
- Checklist
- Example:
- Execution
- Experience
- Financial
- Fulfillment
- Giving, What
- Health, How
- How
- Interests, Why
- Keep Working On It – Refine and Mitigate
- Knowledge
- List the Alternatives
- No ONE Answer
- Pain, Why
- Pleasure Why?
- Skills
- Spirituality
- The Checklist
- The cons
- The Defaullt Alternative
- The Default Alternative – Path of Least Resistance:
- The pros
- What
- What Constitutes a Good Answer?
- When
- Where
- Who
- Why?
VII. Chapter Seven: Making The Decision
- How I Made My Decision
- About The Author
- Appendix: Authors
- Coin Tossing
- Decision-Making Techniques
- Drifting Into
- Elimination
- Getting Leverage
- Important Elements in Decision-Making
- Leave it Up to Others
- Major Pain
- Make a Contract with Yourself
- Make The Decision – The Commitment To Yourself
- Measured Criteria
- Referring to a Higher Order – Faith
- Self dicipline
- Setting TWo Alternatives Up Against Each Other
- Share It
- The Decision
- The One Question
- The T-chart
- Using a committee
- Which alternative did you decide on for your life plan?