THREE STEPS TO
CATAPULT YOUR LIFE

WE’VE MADE IT. NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE RUBBER TO HIT the road. We’ve talked about mind-set, about time, about action, and now we’re going to discuss some practical ways to master your life right now. These are the steps I set out to take as I sat in my hotel suite, recounting the 20,000 days I’d been alive. This is what powered me to act with determination, boldly launching into the future, like a stone from a catapult. These steps gave me the sense of urgency I needed to begin living my next 20,000 days with more intensity and purpose than ever before. I am positive they will do the same for you if you truly push yourself to take them.

Sit down with a notebook or a laptop, and do this for yourself:

Step 1: Determine how many days you have been alive. Are you shocked? Amazed?

Step 2: Determine immediately the answer to these two critical, ongoing questions. (I know you can’t be sure about these things, but IF you were, what might they be?)

1. What is important right now to you?

2. What is next for you?

Having trouble? Here are some thoughts to prompt your answers:

• What have I not thought of yet?

• What is one immediate need I can fill for someone I know?

• What is a huge dream I have? How can I think bigger?

Step 3: Draft your life’s story, then live it!

That last one sounds like a huge task, I know. But it’s easier if you think of it as a biography. I love A&E’s TV series Biography. Entertainers from all walks of life are featured. Picture your own episode of Biography being written. In fact, you can write it now. This is your show. You are the director, the set designer, and the screenwriter. It is all in your hands. You decide where you start and finish. You guide the day. You create it all. This is who you will become.

Here is the CliffsNotes version of my biography in a sentence:

I am the master of marketing, the magician of management, the emperor of e-mails, the artist of attachments, and the warrior of WOW!

Your one-sentence biography is for your eyes only. It doesn’t have to be something you ever show to others (mine has never been shown to anyone until now), so don’t hold anything back. Be fun and creative. Let it speak to your strengths, even if they are abilities that aren’t traditionally viewed as strengths. As you can see in my one-sentence biography, I’m someone who is great at writing e-mails and creating wowing attachments for them . . . not exactly traditional strengths, right? But there is tremendous power in owning those “little” things for which you have talent!

So embrace those strengths with pride, write them down, and repeat them to yourself. Follow these steps daily. Continue to ask yourself, “What’s important right now? What’s next?” You will be shocked at where you end up.