part0005

You have dreams, goals, ambitions, things you want to do and a certain lifestyle you want to have. You want to live a life of fulfillment and contentment, to know that you have pushed yourself to the maximum and have not wasted a shred of the potential that lies in you. You want to meet more people, be the best person that you can be and leave a legacy that will last for generations.

You know that to attain all this, you need to have a suite of attitudes, ideals and habits that will make what you desire possible, but when you look at yourself you can see that you are not quite there yet. Maybe you've only just awakened to the fact that your life could be so much more. Maybe you've tried to change before but have been overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the task. Maybe you've managed to take on a few of the positive habits you need, but some of them remain out of your reach. Maybe when you look at the task ahead of you, you see the height of the mountain you need to climb and feel discouraged.

What you need to realize is that there is no such thing as a task that is too big for you. You don't need to leap all the way up in one bound – through exercising incremental change, breaking the task up into its component parts and working on each of them in turn, you can climb the cliff one handhold at a time, focusing all your energy on that one little part and all of a sudden, find yourself at the top.

Having a life of fulfillment, health, wealth and happiness is not for the few. We ALL have the potential to lead such a life. We are ALL responsible for the life that we have experienced so far, and we’re ALL accountable for the life that awaits us. Cue excitement!

This book alone will not provide you with your ideal existence. It will open up new opportunities, expose you to new experiences, and take you out of your comfort zone if you allow it to do so. The choice is yours. You are capable of experiencing a fulfilled life, but you must be open and willing to take the appropriate action.

The approach you're going to be shown has been broken down into all the habits and attitudes that make up success in twelve broad categories. These categories include such topics as health, wealth, emotions, relationships, career, learning, contribution and life purpose to name a few. Within each of the categories are a handful of actionable habits, truisms and pieces of advice. The total of which is fifty-two, one for each week of the year. The idea is to read each section every day for 7 days. You will become more familiar with the material and you’ll pick up a new understanding each time you read it. Re-reading the same page for 7 days might not appear to be ‘exciting advice’, but it’s more a requirement to fully understand, appreciate, practice and evaluate each concept. At the end of each topic is a ‘Weekly Challenge’ which invites you think about and take action on your newly acquired life lesson. I suggest practicing each challenge every day during that week. There are no better alternatives to accelerated growth than taking action, even if done incorrectly or poorly.

I recommend that you read each section through a few times before you embark on the ‘Weekly Challenge’. It would be a good idea for you to get a diary in which you are going to be logging your progress and mark each leg off in advance. Once you've done this, you can begin. Use the ‘Weekly Challenges’ to establish the habits you need and carry them forward with you. Most chapters also have a book recommendation – read those books, especially if the subject matter is a particular sticking point. The actions points are easy to follow and understand, but they are challenging.

The challenges in this book have been tailored to have simple, day-to-day components that will build towards the greater goal. These aren’t meant to be ‘tried on’ for just the week they’re in and discarded once you get on to the next one – each week is for you to start on those good habits and establish and maintain them. As you go through the year you should keep accumulating these habits until you have a suite of them that will create untold happiness and success in your life. Once you’ve worked through the year the can refer back to certain sections it as often as you’d like.

It’s worth noting that you will have more control over some weeks than you will over others, please don’t allow this to deter you. While it is 100% in your control to select the food you eat, going for a run or opening an investment account – other tasks such as being OK with sadness, setting an example for your children, or learning to forgive might be harder to come by, or even impossible in 7 days. In these instances, rather than skipping the challenge altogether, I encourage you to find a way to work towards it’s attainment in an inventive way. Even if it’s only 20% relevant. If a more pertinent circumstance arises at another point in the year, refer back to this book and re-challenge yourself.

There is nothing you can ‘do tomorrow’ or ‘next week’. It’s impossible to take action on anything outside of RIGHT NOW (and that includes ‘doing it later’). If the thought of taking action fills you with dread or seems too daunting, be reassured that this is completely normal. The doubt exists in your head, and once you’ve started taking action on that task, those feelings nearly always subside and are replaced with great feelings of satisfaction and pleasure.