7 10 Steps to Bring Passion Into Your Business and Your Life

Imagine every day being excited about your work and your life.

With a little creative thought and exploration you can discover your passion and find ways to integrate them into your work and your life.

Try these 10 steps to bring passion into your business and your life.

I.  Get to know yourself

Take a really close look at your life from your earliest memories to your current reality.  Look at all the times you’ve had fun and loved what you were doing.  Also take a look at the things that caused you pain or that you felt on a really deep, emotional level.  Write them down with a short description.

Pick one example from your list and try to find the reasons why you felt the way you did.  Go beyond what you love doing.  Break it down into the underlying characteristics.

The question WHY is a powerful tool for your explorations.  Asking why will take you to a deeper level of understanding.

2.  Brainstorm

Now that you have a better understanding of what your passions are, you can brainstorm some ways that you can work these passions into your business and your life.  Make a list and keep it with you so that you can add to it whenever you have another insight.

Be creative and add even your wildest ideas.  Just have fun with this exercise.

3.  Explore

In this part of the exercise you’re going to do some research to see who is talking or writing about the things you identified as being your passion(s).  Take some time to contact them.  Ask them questions about their passions.  Tell them you’re exploring your options, looking for ways to integrate those passions into your life and business.  It’s a great way to get some new ideas you haven’t already thought about.  And you might make some great contacts and develop some relationships while you’re at it.

4.  Take Baby steps

Don’t overwhelm yourself with these exercises.  You need to reserve some energy to actually incorporate your passions into your life and business.  If you don’t like to jump off the cliff into the abyss all at once, just take baby steps down.  Some people are great at just going for things and others need to take their time.  If you keep your focus on the long-term goal you can begin creating your passionate life.

5.  Identify your obstacles

Now that you know what your passion is and you’ve looked at what you’d like to do in the long term, and how you can bring it into your life in the short term, you need to identify your obstacles.  What is getting in your way?

Now what things are getting in your way? Make a list. Maybe they’re real – financial obstacles or perhaps the need for training.  Maybe they are internal obstacles like fear and uncertainty.  Figuring out what’s in the way will help you plan for how to minimize its impact.  But be careful not to fall into the trap of letting your obstacles take on a life of their own.  You’re looking at them to reduce their power, not enhance it.

6.  Create a Dream Team

Create a Dream Team to support you in your pursuit.  Friends, family, and others can all be a great source of support and inspiration as you make your journey.  It can be an informal support network, or a regularly scheduled meeting to exchange ideas and brainstorm solutions to challenges.

7.  Consider your definitions of success and failure

What is your definition of success?  Is it getting in the way of really pursuing what resonates at a deep level for you?  We live in a society that places a lot of emphasis on material accomplishments, power, etc. Unfortunately, that gets in the way of real happiness for a lot of people, who choose to stay on the treadmill in pursuit of that version of success.

Perhaps you’re not at a point where you can or want to change that definition of success.  That’s OK, don’t.  Instead, try identifying one or two less common ways of identifying “success” – ones that come from the heart – and try to move towards them as well.

Our definition of failure, which tends to be all or nothing, also gets in the way.  If you try something and it doesn’t pan out, how do you see that?  Is it a failure?  Or is it an opportunity to learn from what you did and apply that knowledge to your future efforts.

If you “fail” in an effort to move toward your passion, it’s not really failure.  Think of it as a step in the right direction.  Taking a longer term view can help with this.

8.  Make a plan

Creating a plan will force you to think things through and add some comfortable structure to something that can seem very up in the air and undefined.  It will also offer you those critical next steps when you aren’t feeling motivated.

9.  Act! Today!

Don’t ever use the excuse of waiting for the right time because the time will never be right.  Something is always going to be less than optimum.  With that in mind, don’t wait!  Do something right now that will move you toward your passion.

10. Commit to making it happen

Let it out of your brain and into the open.  Say, “I am going to do this.”  Say it out loud to yourself.  Say it to a friend.  Put it in writing and put it where you can see it.  Once it’s out in the open it will have room to grow.  And that’s exactly what you want!

What two things can you do right away that will start the ball rolling?  They don’t need to be earth-shattering, they just need to happen.

Good luck!

17 How to Find Your Passion (The Secret You Need to Hear)

Today’s article was written by guest blogger, James Clear, of The Passive Panda.  James offers a counterpoint, an alternative perspective, if you will, to picking your passion.  I think his ideas are worth considering as they may a lot of sense. 

Wouldn’t it be great if we could all spend our days doing what we love?

I’ve received a lot of emails recently asking how to do just that. In the end, they all come to a similar conclusion, “I honestly can’t figure out a clear direction for myself.”

I think it’s normal for all of us to feel that way from time to time.

Searching for your passion and yearning for your true calling seems to be an integral part of the human experience.

That said, I think we often approach the process of finding our passion in the wrong way.

I’ve made these mistakes before as well, so I’m not claiming innocence … but I’ve also done it the right way from time to time, and so based off of those experiences, here’s my take on finding your passion.

We’ve got it all backwards.

Stop worrying so much about finding your passion.

You can’t strategically discover it through some intellectual scavenger hunt. You’re probably searching for it because you think that it will bring you clarity. ”If I know what I’m passionate about, then I’ll know what I should spend my time doing.”

That sounds good in theory … but it’s the complete opposite of how the process actually works.

Passions are born out of experiences.

You love your favorite team because it was the first football game you ever went to … or at the very least it was the team that you and your family cheered on from your living room. You’re crazy about that one movie because of how it made you feel when you watched it for the first time. You cry whenever you hear that sad song because it was the first song you heard after your grandfather died. You love sailing because you like the taste of salt on your lips, wind in your hair, and sun on your back.

These are examples of experiences that left a mark on you. The emotions that they conjure up — the passion that you feel — only came after that initial experience.

Discovering your passion for work and life follows that same pattern. I’ve never suddenly become passionate about something while sitting around on the couch. If you want to discover a burning passion, then you need to put yourself in a position to have a burning experience.

You need to read something new, talk to someone new, go somewhere new. “New” can mean unfamiliar, but it doesn’t have to mean that. Maybe you know a lot about horses, but you’ve never been to the Kentucky Derby. Go there. Try it out. See where it takes you. Have a new experience — whether that’s around a familiar topic or an unfamiliar one.

Before you discover your passion, you need to be curious and take action. You need to make different choices. You need to search out new opportunities. You need to create new experiences.

It is in the act of creating new experiences that we discover who we are.

If you’re searching for your passion now and haven’t found it yet, what makes you think continuing your search in the same way will magically bring your passion to you? You have to change your actions if you want to change the outcome.

If you want a new passion, then you need to create a new experience.

What you like vs. what you know.

Once you’ve accepted that you need to put yourself in new situations to discover your passion, how do you decide where to start?

Most people will tell you to start with what you know. I disagree.

If everyone only did what they already knew, then we would never learn new skills, change careers, or try anything different.

Let’s say that you work as a sales rep in the pharmaceutical industry. If you can’t find your passion right now, then what makes you think that sticking with what you know (pharmaceutical sales) is going to help you find your passion?

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with utilizing your current skill set. In fact, I encourage that. There’s no reason to waste the talent you already have. But don’t choose a new path simply because you can do it.

Your choices should be based on what you like and not what you know. What you like is different than what you’re passionate about. Likes may turn into passions eventually, but they are simply interests right now. Everyone has an interest in something.

Maybe the pharmaceutical sales rep likes movies. What if he started looking for jobs in sales and marketing for a media company? Or a cinema company? Or a theater company? He could still use what he knows (sales and marketing) … but he’s basing the decision on what he likes.

When you’re searching for your passion, it’s important to pursue things that you enjoy for one reason…

To find your passion, you need to dedicate yourself to a cause.

Eventually, the new experiences that you have will help you with the next step: finding a goal to work towards. Reaching for a goal is a powerful thing because it will take you to places you could never envision beforehand.

The act of reaching for goals — whatever they are, and whether or not they are ultimately reached — plunges us into a strong current that carries us to places that we can never expect or know when we embark. —K.O.

The value in having a goal and pursuing new experiences is as much the journey it leads us on — the experiences we have, the lessons we learn, the doors it opens — as it is the accomplishment of reaching it. You cannot predict where a journey will lead and what passions it will reveal. You can only start the journey and let the passions evolve naturally.

The pursuit will bring your passion to you.

How can I be so certain?

I’m certain because I know that what you’re looking for isn’t necessarily “passion” or a “calling”, but rather it’s one perfect moment.

You’re searching for that sliver of time when you say, “This is right. This is what I’m supposed to be doing and where I’m supposed to be at this moment. Right here, right now, this is what I was meant to do.”

I’ve been fortunate enough to feel like that before, and I can tell you that you don’t find moments like that, they find you.

And when you show up every day and dedicate yourself to a cause and continue your journey towards new experiences and new goals, those perfect moments have a tendency of finding you more often.

Finding your passion isn’t about knowing with certainty that you have chosen the right direction for yourself. It’s about picking a direction and pursuing it with urgency and consistency and enthusiasm.

If you do that, then the experiences that you have will bring your passion to you

James Clear is the Founder of Passive Panda.  He started the business to teach the three pillars of earning more money… freelancing, employment, and entrepreneurship.  Passive Panda covers all three of these areas in depth, and teaches you how to develop an overall earning strategy for your life.

18 The Sensible Blogging Checklist

In this post we’re going to look at a checklist to create a successful blog.  This checklist was created as a guide by The Whole Brain Group, an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based internet marketing company.   It is being used here with their full permission to reprint.  They even provided the html code to embed it in the post.  Thank you The Whole Brain Group.

You may not know this, but business blogging can increase your web traffic on average by 55%. Yesterday we looked at some reasons to have a blog. But how do you get started?

The Sensible Blogging Checklist will help!  Follow the simple suggestions in order to:

• Define your goals and audience
• Plan your content strategy
• Make sure your blog is user-friendly
• Optimize your posts for search
• Encourage engagement and content circulation

Don’t forget that this checklist is just a guideline to get you started! A really effective strategy and implementation plan takes a lot of thought and research.

Additionally, using this checklist can help you see the areas where you need more clarity.  For example, it reminds you to know and be able to define your niche, also called your audience, your tribe, or your clients.  The checklist makes you think about the people you are trying to reach and engage with.

In the “plan your content strategy” section, you are prompted to consider whether your blog serves both your business and your readers.  It makes you think about the details of what your blog content will be and how you will present it.

There’s a suggestion in the Content and Readability section that suggests that your blog should be under 350 words.  There’s some debate about that.  I’d like to suggest that you make that decision depending on your audience.  Some blogs, like mine, need to be as long as they need to be in order to explain the concepts being discussed.  If your audience is made up of people with attention deficit disorder, then I suggest you might want to consider keeping your posts under 350 words.  If your audience are intellectuals or college professors, well, there may be no limit on the number of words that are acceptable.  Do you homework, read other blogs that speak to your audience and see what’s popular and what is not.

One thing is certain, using this checklist will help you learn areas where you need to increase your knowledge and skill base.  With a bit of research, taking a free webinar, reading free ebooks/reports on blogging, you will learn all you need to learn to build a potentially successful blog.  I say potentially because no matter how good your skills are, without commitment and consistency, you won’t have a successful blog.

Take time to look over this checklist and lets discuss the questions at the end.

8 To Blog or Not to Blog For Your Business – That is the Big Decision

I suppose that those of us who are participating in this blogging challenge believe that blogging is in our best interest or we wouldn’t be here. Recently I talked with an internet marketing authority who doesn’t blog. He doesn’t find it useful. When I talked with another friend about it, I realized that he has no reason to blog. He doesn’t have a website and he’s spent a lot of years building his business and his following so he has a very large list to market to without blogging.

My friend does have a website, I have a website. We blog because:

We are concerned about SEO and Google rankings

We need to drive people to our online businesses

We want to increase our visibility

To build relationships

To get our message out to our niche

These seem to be the main reasons to have a blog.

Blogs ensure that your business is listed on the search engines as well as positions you and/or your business as an expert or authority. And blogs are far easier to update than your other web pages.

There are downsides to consider. Blogging is time consuming. Having a blog means making a commitment to write something on a specific schedule. It requires that you create content related to your business on a consistent basis and it should be fresh material in order to keep people coming back each time you post. You might have to develop some writing skills and in many cases, you have to keep abreast of what is happening in your industry or chosen area of business. You’ll need to keep track of what your competition is doing so research will be important.

Should you decide to have a blog, it would be a good idea to use a checklist to help you plan it. A great resource for checklists for internet and digital marketing is a company called The Whole Brain Group of Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have developed a series of checklists to help you create your online marketing plan. In the next blog post we will look at how to use their Sensible Blogging Checklist to ensure you get the most value for the time you spend blogging.

33 Using the Ultimate Blog Challenge to Write “Pick From The Passion Tree”

It’s very exciting to be joining all of you in the October 2012 Ultimate Blog Challenge.  For those of you who don’t know, I address the crisis of youth unemployment by proposing that we guide our teenagers and young adults to develop an entrepreneur mindset.  My first book, 31 Powerful Lessons: Empowering Teens and Young Adults to Develop an Entrepreneur Mindset is currently on sale as a digital book and as a perfect bound paperback book at my website and will soon be on Amazon.com and Kindle.  I wrote that book during the last Ultimate Blog Challenge using the daily posts as the foundation for the book.

Using this new blog challenge in the same manner, I plan to write the second book, Pick From the Passion Tree in what I call the Empowering Young Entrepreneurs series.  It is my sincere hope that you will read the posts and share your constructive criticism, positive feedback and any ideas you have that will enhance the topic I’ve written about.

I am also accepting guest posts about how to decide upon and start a business and other entrepreneurial ideas appropriate for teenagers and young adults.  Steve Eason has already provided a guest blog post about selling solutions to the customers’ pain.

I’m looking for exercises designed to help youth focus on identifying their passions and how to make decisions on how to build a business around those passions.  Checklists would be useful as well as free resources that young people can access to help them build their foundation and start down their path.  Some of these guest posts may be included in the new book (with your permission of course).

Additionally, if you have any advice you would like to share directly with young people, I would be happy to consider those posts as well as real stories of other successful, young entrepreneurs, both for the blog and possibly for the book.

There is no particular order to the posts as I have not yet organized what content will be in the book.  I do know that we’ll have some reality check exercises (two that I’ve already posted on this blog during September), some exercises for our youth to identify what they are passionate about.  The book will include information on social media, blogging and other business building blocks.

I am looking forward to reading and commenting on as many of your posts as possible during the course of the challenge.  It’s nice to meet you and it will be nice to get to know you.

8 Build Your Business Around Pain Relief: Solutions Sell

Today’s article is by guest blogger Steve Eason of

Ingenious Internet Income

You’ve probably been asked this question a few times from family and friends:

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I remember my answer was that I wanted to be an astronaut.  Growing up in Florida, I had the unique opportunity to watch the Space Shuttle launch in school on television and then run outside to watch the plume as it rocketed into space.  Your answer was likely a little different, but usually it was something like a fireman, a policeman, a nurse, a teacher or just like my dad.

If you were asked that today what would your answer be?  According to recent surveys, close to 80% of those asked were dissatisfied with their jobs.  That’s over 123 million people in the US that are dissatisfied with what they do for a living.  Will you be one of them?

The greatest thing about Internet Marketing is that you can do what you love to do in a way that is helpful to others and make money doing it.  What a great combination.  Unfortunately so many people who hear me say that, just can’t comprehend how that it could be possible.

Today I was out getting my haircut and the stylist asked her usual conversation starting question of, “Are you on lunch from work?”  My answer was, “Sorta.  I work from home so my schedule is flexible.”  Then I was able to talk a little about what I do for a job, which is writing and teaching others how to build a business online.  You could tell that she was surprised and slightly interested in what I had to say, but she really had no idea that you could even do this.  I had a chance to share with her a little about what could be accomplished no matter what you were interested in.

It occurred to me that there are so many people out there that just don’t know what you can do with an online business.  As I was heading home, I was listening to a podcast on Internet Marketing, and there was a statement that resonated with me.  The statement encapsulated the idea that I’ve been working on with my business that I just never could put into words.  This statement summed it up quite nicely.

“I’m passionate about improving people’s lives.”

That just sums up what I’m doing and what I’m focusing on with my business.  I’m working to help improve people’s lives through my work.  By providing the best information I can to help as many people as possible, it begins to build a relationship that ultimately serves the greater purpose of helping others.

Creating a business that you love

How do you go about building a business around a topic or interest that you love?  What I’ve often suggested is to start by looking around you, at what you already enjoy doing in your free time.  I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve heard about someone starting an online business around their hobby or interest and having people practically knock down their door to buy.

Let me share with you a secret that if you follow it through to the end, will help you build a business that will allow you to do what you love to do and make money doing it.  It’s fairly simple, yet so many people fail to really go all the way with it.  And I will be the first to admit, I am one of those people.  Here it is and try not to be underwhelmed when you hear it.  Find the pain.  Yep, that’s it.

What does this really mean, to find the pain?  It means to look closely at your hobby or interest and see if you can identify something that is causing the most pain and then create or research a solution for that pain.  Just consider what you like to do and think through what you think is the most frustrating part of doing that hobby.

Let’s look at Remote Control (RC) Planes as an example.

If someone is interested in learning all they can about RC Planes, what are the common questions that they are going to have starting out?  What are the tools that they will need to get started?  Who are the best manufacturers for parts?  Are there any groups or clubs that they should know about or be introduced to?

Just consider a new person to your hobby or interest, and all the questions that they are likely to have.  Providing the answers to their questions is an entire course that you could create and sell.  People go to bookstores all the time and purchase a book that helps them understand how to get involved in specific hobbies.

What about the people who have been involved with RC planes for a longer period of time.  Could it be that they have something that has been a pain point in the hobby that they would love to have solution for?  You could find a local hobby group and ask.  You could also find a forum online that is actively discussing the hobby and then listen to what they are saying.  Figure out what is causing them the most frustration and then find a solution for that pain point.

Maybe you have learned how to program software and you hear that they would love a tool to track all the parts for their hobby or they need an app to record scores when attending RC airplane races.  What about an online resource that helps them track and organize RC airplane races for the community?  Create that tool or app with input from the local group and then sell it.  If that group likes it, it’s likely that other groups will as well.

When talking with people about their pain points, there is one recommendation that stands out above all others.  When trying to identify what those pain points are, you have to ask questions.  Lots of questions.  The most important questions you can ask during this discovery process are the following two questions.  What else?  And tell me more.  Well the last isn’t a question, but what it does is keeps them talking about what is frustrating.  Keep asking those questions until they run out of things to say.

By asking these questions and others you will start to understand their market and hobby, which helps to you be able to define the problem.  If you can define the problem even better than they can, then they will just naturally assume that you have the solution to the issue.

Here are a few more questions that you can ask which will help you further define the problem:

What are some of the things that make you want to throw your “X” out the window?  (X being the hobby, computer, etc).

What do you consider to be the most important activity in regards to your hobby?

Are there any pains associated with that?

What are the problems that cost you the most money?

How often does that happen?

This process is about trying to find out all you can about the subject in order to gain a better understanding so that you can define the problem.

Even if you already have a product you are selling or service you are providing, if you’re not seeing results, take a look at your product and start asking yourself the questions above.  Have you answered those questions?  Do you understand the problem better than your customers?  If people aren’t paying for your product, it’s likely because there isn’t enough pain associated with the problem that you’re trying to solve.  Take a step back and start from the beginning and make sure you’ve clearly defined the problem in the first place.

I hope this helps to open your eyes and gets you thinking about how you can start solving problems around you.  No matter what the niche is, there are problems that drive people crazy each and every day.  Problems that are costing people loads of money and time.  Never discount the value of saving people time.  Sometimes saving time is more valuable than saving money.  If you accurately define the problem and come up with a solution, you can build a successful business around that product.

Steve Eason is a professional blogger, internet marketer and social media enthusiast located in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina area.  Find out more on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.  Or visit Ingenious Internet Income for more great information.

steve@ingeniousinternetincome.com

10 2 Easy Steps to Identify a Potential Business Based on Your Passion

Step 1:

This is an easy and fun exercise.  Think about times when you felt really passionate about what you were doing or times when you felt really alive and happy when you were doing something.

After you’ve thought about this for a little while, write down three memories from your life that you felt passionate about.  For example, “I loved learning survival skills at summer camp.  I really enjoyed backpacking in the wilderness.  I love traveling and enjoyed our vacation in the tropics.”

Look for a common theme in these memories.  The examples above might mean you love adventure.

You have now identified a potential passion around which to build an entrepreneurial business.

Step 2.

The second exercise is a mission to gather facts about building a business around your passion.

Possible businesses/careers regarding adventure could include being a travel agent, leading guided tours, running a white water rafting business, fishing, teaching camping and backpacking skills or simply selling outdoor supplies and accessories.

Do research on the internet or at the library about being an adventurer.  Find out what sorts of businesses already exist around your passion.  Good sources of information can be found using Google, Safari, Bing, or any other major search engine.

You have now started thinking about being an entrepreneur and creating a business doing something you love and will be happy doing.

What common theme did you identify from your memories?

10 A Call to Action on Behalf of Young Entrepreneurs

If you’ve been here before, you know that this blog is about empowering young entrepreneurs.  I have spent a lot of time writing about empowering teens and young adults to develop an entrepreneur mindset.

Now it’s time to move to the next step; empowering teens and young adults to pick their passion, put their stake in the ground and take the first steps to start their business.  The next step for this blog means writing articles about how to decide what the business should be, how to decide on a niche and learn what they need, branding and other action steps to create and move a business forward.

As I plan out the articles for this next step in the series, I’m issuing this call to action to provide your input.  Will you help by answering these questions in the comment section?

How did you decide what business to start?

How did you find your niche and decide what they needed?

What would you advise a young person about to start a business?

Thank you in advance for your input.

18 Top 3 Tips to Cultivate Gratitude

by Alexandria Barker

Gratitude. It’s been called the most spiritual of all the emotions. It’s also one of the most powerful habits you can cultivate to help create a prosperous fulfilling life! When you feel gratitude, you can’t be angry or afraid. These emotions simply cannot inhabit your body at the same time. Feeling gratitude and appreciation puts you in a high-flying vibration that draws other wonderful things to you to be grateful for!
Cultivating an attitude of gratitude is as simple and basic as counting your blessings. There are many ways to incorporate this beautiful, powerful feeling into your life – here are some of my favorites:

1)  Gratitude Lists

Writing gratitude lists is simply counting your blessings and writing them down! It’s great to have a special journal for this, then whenever you need a lift, you need only review your book to be reminded of all the good things in your life! I recommend you write 5 items before bed. This sets you up for success, because your sub-conscious will keep processing these thoughts as you sleep, and you’ll wake up in a more positive state of mind.
Then, in the morning, write 5 more things you’re grateful for. Spend a moment thinking about each one, dwell in those beautiful feelings. This sets a powerfully positive tone for your day, and because you know you’ll need 5 more positive things to write that night, you’ll subconsciously be on the look-out for more things to be grateful for all day.

2) Gratitude Walks

As you begin your day, say “thank” with one foot and “you” with the other. Thank you is a beautiful powerful mantra! And by actively choosing this as your ‘go to” thought, you’re taking control of your thought processes, leaving less room for negative habitual thoughts.

Taking a walk in nature is the perfect time and place for a gratitude walk, which is also like a moving meditation. Simply focus on gratitude, either repeating the thank-you mantra, or by focusing on things you’re grateful for, like green grass, sunshine, birds singing, and being able to walk. Not only will you be burning calories and building muscle, you’ll be developing your gratitude muscle, paving the way for even better things to come your way!

3) Speaking Gratitude

It’s all to easy to do these practices, then slip back into familiar internal and external dialogue about things you don’t like — about the government, neighbors, your body, your boss. With a little practice you’ll find it easy to turn that around. Just say the opposite, find something good in all situations. It’s always there, though you may have to dig a bit. The more you make the effort, the easier it gets to be positive even if those around you are not.

Put these principles into practice, and you’ll see your life get better and better. Try and see!

Today’s guest poster is Alexandria Barker.  For more practical stress solutions, please visit her Wishful Thanking page.

Alexandria is an author, speaker, Life coach, and creator of the Wishful Thanking Manifestation System. As a Reiki Master/Teacher, Crystal Therapist, Akashic Records reader and Yoga teacher, she specializes in teaching the Law of Attraction and energy work.

Alexandria is happily married, has 4 children and 5 grand-children, and can honestly say she loves her life! Her goal is for you to be able to say the same!

14 Life Fulfillment Reality Check

Part two of our reality check exercises includes examining the following 11 categories in your life.  Rate yourself from 1 – 10 in each of the categories listed on the chart below.  1 is low – it couldn’t be any worse than this.  10 is high – it couldn’t get any better than this.  Don’t overanalyze your response.  The right score is what pops into your head first.  Next, choose a higher number for a 6-month goal.  If you choose a “10” it may be a sign that you are in denial.  It’s difficult for anything to be perfect.  Big goals are good, but they must be based in reality.

My Overall Satisfaction.  What does satisfaction mean?  Do you enjoy getting up in the morning?  Do you enjoy your life?  Do you feel satisfied?  Do you think you deserve to be happy?

My Energy Level.  Are you naturally energetic?  Do you get enough sleep at night?  Do you stay up too late or all night then drink coffee, soda pop, or energy drinks to stay awake?  Do you get high to get through the day?

My Spiritual Connection.  Do you feel connected to a higher power in whatever way you define it (God, Universe, Trusted Source, Spirit)?  Do you have activities in your life that help you stay connected?  What do you do to nurture this connection — hike, spend time in nature, meditate, participate in religious activities, and so on?

My Health.  Are you healthy in mind, body, and spirit or are you ignoring your health?  Do you see a doctor and a dentist when you need to?  And what about your mental health?  Are you feeling good or are you depressed?  Are you angry all of the time?  Do you ask for help when you are feeling depressed or angry or do you just suffer?

My Nutrition.  Do you eat healthy foods or do you stop at the gas station to get junk food?  Do you drink lots of soda pop and eat at fast food restaurants or do you eat real food like meat, vegetables, and fruits?

My Exercise.  Do you take the time to exercise on a regular basis or are you more of a couch potato gaming, watching TV, or texting your friends all day and/or all night long?

My Connection to Family.  What is your relationship with your family?  Do you feel connected to them?  Do you love your family?  Do you feel that your family loves you?

My Connection to Friends.  Do you feel connected to your friends?  Do you love and respect your friends?  Do you feel that your friends love and respect you?

My Integrity.  Integrity means you follow through with what you say you will do with others and with yourself.  Do you keep your agreements with yourself and with others or do you make commitments and not follow through?

My Finances.  Do you save your money and spend it wisely or do you buy things on a whim?  Do you waste money on things you don’t need?  Do you have a bank account?  If you have a bank account, do you know how to manage it?

My Contribution to the World.  Are you helping others or are you only out for yourself?

Directions:   For each category in the “My Life Fulfillment Reality Check”    chart, rate each category on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being “I really need to improve a lot.” and 10 being “I’m doing fantastic!”  Total the columns and answer the questions below.

Now, add up the scores for your current reality and your 6-month goal to get a clear picture of how much work you have to do.  Having a realistic picture of what your life is like and how you feel about it can be very empowering if you use the knowledge gained to make some positive changes.

Did anything about this exercise surprise you?

Can you identify any areas that you can begin making improvements in right now?

What steps are you willing to take to make these improvements?