Transform Your Life: 10 Steps to Real Results

For ease of reference, each step follows the same pattern. Every chapter begins with a brief Overview of the step and a clear indication of the results you’re likely to achieve when you’ve completed it. If you can picture the end result at the beginning, you’ll have a greater chance of bringing it into reality!

Next comes the Personal Reward section where I ask you to write down how you’ll reward yourself when you’ve finished the step. The completion of each step is a significant milestone along your path of transformation and I want you to recognize it as such. Acknowledging your progress to date is a valuable lesson in itself! As you go through a process of change it’s very easy to drive yourself forward, focus on what’s next and overlook what you’ve already achieved. It’s important to give yourself rewards as you go. Treats could include a night out with friends, a massage, a box of chocolates, a long walk, a trip to a health club – you decide. Celebrate the little wins as well as the big ones and enjoy your transformation process.

This is followed by a Quick Transformation Quiz of 20 questions. Note your score as you begin each step and again when you’ve completed it. The maximum score on each quiz is 40 points. My challenge is for you to score a minimum of 32 points on every quiz once you’ve completed the book!

Each step then features Five Sections, each represented by a star. These include a combination of information, quotes, questions and assignments. As you complete each section, colour in your step by step progress tracker (#u664178a3-634c-404a-a741-1f0b8c60f769).

Then there are Key Insights Gained from the Step, where you can list the five most valuable insights you’ve learned from each step. Doing this will help you to commit these core elements to memory. Just write down key words or even draw a picture to remind yourself of the important points.

As well as insights, in Quick Wins Gained from the Step you can list breakthroughs and changes you’ve already started to make to enhance your life, and in The Action Steps You Now Agree to Take you can list the actions you’re now willing to take to transform your life.

Finally, for each step there are Real Results – some life histories to inspire you!

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

Martin Luther King

Getting the Most out of the 10 Steps

Just by reading, absorbing the information and following the exercises, you’ll begin to actually experience the benefits of lifecoaching. You are the creator of your life, no one else, so the more effort you put into answering the quizzes and questions and taking action on the assignments, the more results you’re likely to achieve. Why not start now? It’s never too early (or too late) to start to transform your life!

Familiarize Yourself with the Process

Before you start going through the steps in detail, you might find it useful to quickly skim over the chapters to familiarize yourself with the process. The steps themselves can be followed in sequence or you may prefer to focus on the sections that appeal to you the most. Go with whatever works best for you. Some people find that following two steps in parallel can work very well. (You may be tempted to skip over the steps in Part 1, but I would strongly advise against this, as you’ll find the insights you gain from Steps 1 to 5 will strengthen you and save you time in the long run.)

Like anything in life, some concepts in the book will work brilliantly for you while others may have little value. We all respond to things in different ways. If you find yourself stuck on a step, making no headway, leave it. Take what works for you and leave the rest. But stay open-minded and give yourself the opportunity to see things afresh. You could be pleasantly surprised by the results!

As life is constantly changing and moving in cycles, you may find you want to revisit a step several times. The process can provide the structure for a regular review that you can return to year after year as you perfect different elements of your life.

Progress at your own Pace

Remember, there’s no rush. Whether the changes you are making are fast or slow, subtle or fundamental, it’s up to you. But even small changes can have a significant impact over the long term!

Make Yourself Accountable to Someone

No man is an island and one of the great benefits of lifecoaching is the synergy between the coach and client. People can often achieve a lot more by pooling their resources and supporting each other – two heads can be better than one. Bearing this in mind, I suggest you get the support of someone – perhaps a friend, family member, work colleague or even a coach – as you work through this book. You’ll derive great benefits from sharing your thoughts and insights with another person.

Any process of change will, at some point, bring you face to face with thoughts or issues that you would perhaps prefer not to look at and your support person may also be able to help you with these ‘growing pains’.

Your helper will act as a constant reminder of who you want to be and what you want to achieve. You need someone who will stand by you through thick and thin, someone you can trust to support you, hold you to your commitments, and keep you on track.

I want to make myself accountable to:

Allow Yourself ‘Quiet Time’ to Think Things Through

When working through the 10 steps, after reading a specific section you might want to stop and ponder for a while. I actively encourage you to do this. Sometimes it’s during the gaps between our thoughts that we gain the real answers to our life’s questions.

To do this, I suggest that you take yourself to a quiet inspirational place in your home. You might want to play your favourite music, sit in your favourite chair, light a candle, look at your favourite view – do whatever is necessary for you to fully access your thoughts. If you prefer, a visit to your local café or park or a drive in your car might spark your imagination and give you the answers you’re looking for. Remember, the answers are inside you, so the more comfortable and ‘at one’ you feel with your environment, the easier you’ll find it to open yourself up, increase your awareness and draw the answers to you.

Keep your insights in a Journal or Notebook

As you work through this programme you’ll probably want to make notes or jot down your answers to some of the questions. You’ll find it useful to keep all your thoughts, insights and action plans together in a journal or notebook – so why not treat yourself to one now, before you begin?

Here’s to the first day of the rest of your life!

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

Step by Step Progress Tracker

As you work through the steps track your progress by colouring in each star section as you complete it.

Part One: Preparing your Launch Pad

Part Two: Real Results

Preparing Your Launch Pad (#ulink_fffb0937-ceae-5260-b66f-ad54e7816067)

See The Bigger Picture (#ulink_25ca425a-7884-5c33-8bf9-67a5a16885d8)

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

Norman Vincent Peale

Overview

The perfect place to start your life transformation is with you. Who you are on the inside has a clear correlation with what your life is like on the outside. The more you understand yourself and the more you’re aware of the key dynamics in your life, the easier you’ll find it to implement the insights you gain from the lifecoaching process.

In Step 1 you’ll start by confirming your commitment to transforming your life and putting things into context by looking at your life from a broader perspective. You’ll establish where you are now and be encouraged to look at your own attitudes and behaviour and the characteristics you need to develop to get the most out of your transformation process. You will become more aware of how your own thoughts and actions shape your life. The more willing you are to develop a positive way of thinking, the smoother you’ll find the ride of your life becomes.

The final element in this step is to picture the results you want to achieve. Once you’re clear about what you want, you can determine the most effective way of making it happen.

When you’ve completed this step:

You’ll have confirmed your commitment to transform your life.

You’ll have stepped back from your immediate life and addressed some ‘bigger picture’ issues which we’ll revisit later in the book.

You’ll have established what your life looks like now.

You’ll be clearer about the qualities you need to develop to make your transformation easier.

You’ll have started to clarify the results you want to achieve in the next phase of your life.

Personal Reward for Completing Step 1

Write down here how you will reward yourself when you have completed Step 1: