Life! By Design_ 6 Steps to an Extraordinary You - Laura Morton [15]
I stared at those five questions and my responses for several minutes as I thought about the impact they had on my life the first time I answered them. I remembered the clarity and strength I had when I realized that the situation I had been in was toxic and not right for my soul, my family, and my destiny. At the time, my entire life had been about supporting someone else’s vision and not my own.
As I lay in bed reading the journal, I realized that this was a wake-up call. I didn’t know I was looking for greater purpose and meaning until I began asking myself the same five questions again.
I looked at the first question, “Why are you here and what’s your purpose?” This time my answer came back quite different than it did before. Prior to leaving MF’s company, my answer was all about following my own path, being my own man, breaking away and leaving. It was time to allow my siblings to rise and take the reins of the family business while I broke away and started my own company. Now that I was on my own, I found myself asking, “Is this all there is?” more often than I expected. Of course, the answer to that question was easy—no. What I really wanted to do was inspire millions of people to live and work By Design, to help them wake up from their coma and begin living their best life.
I was getting inspired and fired up as I took myself through this exercise that day. I began typing my answers into my laptop as quickly as my fingers would move. I had a new life vision to map out. I wanted to give people the tools, structure, and accountability to get out from under their fears and live their life By Design, just as I had done.
The next question was “How do you want to come across to others; what are your values?” I already knew I could continue teaching seminars and workshops on the subject. But what I really wanted to do was write a New York Times, Amazon, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal bestseller. I wanted that book translated into twenty or more languages so it could have a strong impact on people around the world. I wanted to be on television talking about my By Design lifestyle, meeting people like Oprah and Larry King, and appearing on all of the top talk and newsmagazine shows instilling the words “By Design” into our everyday vernacular.
Was this a lofty goal?
It sure was.
Was I afraid to reach for it?
Absolutely not.
I tell all of my clients that their dreams usually die on the table when they are still in the idea stage. As I was creating my new vision, I saw my ultimate contribution to the planet as being infinitely bigger than what I had been working on. The only way I could grow into that vision was to think bigger and wider than I ever had.
I read the third question—“What are your God-given talents?” I realized now that I was on my own, I was able to speak more freely about what was on my mind and in my heart about strategies that I know work versus being confined to someone else’s message. I knew that my God-given talent was that I could wake people up and inspire them to live more By Design.
Question number four, “Five years from now, how will the world experience you?” was easy to answer. I would be a bestselling author and a respected success coach helping people from CEOs to students live an extraordinary life. I could inspire people to get into better shape, or help them change the quality of their life for the better, and everything in between.
I know that By Design living impacts all areas of our lives, so answering Mike’s final question—“Who would you be if you were already there?”—would be a piece of cake because I had the vision. Now all I needed to do was build on it. I would have to find and assemble the right team to help me achieve my vision, and then slowly and methodically, By Design, lay out a plan to achieve everything I had imagined.
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