Life! By Design_ 6 Steps to an Extraordinary You - Laura Morton [84]
The Second Evolution is to get into massive action. Most businesses operate by looking at the year in four quarters. I believe that everything we do comes in ninety-day cycles. Most people quit in the last ten days of their ninety-day cycle. Here’s something to remember so you don’t give up. The ninety-day cycle is where you have to fall in love with the process, with the work to get you to your vision, and with whom you are becoming so you can eventually live By Design. You have to do all of the little things every day, especially the days you don’t feel like doing them, to achieve your goal.
I cannot count the number of times someone has attended one of my seminars thinking their life is horrible, they’ve nothing going on and nothing to look forward to. They’ve resigned themselves to spending the rest of their days feeling miserable and helpless. Afterward, a lightbulb goes off. They get fired up and are excited by the possibilities, and then realize that this is going to be a lot of hard work. And they’re the only person who can do the work if they want to reap the rewards. They slowly begin to do the things that bring them the power, but then they meet resistance from others around them who question why they’re doing these things. These are the same people who can’t wait to remind you that you’ve tried and failed in the past and there’s no point in wasting time wishing for a better life. Right?
This is when you have to fight through other people’s doubt and the four addictions and continue doing the things that bring you the power so you don’t go back to where you started. More people fail in this stage than in any other evolution of mastering living By Design. Whatever you’re aiming for, whether it’s the reinvention of your relationship, a new business campaign, or getting into better physical shape, chunk everything you do into ninety-day cycles. You have to do the things that give you the power over and over again until you transform who you are. This takes massive commitment and a willingness to start over every time you hit a plateau or a setback until you get it right.
The Third Evolution to master is the Progression of Momentum. This is the phase where everything you do begins to pay off. The process gets easier and becomes more second nature than nurture. You suddenly recognize that the primary relationship in your life has improved. You find joy in the process. You’re connecting with your kids, making more money, getting up in the morning and are excited to hit the gym…again. You realize that this is what living By Design feels like. What often happens in this phase, however, is that people think they have arrived and, as a result, they get lazy or complacent or simply stop trying. They celebrate their weight loss by going on an eating binge, driving themselves right back to the First Evolution. If this happens to you, you’ve got to get right back to the plan, recommit, and start a brand-new ninety-day cycle.
The Fourth Evolution is creating new structure and new accountabilities to stabilize your growth. If you don’t reset and streamline your structure and accountability, you will not make it to the Fifth Evolution. To do this, you must create a new daily action checklist, refocus your intentions, change your gateway to gratitude, consider changing accountability partners, and alter your ten questions so that you can stabilize your new habits, visualizations, and everything else you have implemented into your new By Design living. If you don’t reassess everything, you’ll get bored, fall off, and potentially find yourself having to start the process all over again.
The fifth and final evolution is making the Extraordinary Leap. This is the phase where you no longer