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Have You Got The BALLS For Lifestyle Design? (Inc Life Skill #1)

There are a number of skills that you will need to master in if you wish to live your ideal life. The bad news is that most of these life skills are not taught to us in educational institutions so I’ve dedicated the next four blogs to exploring each of these 5 life skills and how to master them.

I’ll warn you up front it’s going to take B.A.L.L.S to master these 5 life skills and be a midlife maverick.

They are:
Life skill #1 – Belief in yourself
Life skill #2 – Align with your inner guidance system
Life skill #3 – Leverage your talents and passions
Life skill #4 – Liberate your life with a vision
Life skill #5 – Strategy development and execution

Life Skill #1 Belief In Yourself

Ok, let’s start out with an important question: How much do you believe in yourself? – 50%? 75%? 100%

Does it really matter??? Answer, “YES!”

Let me follow that up with a brutal FACT: a positive self belief is a prerequisite for achieving anything and everything in life. The first life skill you’ll need to learn, if you’re to stand any chance of manifesting your ideal lifestyle, is to develop a strong belief in yourself and your capability.

Through conditioning you’ve become the person you believe you are, and you achieve only what you think and believe you are capable of. This life skill is #1 because self belief is foundational. Self belief is strongly linked to self esteem and self confidence and these are ESSENTIAL for any kind of inner contentment, happiness and success in life.

Before you can start to vision what you’re ideal lifestyle is, you first have to believe that you have the capability to achieve it. Without this belief, you’ll never attempt to do anything about manifesting it. Lack of self belief leads to “what’s the point” thinking – what’s the point of imagining a better life when you’ve already convinced yourself that you are incapable of achieving it?

I’ve met some very successful (defined as living life on their terms) mavericks in my time and they all have one thing in common – strong self belief. Before they achieved their ideal lifestyle they believed; 1. it was possible, 2. they were capable, and 3. they were worthy. These three core beliefs hold great power.  Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “If you believe you can, or you believe you can’t, you’re probably right!” Wise words! Do you believe you can do anything you truly put your mind to? If you believe you can, you will go to great lengths to prove yourself right.

I know it’s easy to say “Just believe in yourself and everything will start to work out,” but how do you develop a powerful belief in yourself?  Here is a three step plan to get you started:
 
1. Explore your current thoughts/beliefs. It all starts with awareness. You can only change what you are aware of. Make a list of five thoughts that you have about each of the following. Your:
Life
Body
Time
Relationship(s)
Money
Future prospects
Health
Work

Have a look at what you have written down. What future are these thoughts shaping? Be totally honest and objective with yourself. How many opportunities are you missing by thinking these thoughts? What needs to change? Once you’ve identified some limiting beliefs you can start working on getting rid of them and focus on building empowering alternatives.

2. Counter any limiting thoughts. Look at the thoughts you’ve written down that you believe need to change and counter them. Sometimes, just saying and considering the opposite is enough to begin the process of shifting them. For example, change “I’m too old” into “I’m just the right age to do what I want to do.”

3. Use accelerators. Accelerators are powerful references drawn from your past history. For example, ask yourself “what compliments or positive experiences have I had in (choose one of the areas in step 1)?” Dig deep and think back as far as you need to go. Finding answers to these types of questions make the new belief more believable.

You’ll know when you’re breaking out of the box of self imposed thinking, old conditioning, learned self doubt, and imagined thresholds of success – you’ll feel more alive, spontaneous and open to all that is really possible.

Look out for the next post on life skill #2. Align with your inner guidance system