I Wasn't Always Like This...
The truth is, I wasn’t always like this. I had Sundays, just like you, where I felt that pit in my stomach. Call it the Sunday Scaries, the Sunday angst, or the Sunday existential “What am I even doing with my life?!” I’ve been there -- and I took the time to read all the books and to research the best ways to break out of it. And I did it.
If I could break down my life into parts, I would describe two distinct phases: the BEFORE and the AFTER.
The BEFORE was when I ran around like a madman, frantic -- trying to eke out every single second I could find toward my work. I’d wake up in the morning, and, with my phone in hand, I’d be brushing my teeth, wrangling on my pants, answering email -- basically all at once. It wasn’t pretty.
And then there’s the AFTER. The AFTER is when I wake up slowly. I brush my teeth. I meditate. All before I even think of picking up my phone. I make time for family and friends. I put in a solid set of hours toward my most important goals, and I take breaks. I pause and reflect on Sundays to check in on my goals; and I constantly adapt to take on and conquer bigger challenges in my life.
GUESS which part of my life yielded my best work? The best results? GUESS which part of my life led to the happiest moments, the BIGGEST wins, and the deepest lessons learned?!?
Yeah, obviously. It was the latter part.
I learned (almost too late) in my life that taking a PROACTIVE approach to my days led to a calmer me. A less frantic me.
Why do we become so frantic? It’s not because we do our best work when we’re frenzied… It’s because, deep down, we have no way of checking in and understanding if we’re on track. It’s because no matter how many hours we work, we don’t feel like we’re enough and our work is enough.
That all changed when I developed a simple system to check in on myself every Sunday to get rid of the angst I felt every Sunday afternoon, as I thought about Monday. Even today, EVERY Sunday, I still sit down, I open a Word document (which then turned into a web-application), and I answer two simple questions:
Where am I?
What do I do next?
This simple ritual allows me to consistently check in on my goals, check in on my progress, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, it allows me to course-correct.
This simple ritual became a critical part of a whole system I developed to take control of every day of my life, to be proactive about life, and, most importantly, to eradicate the angst I used to feel in my stomach every Sunday night about the week that was to come.
If you feel like there just isn’t enough time in the day for you, your loved ones, and your work... If you’re feeling constantly behind... Then this book that I created to help you plan out your life and become PROACTIVE, is for you.
The Japanese embrace a concept called “Kaizen,” which I love. The direct English translation is “Continuous Improvement.” It’s a strategy whereby you work proactively to achieve regular and incremental improvements to a process (in this case: how you live your life). In a sense, Kaizen combines the collective resources at your disposal (your time, your energy, your intellect, your mentors, your friends) to create a powerful engine for improvement in your own life.
This book is not designed to give you a one-and-done “workshop” in figuring out your life’s purpose. Figuring out what you want from life and the steps to realize that dream can be a lifelong journey. This book helps you establish an iterative process through which you can switch from being a reactive person to a proactive person, and helps you establish the systems that you can follow for the rest of your life to continue to improve your life.
In this book, I’ll walk you through a set of tools, processes, and systems that all work together to allow you to practice the art of Kaizen for your own life’s purpose. By following this system, you’ll be able to achieve clarity of vision for yourself, set goals for yourself, and create a plan of purposeful and focused action for yourself that you consistently improve upon as you execute your plan. Most importantly, this will help you set an agenda that YOU choose for your life.
I’ve used this system for nearly a decade and it has unlocked unparalleled levels of productivity and wealth for me, personally. In the little less than a year since I open-sourced this system, thousands of people have downloaded our Unstoppable Proactive Life Planning Guide. All of this led to the publishing of the book you are reading right now.
When you think of your life in terms of Kaizen -- in terms of a continuous improvement process backed by powerful self-reflection -- everything changes. As you learn more by following this book, you’ll continue to iterate on your goals and plans. As you make mistakes, you’ll course-correct from lessons learned. And as you unlock new levels of success, you’ll continue to set new goals that take you to the next level.