7 Steps to Create Your Extraordinary Life
Let’s welcome the new year with positive thoughts and creative actions. Here are seven steps excerpted from Upgrade: Taking Your Work and Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary for you to think about all the possibilities.
- Envision your future
Envision the type of life you would like to lead and write it down. Avoid excuses and start removing the barriers. Create a physical environment for yourself at home and/or at work to provide a nurturing and creative space for you.
- What’s your passion?
Identify your passions for life and work, to ensure that what you do is purposeful and meaningful for you. If you don’t have a passion, that’s okay…just focus your time on the things that make you happy. If you can’t find your passion, get on board with someone else’s passion and support theirs.
- Get creative
Be different, think creatively. Embrace diversity as a key driver of creativity. Constant change and innovation are the keys to success. Build recess time into your daily life; we all need a playground to recharge our thinking. Creativity thrives in a ‘yes’ environment; surround yourself with positive people.
- Design your time
There are 3 things to do with your time: have fun, be productive, and give back. Fill up those 3 buckets rather than checking off a bucket list. Your time is your most important possession; guard it fiercely. Get control over your own schedule now. Identify the time wasters in your life and get rid of them.
- The power of we
Seriously, you cannot do it all. Collaborate with others. There are all sorts of collaborative models: personal, professional, and technological; find what works for you. Surround yourself with smart people and listen to them. Share information that you have with others.
- Big risks = big rewards
Growth, learning, and discovery happen when you leave your comfort zone. If you don’t constantly innovate, you will be left behind. Take some risks. New ideas, discoveries and opportunities seldom come without risks
- Fail fast and fail often to succeed
Fail fast and fail often to reach success. It’s OK to fail. Embrace failure as part of the learning process.
Failure is sometimes just the beginning, not the end.
Now that you have 7 steps to think about, prioritize one and create action steps that align with your goals for your life and/or work. If you are ready, repeat this action planning for the other steps with realistic goals, timelines and resources. Extend yourself beyond your comfort zone. Imagine all the possibilities!
Source: Florida, R. (2013). Upgrade: Taking Your Work and Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary, Whitby, Ontario, Canada: McGraw Hill Education.
