Lifestyle Mastery Boxed Set Read online

  — James Redfield, bestselling author of

  The Celestine Prophecy

  INTRODUCTION

  Drive Your Destiny

  “You are not the victim of the world, but rather the master of your own destiny. It is your choices and decisions that determine your destiny.”

  ― Roy T. Bennett

  Do you feel dissatisfied with your current path in life? Does your destiny seem like some mundane existence governed by circumstances beyond your control? Do you want to be the master of your own path in life, but you’re not sure where to start?

  If so, Drive Your Destiny is your blueprint to discovering the best of who you are and what you have to offer. This book will teach you the keys to discovering the inner greatness within you. You will learn to take charge and direct your actions to work for you instead of against you. As we will see, neither the circumstances nor the external conditions decide your fate—you do.

  The Force That Changed the Course of My Life

  In March of 1997, I made a decision that would change the course of my life. It was a choice unlike any I had ever made before. I decided to alter the course of events controlling my destiny. How had I arrived at this change?

  My life had hit a wall. I was single again, sick of my job (and not very good at it, anyway) and each day seemed to melt into the next without any real purpose. I was drifting. Within me, something struggled to break free. I wanted more out of life than just punching in, filling in a time card, and working toward what everyone else called a future.

  Until that moment, I had been playing the victim—the victim of circumstances, of limitations, of a life at the mercy of decisions made by others. One day, I revolted. I said, “No more.” I decided I could shift the course of my life.

  I hated knowing that I had a dream once, and now the dream was as far away as the moon. I was desperate. Worse than that, I learned what one form of suffering really meant: to be living a life completely empty of meaning. To have no purpose other than going to work, paying bills, and complaining to my friends about the unfairness of it all.

  I realized in that moment it was up to me to take charge and steer my path toward the future I really wanted.

  So, I committed to doing whatever it took to live in a different way. I decided I would no longer drift through life, and instead take charge of my destiny. I wanted to create the path instead of falling into the river of life and letting the current take me.

  My life shifted from a menial existence to a destiny I began creating. For the next year, I worked hard to shift my mindset, change my limiting beliefs, and focus on my dream of traveling, writing, and not just being someplace else, but becoming something new.

  Was I afraid? Yes. Did I think I would fail? Many times I was filled with uncertainty. I didn’t know what the world had in store for me. I doubted I was doing the right thing. But what scared me more was the idea of waking up someday and realizing that I never did anything to gain control over my fears.

  Taking action didn’t scare me; it was the possibility of not taking action and living with regret that caused me anxiety. I didn’t want my destiny to be dictated by a paycheck or a job I didn’t enjoy. So, despite the fear I had in deciding to change everything, I set out to create a master plan.

  Overcoming fear isn’t just about doing what scares you, but having the courage to say no to the things you no longer want. In the months that I prepared myself for my journey, I had several relationship opportunities, job offers that paid well, and the promise of stability and financial security.

  But none of that appealed to me. I was being driven by something else that, until years later, I could only describe as a call to destiny. I wanted to experience as much of this life as I could, and the only way to do that was begin making different decisions. This resulted in a different course of action. For the first time in my life, I made choices that I wasn’t afraid of. Self-doubt no longer held me back. And, in that moment, I made a firm decision that it never would again.

  At the end of the day, when I went home at night and worked on my master goals, something told me this was the way to go. Was it the voice of destiny? I didn’t know, but whenever I spent time planning the life I wanted, instead of accepting the way things were, I was taken over by a feeling of passion for what I was doing.

  This passion was the unbreakable force that pushed me ahead.

  We all have the strength within us to be the people we want to be.

  There is no such thing as being trapped in a bad situation; you can only be trapped by your thoughts. When you free your mind, you can master any circumstance.

  I stayed fixed on my goals for a year, spending my free time reading books and learning about things I had never thought about before. I took language courses for countries I planned to visit. I talked to people about all the things I was going to see and what I would do when I got there. Sometimes they even listened to me. But most of the time I just ended up talking to myself.

  Even when a relationship almost held me back, I stayed on course. When friends and family told me to come back to reality, I ignored the warnings and forged ahead. I learned what it means to persist, and the raw power of committing to a single course of action. It was powerful. It overrode my weaker emotions and turned my mind into a focused engine hungry for more.

  Then, one day, after months of dreaming and planning, I bought a ticket to the Far East and made my journey real.

  Eventually, this journey has brought me to these pages, doing what I love the most: writing about life experiences, how to overcome the fear and hurdles along the way, and helping others to discover their real dreams. I have traveled to most of the places I once dreamed about, and many others are still on my list today.

  Walt Disney once said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

  You have that courage, even if you haven’t recognized it yet.

  Drive Your Destiny is a book that focuses on taking ACTION.

  In this book, you will discover how to:

  Foster beliefs that shape your destiny.

  Learn to craft a vision for your life that forges the building blocks of your destiny.

  Empower your life with vision-building strategies.

  Develop positive habits.

  Define your dream and create a plan for it.

  Master your passion and develop a mindset for excellence.

  Maximize your health and vitality.

  Build financial success and finance your dream.

  Staying fixed on your dream is not always easy. We struggle with life’s distractions and circumstances beyond our control on a daily basis. But what I learned is that we don’t have to concern ourselves with the events that don’t concern us. We can focus on our own path and choose to ignore the noise in the world.

  Why I wrote Drive Your Destiny

  I wrote this book to inspire, encourage, motivate—and most of all—to drive you to take immediate action. I urge you to find that inner greatness, that internal fire, even if the world has tried to convince you it went out years ago.

  I can promise you, if you look deep enough, you’ll find it again. I know I did. You will, too.

  This book is a guide to help you create anything you want in your life. Take out the guesswork and replace uncertainty with clarity. Remove your self-doubt while increasing the self-confidence you never knew you had. Toss out your habit of passive activity and replace it with forward action.

  When you combine these elements, you have a formula that works. It isn’t complicated and it doesn’t have to cause you unneeded stress or pressure. The only real path to success is committing to your plan and then putting into action the right strategies to get where you need to be.

  The system I used to take charge of my own destiny is what I will share with you in this book. I am not selling any easy gimmicks or quick fixes. There is no such thing as an instant formula for success. It takes work, diligence, perseverance, and formulating a
concrete vision of what you want to do.

  It takes time and dealing with the many frustrations of doing everything wrong before you get it right. That is the price of succeeding where most would fail.

  How This Book Can Help You…And why You Need to Read It!

  As far back as I can remember, I wanted to live a dynamic and inspiring life. I read books about great heroes and people of power and influence who seized their destiny and ran toward success.

  What did they have that made them different? For example, how did Abraham Lincoln, even after failing in most aspects of his life, rise to be such an epic figure?

  How did Henry Ford create one of the biggest car manufacturing companies in the world? How did Andrew Carnegie build the largest steel company in the world and subsequently become one of the richest men on the planet? These people had a gift, but more than that, they had powerful principles that set them apart.

  I was sure they had some special ability or superhuman powers. As the years went by and I grew to understand what makes a person successful, it occurred to me that life isn’t as complicated as we make it out to be.

  We don’t have to wait to learn a special skill or hope that motivation kicks in. If you are waiting for the day when a genie appears to grant you three wishes, you’ll spend your life dreaming and not doing.

  Destiny: A Call to Action

  The ability to succeed and create the life you really want has always been a choice and not some random event. We are not just actors on a stage reading lines; we can write our lines as we go.

  Your destiny is the story of your life, and you get to tell the story your way. Of course, life is full of many variables beyond our control, but at the end of the day, you determine the actions that influence your path.

  In this book, I’ll show you the key areas you can master to empower your destiny and transform, reinvent, and create anything you want. Nothing is impossible when you apply the thoughts necessary that support your positive mindset.

  Your destiny, the course that your life is taking right now, is like a script that has yet to be written. It is being created by you—right now—as you make choices and take intentional action in the form of daily habits and rituals.

  How you decide to spend the rest of your days is up to you. It begins with a decision:

  Will you forge a destiny that is yours, or just let life happen?

  The Master of Decision

  “It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

  — Tony Robbins

  We make thousands of decisions per week: what to eat, where to go, what clothes to wear, or who to hang out with on Friday night. As adults, we have to make critical choices such as which university to attend, what courses to take, or when to marry and to whom. These decisions are setting the stage for your life’s destination.

  Similar to driving a car down a long highway, you eventually reach a point in the road and you must decide whether to turn right or left. How do you know which decision is the right one? What if you allow fate to decide?

  Channeling the Power of Decision

  Decision-making is never easy, but as Tony Robbins said, “It’s in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.”

  But, making this decision is just the first step. You have to commit to your decision and take deliberate action to reach the desired outcome.

  It is important to ask these critical questions:

  What action would you choose right now if you could make one decision?

  What decision, if made, could potentially change everything for you?

  Don’t think about the result or the ultimate outcome; take a moment to make the decision that you’ve been struggling with the most. Then, focus on the actions that will take you straight to your goal.

  Now, a real decision isn’t just a lofty wish or a dream. If you say, “I want to earn ten thousand dollars per month doing what I love,” that sounds good, but there is nothing here to indicate that you will do that.

  We all “want” things. We want to be healthier, earn more money, and spend more time with friends and family. But wanting it and deciding you’re going to have it are unrelated. Wishes are for birthdays and shooting stars, but knowing without a doubt what you want and how you’re going to get it is a concrete commitment.

  You must believe in your decision, too. In the next chapter, we will take a look at the power of our beliefs. For now, just know that believing in this process is a necessary element.

  I told you earlier in the introduction that years ago I made a decision to change my life. I decided I would quit my job, do what I wanted, and travel the world, even though I wasn’t 100 percent sure what I wanted to do. But I also made another decision that day. I decided what I didn’t want.

  I didn’t want to waste my life fulfilling the expectations of others. I no longer wanted to wake up feeling defeated. I didn’t want to feel stuck.

  The moment I made this decision, I began piecing together my plan. Did I know how I would do this? Was I ready to leave behind my friends and parents? Was it a wise choice to fly to a country where I didn’t speak the language? If I had thought too much about it and weighed the pros and cons, my self-doubt and fear would have swayed my decision. I’d still be doing work I hate, living a menial existence, and wondering, “What might have happened if—?”

  That is why I urge you to ground your dream into your subconscious once you make your choice. We don’t know the outcome. We can plan for the best, but the rest is up to the small actions you take every day that fortify your decision. Every decision has to be followed by action.

  Have you ever said you would do something, but the day never came? Ten years passed and you’re still talking about the things you want to do. If this is you, it’s time to turn this around.

  Those who are unhappy and wishing they had more, or could do more—in many ways, they’ve decided to live that way. By not deciding, you are deciding. It works both ways.

  If you are stuck and blaming your environment, your spouse, or your circumstances for the way life has turned out, you have decided to accept that reality. Our decisions can destroy us, and it is the decisions we don’t make that ultimately lead to lives of discontent and unfulfilled dreams.

  Everything now rests on your ability to decide what you want. Develop an umbrella plan in which you can envision the plan as a whole. The details come later.

  Making a concrete decision can be a great challenge for most people. In many ways, we are accustomed to others making the decisions for us. As children, our parents made decisions for us.

  In school, we heard advice and suggestions from teachers and classmates that influenced our decisions. When you need financial help, you visit the bank and talk with someone who couldn’t care less about your money, but they’ll gladly help you decide where to put it. Then, you get married and your spouse or extended family ends up making decisions that influence your destiny.

  Eventually you feel lost, confused, as if your life is no longer your own. This happens when we let others decide our fate. It is a pattern of passive action, or learned helplessness.

  According to the Locus of Control concept, individuals with a strong internal locus of control believe the events in their life derive primarily from their own actions. Making core decisions that impact your life is an example of internal control. You decide what you want and you take the actions driving you toward your goals.

  Certainly, every decision that is not made by you but by someone else is going to leave you feeling powerless. Sure, you might feel some relief at the time: “Wow, I’m glad she decided that, because I couldn’t.” However, remember it will come back to you someday if you choose leave your destiny in someone else’s hands.

  It’s perfectly fine to ask people for advice or help, but remember that the decisions you make put you in control of your life. The decisions other people are making takes that control away, even if it works out in your favor.

  Most
decisions are made out of fear: the fear of making a mistake, the fear of living with a bad outcome. But that is how personal mastery is created.

  Yes, fear is the governing force behind your decisions. We are not aware of it but when we fear taking a risk, or think too long on the outcome, it is the fear of making a mistake, of losing the game, that controls the commitment power behind our decision. If a decision is easy, it isn’t going to have an impact.

  When we surrender our decision-making ability to others, we fall into the trap of being directed by circumstances beyond our control. We end up playing by someone else’s rules and we give up the power to make our own. This goes for anything: financial decisions, work, marriage, or other decisions that appear too big to manage.

  A standard sailboat has a main sail and a jib. What would happen if you suddenly stopped maneuvering with the large sail? You would likely drift out to sea at the mercy of the ocean’s power, or crash into a reef. Even if you tried to maintain control with the smaller sail, the front jib, it wouldn’t be enough to direct your boat. You need to be at the helm at all times. You are either the captain of your vessel, or someone else is.

  Your destiny can only be measured by the amount of direct influence you put into it. People who go with the flow, failing to take responsibility, and play the victim role of “there’s nothing I can do,” will end up lost at sea. They may reach land, but it is usually a destination they reached by blind luck. Chances are, many people you know fit this description. They are unhappy, lost, and desperate. Why? They haven’t made that critical decision about where they want to be in life.

  You can’t get where you want to be if you don’t know where that is. It sounds like a simple concept, but many are lost on the journey. They fail to decide what they want, then fail to commit to any course of action.