Your Life by Design Kick Start Lite by Ian Hutchinson B.Bus, G.Dip.Psy, CSP Life & Work Engagement Strategist Founder @ Life by Design Unlocking Your Potential in Life & Work
contents ready 1. The New Philosophy 00:01 Why plan your life? 00:03 How to use the Your Life by Design Kick Start Lite 00:04 set 2. Kick Start Process 00:05 My Current Week 00:06 Life Success 00:09 Lifestyle Priorities 00:12 Work Fulfillment 00:14 My Ideal Week 00:17 Ideal Cashflow 00:20 go 3. Solutions 00:23 Life Vision Diagnostic 00:24 Next Steps 00:26 Additional Resources 00:27 2017 Life by Design ABN 55 056 752 295 All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, copied, stored or transmitted in any form without prior written permission of Life by Design Pty Ltd. Information, systems and tools in this program are in no way intended to replace independent professional advice. The author is not responsible for any action or claim resulting from the use of information contained in the program, be that in contract, tort, or otherwise except such provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974 which may not be waived.
why plan your life? Why plan your life It s a good question. Life is what we make it. I think we all need to re-evaluate our direction and life on a regular basis to ensure that we are making the most of life s opportunities and are not setting ourselves up for regrets. After all, you could spend your life doing many different things but what is truly the best way of living your life? In today s hectic society, you may feel that you d like more control over your life. Let s face it, most people do. Life planning will help you feel more in charge of your destiny: it will assist you to make more informed decisions and inspiring choices about your future. There are those who are simply alive, and those who are really living a great life. They are the same, but yet they are very different. Successful people know where they are going with their life. Typical reasons and motivations to plan your life Add a couple of your own and tick which ones are the most important reasons to you: I want to take more control of my life and make more informed decisions about my future. I m successful but I still don t feel totally fulfilled. I don t have enough time to do the things I truly love. ready I want to achieve a better work life balance. I want to lead a healthier life and live longer. I want to change careers and do work that is more satisfying, but don t know how or what this work should be. I want to make the most of my retirement and ensure that it is as fulfilling as possible. I want to I want to 00:03 2
How to use Your Life by Design Kick Start Lite This is based on one thing you! When was the last time you spent some time just thinking and planning about you and your life? Some people feel guilty about spending time on themselves. But if we take the time to think about what we really want in our life, and take steps to achieve that, the happiness we derive as a result can only spread to those around us. "Once you ve completed Your Life by Design Kick Start Lite, you ll find it really beneficial to review your plan, a bit like an annual 'health check'." So give yourself permission to design a life ideally suited to you. You ll get more out of it if you explore your thoughts and ideas fully as you go, and be as specific as possible. Let s get started! Grab yourself a cuppa and a comfy chair, and give yourself time take a journey of a lifetime your lifetime! Enjoy! So let s get started! Ian Hutchinson Life & Work Engagement Strategist Founder @ Life by Design 00:04
Kick Start process 00:05
my current week How do you invest your time now? The first step is to look at how we currently spend our average week using the weekly planner below. Sketch out in five minutes a typical week for you now, being as specific with the times and activities as possible. Sample MORNING Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ➑ AFTERNOON EVENING ➑ ➑ Exercise Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday EVENING AFTERNOON MORNING 00:06
Now score yourself out of 10 based on how much that week makes you feel happy and fulfilled. /10 Many people score 3-4 out of 10. But even if you are scoring an 8, there are always things that you can do to make your week better. How we live each hour, each day, each week, each year, translates to how we live our life. The quality of our life is in direct proportion to how we choose to use our time. We can all achieve a better life with just a little planning. It is simple. It takes some time, but it is simple. Time seems to be our constant challenge to enjoying life, but we actually have more control over our time than we give ourselves credit for. Few people ever sit down and draw up a schedule of how they spend their time and when they do they often find it surprising. For instance, how much of your week is now spent on things that you don t really enjoy? Many of us feel we have to do things that we don t enjoy, for example, certain responsibilities. But is there an imbalance? Can you change your schedule to do a little more of the things you love but hardly ever give yourself time for, and a little less of the things that don t turn you on? Sometimes just the smallest things can make the biggest differences. What is one small thing that you could do this week something which isn t that hard to do but would make an immediate improvement to your life? (e.g. example, leave work at 5pm one day this week)...... 00:07
life success 00:8
What is a successful life? The answer is different for different people because it s a very personal thing. For some, success means work achievements, or seniority status or wealth. For others, success is embodied by family, or perhaps fund-raising for charities, or caring for children or those less fortunate than ourselves. life success It s probably fair to say that people s view of success has changed over the past few decades. These days it is not necessarily exclusively tied to work, which personally, I think is a good thing, because human beings have a lot more to offer the world than merely being economic labour or performing assets. I think success in life is about being as happy as possible - but what makes you happy? Here's a quick exercise on the next page to help clarify your thoughts about your personal view of a successful life. 00:09
These thought starters will help you focus on what is important to you and will lead you to getting more definition on what success means to you. What I love doing most in life is: What I like most about my current job (or if not working, your lifestyle) is:... What I like least about my current job (or as above, lifestyle) is: I get most excited and feel most alive when: In my life, I would most like to accomplish: If money, time and responsibility weren t an issue, I would be doing: At the end of my life, I d like to be remembered for: My definition of success in life is: 00:10
life priorities 00:11
Life has so much to offer that it sometimes seems all too hard to focus on what we most love doing and how we ideally want to live. One of the keys to success is to look at the many life options available to you and set priorities so you can focus on what s really important. Here are a few tips to help you make better lifestyle priority choices: Don t do everything at once. We only have 24 hours in the day and seven days a week, so the key is prioritising what is most important. Choose just three areas of focus in your life and be realistic in committing your time to those things that are most important to you. Most people know what they don t want, but fewer seem to know what it is that they truly do want. Be brutally honest in selecting priorities and activities that you want and love to do, not what you think might sound great to others. Extend yourself just outside of your comfort zone. All meaningful change happens just outside your area of comfort. If you want something to change you have to change something. Don t try to make enormous change overnight. First try baby steps and build your confidence with a series of early small wins. The key is small baby steps - consistently. You might like to check out my course that helps you get real clarity around your life priorities and work life balance - www.lifebydesign.com.au/learn 00 :12
work fulfilment 00:13
For many of us, work defines our lives and heavily influences our life structure. So wouldn t it be great to make our work as fulfilling as possible, especially considering we spend almost a third of our lifetime working? work fulfilment Let me say up front that when I refer to work or job, it can mean many different things in different situations. Work is not confined to a corporate job where you re paid a salary. Unpaid work, such as motherhood, caring for infants or the elderly, charitable or volunteering duties can be just as fulfilling (if not more) as traditional paid work. The nature of work may also change for many people. As we approach retirement we often seek to put something back into the communities in which we live, or perhaps we just want a change so our work demands suit our life better. Many retirees choose to do some form of work, and chances are you might too, so why not make sure it is something you love doing? So how can you assess if your current work is sufficiently satisfying and fulfilling? More importantly, is it suited to the life you desire, now and in the future? 00:14
Gaining more fulfilling work may not necessarily mean a complete sea change, leaving your current employer, or doing anything drastic. It could simply mean reviewing your skills, challenges and meaning areas. Then you could negotiate with your employer to redefine your work so that your job uses more of the capabilities that you want to use and that would be more personally fulfilling. Sometimes you may feel there isn t much opportunity to increase the skills you most love using, positive challenges and meaning to make your work more fulfilling. But don t take it for granted until you have spoken to someone at work about it first. You might be pleasantly surprised. If you are doing what you love, you re not working, but rather you are getting paid for what you love to do. There are some cases when opportunities for change don t exist in our current work situations and it is necessary to look outside our current situation and change roles. If this is the case for you, list any ideas that you have that you may like to explore: Hopefully, so far this will help you start thinking about things with more clarity. Clear thinking is the key. To get into this in more detail, check out my Loving Your Work Course at www.lifebydesign.com.au. 00:15
my ideal week My Ideal Week At the beginning of this Your Life by Design Kick Start Lite you mapped out your current week (see page 6). Now is the time to have some fun designing your ideal week! Think of your time as your most precious asset. How you manage that precious asset determines your overall satisfaction and life success. This exercise simply involves creating a timetable of how you would ideally like to spend your time each week, with specific activities blocked out day by day. For the purpose of this exercise, forget about the contents of your current week, which you set out earlier. Imagine that the week you design will be the same sort of week you will have forever, so make sure it has a balance of the things that are most important to you. For example, you may not want to work five days a week, and your ideal scenario may be only three days a week starting at 11:00am. The secret to creating an ideal week is to be totally honest and purposefully selfish, yes, that s right, selfish. This is your life we are talking about and how you spend your time should be up to you. It is about fitting in those activities that you truly love and this will emerge if you are completely honest in this exercise. This exercise will also highlight the difference between how you spend your time currently and how you would ideally like to spend your time in the future. As with the previous current week exercise you did at the front of this Your Life by Design Kick Start Lite, the trick is to be as specific as you can on your activities. For instance, if you plan to take every Friday off from work for leisure, perhaps write that down as 9:00am, playing golf with work mates for three hours; noon, lunch at the club. Often, when I ask people to write down their ideal week, they don t give themselves permission to design a good enough week. At this stage don t be limited by money and responsibilities. One tip is to do a first draft in pencil. If the ideal week you designed doesn t score a 10 out of 10, then you haven t given yourself permission for a good enough week. I guarantee it is a great eye opener, so go ahead and have some fun with it! 00:16
Sample Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday MORNING ➑ ➑ AFTERNOON EVENING Exercise Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday EVENING AFTERNOON MORNING Remember to give yourself permission to have fun with this exercise and design your perfect 10/10 week. 00:17
If you re not scoring a 9 or 10 out of 10, then keep fine-tuning your ideal week until your score increases. Great, now identify the differences between your ideal week here and current week on page 6. Few people ever sit down and draw up a schedule of how they spend their time and then compare it with their ideal week. It will give you a clearer idea of what you need to address to turn your current week into your ideal week. Perhaps your weekly schedule needs an overhaul, or maybe there are just one or two small things that need to be adjusted to make a world of difference to your lifestyle. How can you change your current weekly schedule in some small way so that you are having a more enjoyable week? (Example: outsource some domestics, like mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, swim once each weekend.) See if you can do just one small thing this week. What is one small thing that you could do this week to start the process that would make an immediate improvement on your lifestyle? (Example: ring up a local lawn mowing service or contact your local public swimming pool to check opening hours.) Hopefully by now you are starting to see some patterns for some life changes. Perhaps you re even starting to think about some strategies yourself. What do you want to be doing more of each week? 1. 2. 3. 00:18
ideal cashflow 00:19 2016 Life by Design. Not to be reproduced without written permission
Making money really work for you The ultimate bottom line is, money itself really isn t that important. The key is what life we use the money to achieve. Money only becomes important when it allows us the freedom to create our own life. If you work out a financial plan without considering your ideal life first, you end up having to accommodate your life around what you can afford. But if you determine your ideal life first, you can better shape your financial plan to achieve this goal. The great thing about a cashflow is that it encourages you to get specific and focus on precisely what you want out of your life. Clarifying your current cashflow and then working out the cashflow you ll need for your future ideal life will allow you to have more financial independence. Creating cashflow for different life options will also give you a better idea of which one is the most realistic or suitable for your circumstances. Only 5% of the population have a cash flow for their own life, but many people constantly whinge and complain about not having enough control of their finances" Have you ever sat down and developed a detailed cashflow for what your ideal life will cost? If you have, congratulations! If you haven t, you are like the majority of people. It may surprise you to realise just how simply you can live if you really want to pursue a life change. 00:20
Cashflow awareness will give you a huge advantage Many people find it difficult to start a cashflow because they don t want to invest the time and effort simply to find what they expect will be bad news. Yet, once done, it will give you a huge advantage. Don t stick your head in the sand. You will be able to make better informed decisions and implement strategies to improve your life both now and in the future if you are clear on the cashflow implications of your spending decisions. As you ve heard me say before, taking action can be reasonably simple. It takes time, but it is not difficult. By having a cashflow you will be in more control of your finances. For example, experts estimate that you can save 10% of your income just by having more awareness about your income and expense streams. Once set up, the cashflow only takes about 10 minutes a fortnight to maintain and keep tabs on. How would you like to increase your income by 10%, reduce your financial stress and be more in control of your financial situation all at the same time just by spending 4-5 hours per year updating your cashflow? 00:21
Why not get started? Do the easy parts first. For example, put in your known income, then estimate expenses (remember to allow for some fun money ). It may only be 60% correct in your first draft. But at least it is a start and you can now fine tune it as you gather together more accurate information. A financial planner can help put this together, but I suggest that you make a start. More financial control You may like to check out my online cashflow course It s simple. It takes some time, but it is simple. Just as the first pancake is always lumpy, your cashflow wont be perfect this time around. The Money Made Simple - Your Personal Cash Flow course, includes: 15 cut to the chase video lessons & tutorials 2-5 minute videos for 24/7 mobile friendly use 1 x personal cash flow system for lifetime use 1 x cash flow guide e-book Go to www.lifebydesign.com.au 00:22
go 00:23
life laws of success Life by Design - Vision Diagnostic Use this ready reckoner to quickly assess your progress, check in on how you are going and what areas you need to get some more clarity on. You may like to check in and do this review every so often. Use this simple tool - which you can do in one minute. I call it the Life by Design - Vision Diagnostic. Rate yourself out of 10 in each of the following five V x I + S + I > O = N areas: V I S VISION: I know what I want from my life so clearly that I could talk about it for 5-10 minutes. INSPIRATION: I am inspired, excited and motivated about my future life vision. STRATEGIES & SMALL STEPS: I have broken down my life plan into strategies and small written steps /10 /10 /10 I INTENTIONAL SYSTEMS: I have a way of ensuring that I complete the small baby steps needed to achieve my life goals. /10 O OBSTACLES: I know clearly what the obstacles are that are holding me back from achieving my ideal life /10 N Now add up your score out of 50. TOTAL NON STOPPABLE SUCCESS: /50 The better you score, the more likely you are to achieve success (V x I + S + I > O = N ). 00:24
solutions Ideally, you should be aiming for a score of above 40 on your Life by Design - Vision Diagnostic. If your score is below this, look for solutions to improve your score. Here are some specific course recommendations to help: V I S I O If you re scoring low in the VISION, you might like to consider the Life by Design: Foundation Course OR Career Development & Future Vision Course. If you re low on INSPIRATION, have a look at key criteria such as your interests, skills, motivational drivers and values. Further tools for all of these criteria are included within our Career Development & Future Vision Course. If your score is low in the STRATEGIES & SMALL BABY STEPS, then investing in either the Career Development & Future Vision Course or the the Turning Obstacles Into Simple Actionable Strategies Course will really help. If you re scoring low on INTENTIONAL SYSTEMS, then consider maintaining a diary if you think that will help keep you on track. Or perhaps get a coach or mentor whom you meet with on a regular basis. If your score is low in OBSTACLES, we go into more detail on this in the Career Development & Future Vision Course, the Turning Obstacles Into Simple Actionable Strategies Course, and Money Made Simple -Your Personal Cash Flow Course. go N Once you ve done the recommendations above, rate yourself again and see if your overall score improves. Do this on a regular basis, just like you d tune up a car. If you are still being challenged with the process and you d like to know more, visit www.lifebydesign.com.au/learn 00:25
next steps You have now completed this basic Life by Design Kick Start Lite course. If you have done all the exercises and tools, then congratulations, you have graduated into the top 5% of the population, in that you now have some written priorities and goals for your life. Well done!, and remember, you don t have to be successful to get started, but you do have to get started to be successful. What now? This Life by Design Kick Start Lite is just a starter kit. When it comes time for you to review your life priorities, your job fulfilment, your motivation at work or your cash flow, you may like to consider my online Life by Design: Foundation Course. Go to www.lifebydesign.com.au See you soon! Thanks for having me as your introductory tour guide on this challenging (and hopefully fun!) journey. Good luck and hope to see you in my more advanced courses! Ian Hutchinson Life & Work Engagement Strategist Founder @ Life by Design 00:26
additional resources Like to know more? For the past 20 years Life by Design has coached and educated over 50,000 students/individuals as well as 100's of teams and organisations to become happier, more motivated, engaged, fulfilled and on purpose through simple, easy-to-use innovative tools, worksheets & systems. Life by Design programs enable individuals and organisations to fully realise their potential by increasing engagement and motivation with quick win tools and sustainable systems. Specialities: Clarity of Purpose Life & Work Engagement Strategies Work Life Balance Career Development Lifestyle Planning & Life Design Employee Engagement & Motivation Employee-Driven Engagement Services: Keynote Speaking Training & Workshops Mentoring & Coaching Online Learning Most popular courses 00:27
In an increasingly busy world we are all being asked to do more with less. However, there is a lot more that we can control in our life, work and finances than many of us are giving ourselves permission for. Sure there are things we can t control, but we have found that with clarity there is a lot more that we can control. Clarity Creates Control Most people know what they DON T want; fewer truly know what they DO want. As such, many people live a life by default, rather than a life by design and sometimes find themselves unmotivated and disengaged in life and work. Central to our approach is helping people get more clarity, and therefore control, of their life and work by providing them with the learning, along with the systems and tools to be happier and more successful in what they want, now and in the future. "By far this course has been the most valuable personal 'kick in the pants' I have ever had." Kylie Upton Our Specialisaties: Clarity of Purpose Life & Work Engagement Strategies Work Life Balance Career Development Lifestyle Planning & Life Design Employee Engagement & Motivation Employee Driven Engagement Ian Hutchinson, Founder of Life by Design, (B.Bus, Grad.Dip.Psy, CSP) is an Australian Professional Speakers Hall of Fame speaker & trainer, being awarded the Educator of the Year. For the past 20 years Ian has had the privilege of helping over 50,000 employees/individuals, as well as 100 s of teams and organisations become happier, more motivated, engaged, fulfilled and on purpose through simple, easy-to-use innovative programs, tools & systems. "Ian Hutchinson has developed an elegant & practical course enabling people to take more control over every aspect of their lives, & therefore evolve from living life by default to living life by design." Susie Roberts Ian has provided a straight up, clear, concise & realistic method to take stock of my life, dig deeper into my priorities & make an instantly usable action plan to move forward with & get started on today." Mike Sloan He is passionate about his work, walks the talk and lives by the philosophy: Have a fun youthful attitude, keep things simple and above all remember that life is for living. Life by Design www.lifebydesign.com.au Email: info@lifebydesign.com.au Most Popular Online Learning Courses Life by Design: Foundation Course People Glue: Employee Engagement Unlocking Your Motivation Loving Your Work Balancing Your Life & Work Money Made Simple