Inner World Game Plan STANDARDS Simply put, your standards are what you will or will not tolerate in life. They are the absolutes that define your identity. Everyone has set points for money, success, ethics, integrity, relationships and all other aspects of life. Your standards are your musts. We do not get our shoulds. We get our musts. For example, someone with high financial standards might say, I will not have less than a million dollars in the bank at all times, and someone with lower financial standards might say, I m happy making $40,000 per year. Imagine a thermostat in a room of your house on a cold winter night. As the temperature in the room drops, the boiler will consistently kick in to bring the temperature back up. That is exactly what happens internally as you unconsciously manage your standards. In order to raise your standards and your net worth you must push back when you feel resistance and know that you need to work even harder to get where you ultimately want to be on your own thermostat. 1 The Four Levels of Standards Poor standards exist at the very bottom. People with poor standards live a life of absolute pain and misery. 2 Good standards are a giant leap above poor standards. People with good standards, however, get poor results. They still feel pain in their lives because they are disempowered. 3 Excellent standards are another giant leap above good standards. People with these standards demand more from themselves than the average person. However, excellent standards often only yield good results. 4 Extraordinary standards are found just a tiny sliver above excellent standards. However, this is where all success and happiness are found. 1
Inner World Game Plan Your New Standards Create a new standard for at least four areas of your life. What is now a must for you in each of these areas? What will you no longer tolerate? 1 2 3 4 5 2
Inner World Game Plan VALUES The path of your life is shaped by your decisions. Our decisions are greatly shaped by our values, which the things that matter the most to us in life. Like our beliefs, many of our values are not something we created for ourselves. Often, we inherited these from our parents and from the environment we grew up in. In fact, most people are unaware of their true values and where they fall within the hierarchy of what s truly important to us. As a result, many people find it extremely difficult to make a decision and when they make the correct decision after lengthy consideration, they find themselves unsatisfied with the end result. It s only in understanding the emotional states which bring us ultimate pain and pleasure the things that we value and the things we retreat from that we can truly create a fulfilling life, personally and professionally. Uncovering Your Values Take a few minutes to rank your top five values, the things that bring you true pleasure. You may choose from this list, or create your own: Achievement, adventure, affection (love and connection), cooperation, creativity, excellence, financial gain, freedom, friendships, family, health, helping others, independence, order, power, respect, stability. Your top five values ranked in order of importance: Now that you ve identified your values, it s critical to search for conflicts. For example, if you ranked affection as your first value and independence as your second, you re going to experience some challenges in life as you juggle the two. Get really clear with yourself, on both an intellectual and emotional level, which of any conflicting values is truly more important. When you re able to decide which brings you more pleasure, you ll be able to resolve potential conflicts more easily and feel more satisfied with the result. 3
Inner World Game Plan Uncovering Your Pain You ll remember that people don t just move toward pleasure. They also move away from pain. Understanding the things in life that bring you massive pain is also extremely important because you ll make as many decisions to stay out of pain as you will to move toward pleasure. Brainstorm the top 5 emotions or experiences you avoid. Examples include anger, conflict, depression, frustration, guilt, humiliation, loneliness, rejection and sadness. Your top five pain points ranked in order of importance: Compare the two lists you have created. Can you see any conflicts? Capture your observations: Some people are more strongly motivated by moving toward pleasure than they are by moving away from pain. If you see any conflicts between your pain and pleasure lists, which will you give priority and why? 4
Outer World Game Plan DISCOVERING AND LEVERaging YOUR STRengthS Because you have already reached a relatively high level of wealth in your life, your strengths are already fairly highly developed and clearly suited to support you in the successes you ve already had. In order to continue breaking through to the next level in your life, it s important to regularly analyze which of your traits and your skills are working for you and which are not. In the next couple of pages, we re going to examine your personal strengths from a professional perspective and a personal perspective to determine how best to leverage your strengths for financial success. We ll start with some brainstorming exercises to analyze what s gone well in your life, then we ll examine how you got there. What are the top 3 biggest professional wins you ve had in your career? List the 5 things you re most proud of achieving so far, either professionally or personally? 5
Outer World Game Plan Look over your lists above and think about the qualities that prepared you for these achievements. List the 5 most critical professional strengths that have gotten you where you are today: List the 5 most critical personal strengths that have gotten you where you are today: 6
Outer World Game Plan MANAGING YOUR WEAKNESSES Everyone has weaknesses, as much as we hate to admit them. However, if you re willing to look at your weaknesses face-on, understanding they lie and how to manage them will be a huge advantage. As with managing your fear, there are three ways to manage your weaknesses: 1 2 3 Pretend they don t exist. People who pretend that your weaknesses don t exist end up a victim to them every time. Instead of making progress, they simply repeat their previous mistakes continuously. Act in spite of them. While this is a better option, it s not the one that leads to a billion dollars under your belt. Because you re a person of much higher standards, this method will simply not serve you. Understand and accept them. This is where people at the highest level of excellence live. Instead of pretending their weaknesses don t exist, or shoving them aside without dealing with them, they embrace their challenges and learn how to minimize them while leveraging their strengths. This is where you begin to achieve at the highest level. Consider for a few moments what you think might be holding you back from achieving the next level of success. List the 5 most critical professional weaknesses that might be keeping you from the next level: 7
Outer World Game Plan List the 5 most critical personal weaknesses that might be keeping you from the next level: Choose two weaknesses above and brainstorm ways that you can either combat these weaknesses or minimize their effect in your life: 8