Join me on a 12 month journey to designing and building your best life without stress and overwhelm

Today’s article is an introduction to the next 12 months of life success together.

In this article I explain three things:

1. Why we start with a base layer thats easily missed when we think of designing our best lives
2. My best life pyramid
3. An outline of the coming 12 months where I help you with ideas for creating your ideal life and preferred future.
   

So let’s get to it:

1. Starting with a strong base layer

When you think about living the life you dream of where you’re:

• Achieving your goals
• Living the balance of work and home
• Having time to relax and enjoy your life with the people you love

It’s appealing to start with getting motivated and setting goals to make things better.

But there’s a starting point you can miss (and me too) that sets you up for success in:

• Defining your goals
• Boosting your motivation to start
• Maintaining the momentum you need to keep pursuing the things you want
• Living the best life you can imagine.
  

In every larger goal i’ve worked on, i’ve felt an underlying discomfort as I make plans and start. It’s a feeling I couldn’t put my finger on but gradually realised I was just not 100% sure i’d actually get to the end and stay motivated enough to see it through. I’ve now realised I needed a stronger layer under all my planning and the actions I took each day.

So what is this first foundational layer? Let’s go:

Expecting success

What would pursuing your goals and ideal life look like when you have a strong base layer of expectancy and hope?

Expecting success with genuine hope that you’ll succeed is a foundation you must achieve to

• feel motivated in the first place to start
• create habits that build your ideal life
• enjoying each day you’re in as you pursue that life.
  

But what about dealing with doubts or fears?

What happens when you set a goal and make plans to get there but underlying this desire to achieve is doubt.

Are you motivated enough?

Are you skilled enough?

Do you have the time?

Should you invest in yourself?

Well the answer is yes to those questions.

You are capable.

You can get and stay motivated.

But you need to expect success and believe you’ll find a way through rough patches and bad days. I need this too.

My suggestion for building this hope is really simple:

1. Understand the Best Life Pyramid as a way to progress to the life you want to create and maintain
2. Start with the first layer at the bottom and work your way up in a structured way
   

The next 12 months of info from me is designed to help you do those two things.

2. The Best Life Pyramid: a system for designing and building your preferred life

Here’s the deal:

Life design seems complex and overwhelming. You have work, family and commitments.

Working mothers in professional careers that succeed in living balanced happy lives do four things well:

1. Know what their preferred life looks like
2. Set simple goals that have a profound effect on their health, wellbeing, and success
3. Find a simple structure to their day at work and at home that builds the life they value and desire
4. Use habits for success without expecting themselves to do it perfectly (I find this one hard)
   

The Best Life Pyramid is a visual representation of the layers for successful life design.

Each layer includes:

• Mindsets
• Skills
• Actions

That build on each other to form a strong life. Each layer beneath supports the one above.

This week my article is give you an idea of what’s to come this year.

To start, here’s an image of the pyramid and the next 12 months will deep dive into each layer as a series of Happiness Field guides. These are how-to guides for building your best life.

The designed life: your next 12 month journey to happiness and achievement

Here’s the run down of what you’ll get in the next 12 months

• My Happiness Notebook which are short articles covering topics from my Best Life Pyramid concept. These are not massive articles taking ages to read but quick tips based on a “wellbeing word of the week” where we look at a topic and how to find solutions to live to our potential.

• A Happiness field guide at the end of each month. This is a downloadable pdf (for members of my free community. Sign up here for free and join a group of women professionals dedicated to living their best and happiest lives)

• A weekly question and journal exercise at the end of each happiness notebook to reflect on your journey to your preferred life. I encourage you to grab your own notebook for using the exercises, reflecting on your life, and setting goals.
  

3. Topics I’ll be covering: How to create and succeed in the life you want

Note: each topic is covered over one month.

1. Expecting success: a definitive guide to the what why and how of hope and belief for success
2. What is motivation and how to build and maintain it even on the down days and stressful weeks
3. Defining your preferred and best life
4. Designing this preferred and best life
5. Goals 101: a definitive guide to the science of goals
6. Setting your goals: the guidebook on the why, what, and how of goals
7. Success Habits: the field guide to what why and how of effective habits for working on your goals without overwhelm.
8. Habits for a successful and happy life: My CCC method
9. Habits for a successful and happy day: the PPP method
10. Habits for success and happiness in your work day. My RELAX method
11. Habits for success and happiness in your home life. My HELP method.
12. Take your forest walk. A surprise map for your life journey and implementing the Best Life Pyramid into a joyful walk
    

Making your decision to start your preferred life journey

So there’s more to building your best life than just setting goals and trying to get motivated.

We all need hope, belief in our ability, and expectancy for success to start the walk.

This week’s question (actually 3 questions):

1. When you think about your ultimate dream or goal, what’s your level of expectation and hope for achieving it?
2. What’s holding you back from expecting you’ll succeed?
3. How can you build your expectancy and hope today?

See you next week for our month of hope building which will fuel the next step in the pyramid: getting motivated and staying that way.

Footnote:

The following concepts are copyright to the Minutes to Happy Method: Best Life Pyramid, CCC, PPP, RELAX, HELP, The Forest Walk Life Planning Program, happiness Notebook, Minutes to Happy Happiness Field Guide downloadable.