The 12 Month Project — Post No.2
The 6 segments in life which all happiness falls in to.
First of all, if you are reading this and you have already read Post No.1, thanks for coming back! If you’re reading this and you haven’t read Post No.1 yet, the link is right at the bottom of this post.
Now. I’ve not always been the most philosophical cookie in the cookie jar, but the hours and days and weeks of thinking hard about my ‘vegetable’ state actually helped to clear my mind.
To enter a state of total thought clarity and ultra laser focus, you must 1) clear you mind of ALL negative thoughts and emotions, and 2) understand your mission, inside out. I thought about the past 5 years of my life and the busy schedule I’d had — and how I hadn’t actually enjoyed any of it. I had no idea what I really wanted, or what my mission was. Listening to all the uber positive audio books and listening to my parents positive words was enough to clear the small bits of negativity that I had stuck in my skull. Next was to work out what the fuck my mission was.
I looked at life itself — and what actually contributes to happiness. After scrutinizing every factor you could possibly imagine, and a massive amount of pondering, deliberation, procrastinating and hesitation, I decided that there are just 6 underlying sectors that all happiness will fall in to. (By the way, this is all just my opinions and thoughts that I’m sharing to help people feel like they can achieve something unimaginable in life, so if you believe that something I’ve said is slightly incorrect or TOTALLY incorrect, stay cool bro.)
These aren’t in any particular order, but the 6 areas are:
- Health & body. Most of the time, our primary concern is our own health and our body. If we are unhealthy, or if we have a horrendous body, we will struggle to be happy.
- Spirituality & Purpose. We can have the best health and the best body in the world, but if our mind isn’t in the right place, we’ll never find total happiness.
- Safety & Security. We can have the perfect health, body and mind, but if we’re living in a shanty house in Iraq with Jihadi John as our neighbour, we aren’t likely to be totally happy.
- Financial Freedom. Now, a tricky one. We can have everything above, but without enough money, we can’t achieve the maximum levels of happiness because we won’t be able to support our lives and our families lives.
- Adventure & Exploration. We may have the perfect health & body & mind, and be very safe, and have a shit load of money, but if we aren’t spending our time/money/effort chasing our dreams or exploring the universe, we aren’t truly living. This can involve exciting careers, sport, travelling, crazy activities, etc. etc. etc.
- Love & Relationships. Some may say that this is the most important piece of the puzzle, but I honestly think they are all important. This one is about spending your money, time & adventures with the people that you love, and actually enjoying it. Family, friends, pets, strangers — all of those weird bastards that make you laugh till it hurts.
Looking at my life back then, both before the strokes and immediately after, I was very unsure about which of these 6 areas my life was succeeding in. I had a great family — I knew that. I was safe and secure at home — I knew that. But I didn’t have great health, I didn’t have a great body, I didn’t understand my purpose and really wasn’t in the right place mentally, I DEFINITELY wasn’t financially free to do as I pleased, I did almost no adventuring & exploring, and I was turning away any opportunity of falling in love with somebody because I had a very childish ‘fuck bitches get money’ attitude (but I wasn’t even getting the money bit).
Initially, it was difficult because I didn’t know exactly what I wanted from life. But, the more I listened to myself think, and the more I realised my huge progress, the more clarity I felt. I was beginning to see a vision of where my life was going to go. Obviously, my only concern to start with was health. Because I was so incredibly behind in that sector, I had to dedicate every moment of my life to it, and it paid off in HUGE dividends.
The vision I was having over and over again was all around potential. Potential is a word that would hit me in the face every morning & every night. It would swirl around my head throughout the day and would write itself in the colours of my mind during my dreams. I couldn’t get away from it. I was wondering what potential any human actually has at any given point. I was seeing myself dedicating my entire life to this word — potential. This was my mission — and I was beginning to understand it, inside out. I was chasing my potential like a pack of angry wild dogs. I realised that this is all my life is about. Reaching my potential — and helping others understand that they, too, can achieve theirs.
So, without wasting anymore of your time, I bring you my goals. They’re huge. They’re totally unreasonable. They’re unrealistic (for most people) considering my starting point. They’re challenging. And they’re exactly what I want them to be.
- To have perfect health, 85kg of lean beast meat, but still be able to run a full marathon in 3 hours 30 minutes. Also, I want new perfect teeth.
- To build my businesses enough to allow me to have £250,000 in savings, ready for investment in to property.
- To raise half a million pounds for charity. This won’t be easy, obviously, but a challenge is a challenge. You can call me mad…I already know I am.
- To visit 12 different countries over the next 12 months.
- To do 12 huge good deeds for people who could really do with a helping hand over the next 12 months. People don’t do enough spontaneous good deeds. I enjoy it.
- To have a brand new Range Rover. (I realise this could be seen as shallow whilst I could be spending my money elsewhere to help the planet, but I don’t give a fuck. I want a Range Rover).
That’s all for now. I may add some as time goes by…
People often say, “oh yes Jordan, I see what you’re saying here. You need more balance in life.” — but I think they’re missing the point of this project. I’m not looking for balance here. I’m looking for abundance. I want everything from life. I want all 6 sectors of life to the absolute maximum levels possible. I want the ultimate success — and I believe every person can achieve it with the right mindset & plan. I want to achieve my potential in life. And, if everything goes sweet, soon, I should be well on my way.
I’ll be back in touch next Sunday with some actual info on how I’m actually going to do any of this.
See you then.
https://medium.com/@JPStevenson/the-12-month-project-post-no-1-b8759b96c9b8#.x8jmzopc2
