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39 answers that will improve your life forever

The Self-Knowledge Acid Test

Lest you become as little children you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Christ

"When you know what you want, and you want it badly enough, you will find ways to get it." Jim Rohn
The problem arises when we fail to say what we want.

WINNING = Reading with a highlighter, marking things up and writing down your thoughts.
LOSING = Constantly distracting yourself by listening to music and watching television.

WINNING = Going for an hour walk with your thoughts.
LOSING = "I'll exercise later."

WINNING = Reading a self-help or business book like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, or Chouinard's classic Let My People Go Surfing, or The 4-Hour Work Week.
LOSING = Failing to read self-help or business books and failing to learn what other people have to say who've been there. Listening to people who haven't been there. Thinking that sitting in school is really the same as getting an education.

WINNING = Going to the library and browsing the stacks. Asking questions of the librarian.
LOSING = "Looking around in a library isn't for me."

WINNING = "I want to save $10,000 and pay off all my debts."
LOSING = "I'm going to let someone else pay."

Word choice determines thought choice, which determines emotion and action.

If you are not interested in change and having more fun then The Self-Knowledge Acid Test is not for you.

When you write your thoughts down (and work on clarifying your writing so that it really makes sense in a cogent and well-organized notebook), then you will be able to make clear statements to yourself. Until this point, you will be in a muddle of unclear and poorly verbalized thoughts, hemmed in by a proliferation of consumer-oriented habits, misinformation and disinformation - all designed to keep you trapped in dissatisfaction and ignorance.

Honestly, I don't know of anything more exciting, interesting, or rewarding than wrestling with the answers to these questions. I don't understand why everyone isn't so interested in his/her life that they don't devote an entire notebook to writing down their answers to these questions. Successful people do. Drifters and excuse makers don't. These are the rules of the road. You don't have to pay attention to them. But you will regret it if you don't. The Rules of the Road are always the rules. To ignore the rules is to fail to play the game -- to fail to play the game is to miss out on a lot of fun.

Do you want to work hard on your future? How are you going to grow your philosophy? Or, are you going to go through life with no philosophy? Perhaps you don't care about philosophy or your future? Maybe thinking about the future makes you anxious.

Courage is being brave enough to face anxiety: the will to affirm the significance you play in the world; willing to do what needs to be done; the merger between anxiety and free will; making decisions even though the effort feels uncomfortable. Courage will always make you anxious. Courage will also make you believe in yourself. How did you learn that being anxious was such a bad thing?

What you want must be brought to consciousness. You will become what you study. Study your answers to the following questions. Write your first answers quickly. Then return to your answers daily, edit, reorganize, and really strategize about how you are going to get there. Devote an entire notebook to answering these questions, and carry your notebook everywhere -- by the time your notebook is filled, your life will have changed for the better.

1. Name three places you really want to visit?
2. Name one thing that really excites you?
3. What excited you about getting up this morning?
4. What do you avoid like the plague?
5. What causes you to stay up late?
6. Name three things you really want to do?
7. Name three qualities you want to posses.
8. What skills must you learn?
9. What degree(s) must you earn?
10. List three things you really want to own.
11. Write down three things you want to see?
12. What do you have to share?
13. Name a charity you want to support?
14. What extraordinary things do you want to accomplish?
15. What ordinary things do you want to do?
16. Name something silly you really want to do.
17. What is really important to you?
18. Name five heroes.
19. Name something that other people think is important, but you don't.
20. Name one thing you have done that was really brave.
21. What are you going to do to earn your first $million?
22. How are you going to take care of your health?
23. What kind of family do you want? How many children?
24. Where do you want to live?
25. Who do you want to know? What kind of friends?
26. What do you have to prove? To whom?
27. What books are you going to read?
28. What self-help books are you going to read and listen to?
29. What are you going to write to help you clarify your thoughts?
30. What time are you going to set aside to think?
31. What time are you going to get up in the morning?
32. What are you going to do today to make life better for someone else?
33. Name a "self-help" book or program you are actually going to complete.
34. When are you going to get off the dime and stop blaming others?
35. When are you going to forgive?
36. Are you being productive, or just active and busy?
37. What are you going to "produce" today?
38. At what age are you going to die?
39. What would you like your final words to be?

Now that you've spent a little time defining what you want, is that enough? No! "Wants" are a dime a dozen. They are cerebral and brainy things. While things of the brain are very important, what really rules the nest is heart and "emotion," or what is called desire. What are your emotions really after? What does your heart desire?

In summary, here is Rory Donaldson's Self Knowledge Acid Test to help you figure out what your really desire:

A) Write down three long-term work-related goals. 

1. My dream job is to...
2. The person I'd really like to work with is...
3. To do this I must learn to...

B) Write down three spiritual and personal goals. 

1. To stay healthy I am going to...
2. To better my family I am going to...
3. To go on a really fun date or vacation I am going to...

C) Create a picture in your mind.

1. What will your future look like when you achieve your goals?. 
2. Is this the future you really want? 
3. What kind of a future do you really want?

D) Is the future you want important enough for you to become what it takes to achieve it? 

1. What do you want to become?
2. Is the sacrifice you are going to have to make, and the education you are going to have to get, worth it? 
3. Are you really willing to work hard? Or, would you prefer watching television and numbing yourself into false comfort with noise and images generated by some entertainment factory in Hollywood?

Here's some advice:. Go where the demands on you are really high and grow into them. This is how you add value to yourself. Stop searching for the easy life. The easy life isn't enough fun  -- and I believe we should all have fun.