An Extraordinary Life
Big Picture, balance, focus, goals, inner peace, positive attitude, priorities, relantionships, responsibility, thinking errors June 26th, 2009
photo by: law_keven
Anthony Robbins…. Have you heard of him? If you’ve been into personal growth for very long it’s likely you have. He lives and thrives on improving the quality of people’s lives. I think that’s pretty noble. Robbins was the featured guest In the January 2009 Issue of Success magazine. There is an article about him in this issue followed by a question and answer session with him. It is from that question and answer session that this post is based upon. (Click here to read the full article and interview.)
In the last two posts I talked about deciding clearly who you want to be and about the value of saying yes and no to the right things. As I was reading through this interview with Anthony Robbins I noticed that he took these things a step further, which I really appreciated and wanted to pass along to you. Robbins poses a question for us to ask ourselves that makes it much easier to know what to say yes and no to so that we are truly motivated be who we want to be. Here is the question from Robbins:
‘If my life was truly extraordinary, if it was magnificent, by my own definition, what would my life be like today: physically, emotionally, with my family, in my career, in my level of happiness?’
Robbins encourages us to “set the standard for yourself so your brain, body and soul know what you’re committed to creating.” I think what he is stressing is the importance of clarity in our lives. The more clear we are as we answer this question the more clear our results will be.
So I leave you with Robbins question:
‘If my life was truly extraordinary, if it was magnificent, by my own definition, what would my life be like today: physically, emotionally, with my family, in my career, in my level of happiness?’
Hi Jennifer,
I’ve been tossing this around recently, at least in part. This idea of extraordinary. And I’ve really been thinking about how daily life CAN be extraordinary. It doesn’t have to be one time things that in some way extraordinary…and then we go back to the ordinary-ness of daily life.
So - to start: extraordinary is in the daily. Now, what I haven’t focused on is the different areas Robbins brings up. I am now though (thanks to you, Jennifer…).
Physically: I would be living healthy. It would be a daily time of exercise, and good choices in foods.
Emotionally: (this is the hard one!). I would be deeply connected to myself, and as a subset of that - deeply connected to those who matter most to me. I would “feel” out of of love and compassion. I would think less of what the world thinks, and feel more of what my heart speaks.
In all - relating to my family and career (and life): balance in all areas. Love more. Feel more. Be open. See through eyes of wonderment. Connect it all back to our Creator, the one who gives us eternal life.
Level of happiness: I think that by feeling and loving more - there is also the possibility that there could be more heartache. More loss. Yet - it’s all outweighed by knowing there is something greater beyond. That love conquers all. And that while some days may hurt more, because I’ve loved more - it’s so worth it. Because the real joy I’m feeling is a much deeper joy - one that connects more deeply to my soul.
Jennifer - I think I’ve bounced around here quite a bit…hopefully it makes some sort of sense…
I’m leaving here now, but I’m still really thinking about what this deeply means to me - this idea of extraordinary…thanks so much!
Lances last blog post..Sunday Thought For The Day
physically, I’d be more advanced with strenght training,
emotionally, no worries, with family, holding highest vision for each memeber, career more defined, in level of happiness a 10 vs the 8 I have now.
I wrote this ? in my journal and will ponder and define more. I have last months mag but didn’t get this one. Thanks for delivering it’s message to me Amanda.
Tess The Bold LIfes last blog post..Magic Monday Freebie with Steve Pavlina
Hi Lance. Hmmm… extraordinary… This word is following us. I’m so glad to read that you have been thinking of it already. I love how you bring out that daily life can be extraordinary. So often we think it’s about a big thing or event or goal, but then we can get let down easy after it’s over if we’ve put everything we have into it. But really an extraordinary life is about how we live daily. Each day can be extraordinary. We can choose to make it that way.
I love how you defined extraordinary in all these areas. They are beautiful descriptions. As I know that you’re making goals in doing this, I also know that you do live extraordinarily already. Just in reading your descriptions I think of ways that I can improve and live extraordinarily. I love especially how you mention “feeling” out of love and compassion. We can choose to put on a heart like this and touch others in extraordinary ways (but we will be the ones who are most blessed.) The idea of balance - it’s something that I’m really trying to actively work towards now and it certainly makes a difference. When we connect everything back to our Creator it all begins to make sense in such amazing ways….. balance falls into place. I LOVE your description of your level of happiness. That makes so much sense. Even though we would feel more loss and hurt we would have real joy from feeling and loving so much. That’s where the joy lies - in loving others as Christ did. The Bible even says that Jesus had joy going to the cross. It certainly wasn’t that it didn’t hurt!!!
The bouncing made a lot of sense Lance. Thank you so much for sharing and making me think. Enjoy your continued thoughts of an extraordinary life and living it most of all.
Tess, thank you for sharing what an extraordinary life would be for you. They are all so noble, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.
I could certainly improve in strength training too! You are giving me things to think about as I read over your descriptions of what an extraordinary life would be for you. I would love to hear what else you come up with after you’ve written in your journal. I’ve been bouncing this idea of an extraordinary life around in my head over the last few days and have made an appointment with my journal today to define it more clearly in written form as well. There’s nothing like writing something down!
Tess, enjoy your extraordinary life!
The Success Magazines are really great, aren’t they.
Tony is a master of powerful questions.
What I like about that question is it reminds you that you set your own bar. If you set the rules, you can win the game.
J.D. Meiers last blog post..Lessons Learned from Bruce Lee
Hi J.D. I believe that about Tony and powerful questions!
Good point about how this reminds us that we set our own bar. And people always like to make up their own rules.
Finally for once, we can.
Such a nice post. I enjoyed reading this. I have been a big fan of Anthony Robbins for a while now. I truly believe in his self help methods. When I got married, our in-laws from Dallas bought us one of his programs about keeping a marriage. I can’t thank them enough for such a wonderful wedding present. His program has been the center of our marriage and is what keeps us focused as to how we want to keep our marriage sacred.
Sarahs last blog post..FHA Extends Credit to Purchase
Thank you Sarah! And welcome to P4P. It sounds like you have some very wise and wonderful in-laws. That is so wonderful that it has made such a difference in your marriage. I’d love to know what the name of the program is. All the best to you and your continued wonderful marriage.