The Success Principles ~ Principle 23

This week's success principle is Practice the Rule of Five. Before I get into the details of that, I just wanted to sincerely thank everyone who, after reading this series of posts, has encouraged me to write a book. Your support and vision has really touched and inspired me. Thank you. Before starting this blog, I really hadn't considered writing as a part of my path. But I have so enjoyed sharing and have felt so connected that perhaps that will change. Thank you all for opening my heart to new possibilities!

Jack Canfield's Practice the Rule of Five is incredibly simple. Every day, do 5 things to move towards your dream. He gives lots of examples of the creative actions that the 5 things can comprise of, particularly the actions he and his partner took when promoting the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.

One system that I have that is related but a little bit different funnily enough also includes the number 5. The priorities in my life are generally in these particular areas: Business, Creative, Relationships, Self, Home. There's the number 5 again. On Sundays, I look at these 5 areas and determine the actions I want to take that week to move forward in each of them. I know that if I've made progress in each of these areas, I'll feel great. And by actively choosing to take action I've affirmed to the universe that these areas are each important priorities in my life.

I developed this out of work that many coaches do with a Wheel of Life, or what I often call a Priority Pie. You draw a circle that represents your life and divide it into the various slices that represent your priorities. You can rate your level of satisfaction in each area and determine action steps to make improvements. This work is great to do with someone else. If you're going to be at justBe...Connected (and I hope you will be) I'll be available at the creative bazaar, booking short coaching sessions for a small fee. This is definitely the kind of exercise that we could do together to get you focused and ready for action!

One lesson I've been learning lately is to vary the kinds of actions that you do. So, for example, if your goal is to get a new job and every day you take 5 actions and every day they are research, how far forward are you moving? So each day when you're determing the 5 steps you're going to take towards your destination take a moment to ask - is this really moving me forward?

I see it over and over again with clients; small steps lead the way. If you take 5 steps each day towards your goal, in a week you'll have taken 35, in a year you'll have taken 1825. Imagine where you could be!