A couple of years ago, I took a coaching course with Performance Coach University led by Jairek Robbins.
One of the recommended readings was a book by Robbins titled Live It! Achieve Success by Living with Purpose. In the book, Robbins outlines a process to help individuals achieve their goals based on his philosophy: Learn it! Live it! Give it!
To elaborate:
- Learn it! – Learn all you need to design your ideal vision for your life.
- Live it! – Apply all that you've learned to achieve your desired results.
- Give it! – Find a way to pay it forward and help others do the same.
About Jairek Robbins.
In his early twenties, Robbins experienced a life-threatening disease, which made him re-evaluate his purpose in life.
He discovered that his ultimate goal is to inspire others to contribute to society and make a valuable difference in this world. Robbins believes the only way to feel fulfilled in the long run is through personal growth and contribution. However, encouraging and inspiring others to contribute and make the world better proved to be a challenge.
He realised that people are more open to giving back to the community only once they have achieved their goals.
This realisation led him to focus on helping others achieve their goals through his Learn it! Live it! Give it! philosophy. His objective is simple: help others achieve their personal goals so that they, in turn, can pay it forward and make a positive impact on the world.
A Quick Review of Live It!
In Live it!, Robbins does an excellent job of outlining and explaining how to practice his techniques towards achieving success.
The most powerful chapter covers the topic of mortality and outlines the five regrets of the dying. Reading the chapter on mortality forces the readers to think about how we currently approach our lives and whether we have made the impact we want in this world before we reach the end of our life's journey.
This book would best serve individuals new to exploring personal development methods and techniques.
Key Learnings.
#1: Envision and manifest your dream life to achieve your goal.
Robbins introduces the Ideal Day Vision exercise as the first step in creating and achieving the life one desires. Athletes often practise this exercise to increase performance effectively. The key to this technique is to begin with the end in mind. Imagine and walk through the ideal day and environment of the dream life you want to lead in as much detail as possible.
Review your Ideal Day Vision daily to remind yourself of the end goal and to focus on activities that would contribute to achieving the life envisioned.
#2: Shift your focus from minor to major to eliminate activities that do not contribute to success.
Many of us focus on minor activities to make ourselves feel a sense of achievement.
Minor activities are easy to do and offer instant gratification but will not help you achieve your goals. On the other hand, major activities are the activities we pursue that will help us achieve the life we want. Therefore, we need to shift our focus and work on the major activities, as this will help us progress towards our goals.
Focusing on the majors is the foundation of achieving the life we want.
#3: Use your big why to motivate and take action.
"People will do more to avoid pain than they do more to seek pleasure.”
Robbins uses a technique he calls Emotional Rocket Fuel to find and activate your Big Why and help you consistently stay motivated towards success.
In the Emotional Rocket Fuel exercise, outline ten pleasurable and positive results from achieving your goal. It's also important to outline ten painful consequences if you do not complete your goal. Use these emotions and intensify them until you need to take action towards achieving your goals.
Combine the Ideal Day Vision and Emotional Rocket Fuel and review it daily to remind yourself of your purpose.
#4: Use T.R.U.T.H to counter resistance.
One can expect resistance when one begins a new journey towards achieving a new goal.
The three resistances one will face are:
- Outside opponents: Acquaintances.
- Intimate opponents: Intimate friends and family.
- Internal opponent: YOU. Your inner voice.
Robbins encourages you to find your T.R.U.T.H and use it as a guide to encounter resistance:
T– Have a clear and defined trajectory using your Ideal Day Vision to keep you on track.
R– Rebuke naysayers, renounce doubts and be relentless in your approach.
U– Be unconventional with your strategies, unified in your internal thoughts and beliefs, and unassailable.
T– Be tenacious despite negative feedback and consistently progress despite the challenges.
H—Use your daily habits as a safe haven to recharge and strengthen your mental, emotional, and physical state, ensuring complete harmony in your world.
Other key takeouts:
- Learn to enjoy hard work because "if you don't master the concept of falling in love with hard work, you'll eventually run into the same problem your entire life."
- Practice gratitude, as results indicate that people who show a higher level of gratitude are happier, more energetic, and more enthusiastic about life.
- Identify your personal values so you can live your life to the fullest based on your principles.
- Overcome limiting beliefs, as they can influence your life in a way that doesn't make you happy.
- There are 168 hours a week. Most people spend about 49 hours to 56 hours sleeping. That leaves 112 to 119 waking hours to work on achieving your goals. Are you spending your time productively and intentionally working towards your goals?
- Before you experience love and respect from other people, you must love and respect yourself first. This can only happen when you discover the real you.
Favourite quotes:
- "It is not death that man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live." – Marcus Aurelius
- "The most precious resource we have in our life is our time."
- "It is important to realize that not all people want to change their lives, and not everyone feels ready to do so. This is not right, wrong, good or bad; it just is."
