Building Your Path to Your 33thou Future
If you’ve now got your vision of your ideal future, well done!
You have made a great start!
You can begin to see it unfold before you! That’s fantastic!
Make sure you celebrate that great achievement!
Now You Can Start To Make It Become Real!
Delivering your vision can be a real “roller-coaster” ride, so be prepared for some thrills and spills along the way! All you need now is a way to get you from where you are to where you want to be –
You need your own “33thou Roadmap”
Your 33thou Roadmap
Your 33thou Roadmap will show you the path for you to follow to get you to your destination.
- It will set out the steps for you to take so that you can get there successfully.
- It will highlight the progress you will make towards reaching your destination.
- It will keep you focused and positive as you celebrate each time you complete a major stage.
- It will count down the days to the moment that you can celebrate each and every single one your great achievements!
The purpose of your 33thou Roadmap is to guide you along your 33thou journey efficiently and successfully. Your 33thou Roadmap will help you control your 33thou days so that you don’t waste any of your time!
Your Roadmap might depict just a fairly simple straight-line path from “a to b”, or it might set out a much more complex journey – one with lots of features and options. It all depends on what you want to do and where you want to get to. Whatever its shape, your Roadmap will give you a clear picture of just how effectively your 33thou days are working to get you there.
Establish a Clear Image of What You Want to Do
In order to deliver each goal successfully, you have to first imagine what it will look like when it is complete. This means that you need to understand and visualise clearly its ‘finished state’.
For example, something that you might want to do is to become qualified to drive a car. Envisage this as an image, say, of you legally driving your car with confidence along the highway. Or, you may want to spend the next three years working in Spain. For this, you can imagine yourself working in a Spanish bar and conversing with the locals in Spanish.
You might want to build a specific model of a dinghy/sailing boat, or even climb a mountain, ….Or whatever.
Having a clear vision of each completed goal will help to save you time. Without it you can waste valuable time chasing unnecessary ‘extras’ which won’t add much. Aim for gold if you really want to, but for many of your goals a ‘silver’ or ‘bronze’ might be good enough. Understanding the point at which your goal is complete allows you to recognize it, celebrate your achievement, and then move smoothly on to your next goal. Remember that you only have 33thou days. Use them well!
Don’t Try To Do Everything At Once.
It’s said that, “to eat the biggest pizza ever made in the world you first have to cut it into bite-sized chunks”. The same is true when tackling each of your goals. As you begin your journey, just take one step at a time. Don’t over-complicate things by trying to do too much at once. Remember, “Rome wasn’t built in a day”.
Maybe start with your preferred first goal. Then decide what you want to do next and tackle that, and so on. In the early stages, go steady or you will waste time in having to put right mistakes made in haste. As your Roadmapping skills improve, so will your ability to work on several tasks at the same time.
Start Simple
If you’re really not sure where to begin, try tackling one of your less complex ambitions.
This will help you in two important ways:
– First of all, it will let you practice and build up your confidence in using 33thou methods.
– Secondly, early successes, however small, will give you positive feedback by proving that you can do it! With every success, no matter how small, you will start to realise just how great you really are! If you do hit any problems then these may not be too disastrous. You can learn from your experience and improve your approach whilst you sort them out.
33thou Roadmapping Each Of Your Goals.
Regardless of the complexity of any of your dreams, your role in all of them is to declare – with belief and with great confidence – “I Can!” – “I Will!” – “I Do!” – “I’m Great!”
For each goal, there are just 4 simple steps to embrace as you construct your 33thou Roadmap to get you to this point. See if you can spot the connection between these four steps and the four elements of your empowerment mantra:
Step 1 – COMPILE
This Means “Finding Out What You Must Do In Order To Say “I Can!” “
For each goal, you have to find out what you have to do to achieve it. You have to compile all the information you need to help you understand what you must do to make it happen.
You do this by doing what is called “research”. “Research” means gathering information to improve your understanding.
The more thorough and complete your research is, the greater will be your chance of success. Setting off with little or no idea of where you are going or what you are doing will more than likely result in failure and frustration. More importantly, it will waste your precious time. Being smart before you start saves you time!
Remember that your 33thou days are both valuable and limited!
“P P P P P P“
A powerfully useful – and often quoted mantra which can steer you in the right direction is: “Planning Properly Prevents Poor Personal Performance“
– Smart parachutists always check their gear before they leap out of a plane.
Compiling your research is hugely satisfying, thoroughly enjoyable, exciting, and great fun.
Why? Because, as you use your time to complete your research you can:
- – explore new places which you might never otherwise have visited to gather all the things you will need to help you reach your goal;
- – discover any new skills and acquire valuable resources which will both help you succeed and save you from wasting your precious 33thou days;
- – test, practise and show off the new skills you will develop as you carry out your research;
- – learn and understand more about your world as you discover ways to help you reach your goals;
- – meet interesting people who might have information to share – and who might also inspire you;
- – become both more interesting and valuable to others as you master your new capabilities;
- – empower yourself and be able to transform your dreams into your reality!
Your “Enabling Assets”
Compiling your research properly helps you to build up your knowledge and understanding of what you will do to reach your goals. It also helps you build up your extremely valuable stockpile of “enabling assets”.
Enabling assets are all the necessary instructions, techniques, contacts, equipment, ingredients, specialisms, resources, skills, knowledge and information that you need to be successful:-
- Enabling assets provide the foundations and the building blocks you will use to reach your goals.
- Their purpose is to equip you with the self confidence to believe that you can – and will succeed.
- Your enabling assets will endure; they will help you over again to make the best use of your 33thou days as you take control of your future!
The more thoroughly you compile your research, the more enabling assets you will add to your stockpile, making your overall 33thou journey less challenging and more enjoyable!
Over time, your enabling assets build up to become your personal toolkit.
They are the tools that you will use repeatedly to help you deliver many of your goals. You will be surprised at how often you will re-use them. They are extremely valuable to you. Therefore, just as any good craftsperson would do, you must always maintain your enabling assets.
You cannot afford to waste your time relearning the same skills over and over again for each new goal. Your time is precious. You only have your 33thou days. Always look after your toolkit!
Know What to Do – And What Not to Do
Compiling your research not only identifies opportunities to add new tools to your toolbox of enabling assets, it also helps you to identify any risks, safeguarding both you and your plans.
Identifying Risks
Risks are, by definition, any threats to the successful achievement of your goals. Because risks pose a threat, it is important that you consider these before they actually occur. Do this after you have compiled most of your research and have a good understanding of what you need to do to deliver a goal successfully. You identify risks by asking yourself the simple question, “What could possibly go wrong?“
Consider each action you need to take to reach your goal and then identify what might prevent or impede you in some way from doing it.
You should assess each risk you identify. This is your ‘risk analysis’. It is performed by judging how realistic a risk is (the likelihood), and understanding the effect it will have on your plans (the impact). If you have a ‘high likelihood’ and a ‘high impact’ risk, then you need to introduce into your plans a way to manage it (called “mitigation”). For a risk with a low impact and a low likelihood, you might opt to handle it if and when it happens.
For example, if you intend to walk along a high-wire between two high-rise buildings without either safety equipment or training, then the likelihood of failure (i.e. falling) would be high, and the impact would be major (i.e. fatal). You could ‘mitigate’ the risk simply by walking from one building to the other at ground level. Minimising both the likelihood and the impact of failure means that you avoid the risk….
You probably get the idea.
Basically there are four general ways of tackling a risk (which you can combine). You can change your plans and avoid the risk altogether. You can take steps to either reduce its likelihood or its impact, or both. You can ask an expert to deal with it for you. Or, you can just decide to accept a risk and live with any consequences. You just need to make sure that you are satisfied that you can deal with a risk, should it materialise.
– Add how you intend to manage each risk to your overall list of things to do.
Compiling Your Research Converts “I Can’t” Into “I Can”.
Compiling your research properly replaces both uncertainty and self doubt with
self-confidence and self-belief . It puts you in control by providing you with:
- – the knowledge and understanding of what, why, and how you will do what you must do to achieve your goal;
- – the sequence of the steps that you will take in order to avoid wasting your precious time;
- – an indication of the number of your 33thou days to allocate to achieve your goal;
- – details of any help you might need, and an understanding of how you will use this;
- – all the enabling assets that you will need to help you succeed;
- – any risks associated with your plans and how you intend to deal with these;
- – any costs in achieving your goal, and how you will manage these; and
- – the moment at which you will achieve your dream and how you will celebrate!.
All this will put you in the position where you will start to feel great!
So that you can declare with confidence – “I Can!”
Working Together
A side-benefit of compiling your research is that, as you do so, along the way you might meet like-minded people pursuing their own goals and ambitions which somehow overlap with yours. Although you might be just starting out on your journey, other people have probably, already travelled – or are currently travelling along the same path as you.
Discovering such people – and maybe even getting to know them – can have huge advantages. For example, they may have some of the enabling assets which you are searching for. If you get on with them, they might be prepared to share their assets with you. Working with others in this way can save you time. When it comes to problem solving, as the saying goes, “a problem shared is a problem halved”.
Sharing part of your journey with friends or acquaintances can make it more enjoyable for some, but others may prefer to work alone.
It’s your destiny – you decide.
What About The Cash?
Tackling some of your goals may be easier in that they won’t strain your budget too much. For some of the goals on your list, however, you have probably realised that there might be an issue with the costs involved. It’s an issue but, believe it or not, it’s not a brick wall.
Take a good look at each of your goals where you think that cash might be a blocker. Now, review your Roadmap actions which you must take to reach your goal.
Have you included an action that says “Raise the cash to do it”? If not, your research is not yet complete. Raising cash is just another task that you need to add to your Roadmap. Including it as part of your research will ensure that you take appropriate, remedial steps.
Options
To begin with, try a simple, yet effective approach to help address your cash-flow. Examine your existing budget. Carefully review how you are currently spending your cash and identify any ways you can modify this. Start off by setting limits on non-essential spending and then set aside any cash saved to put towards reaching your goals.
Open a savings account (one that is separate from your cheque account, if you have one). Work your cash-flow very hard. For example, cut back on one visit to the coffee shop each day and instead, put the money saved into your savings account. Discipline yourself to transfer any money left in your pocket or in your cheque account at the end of each pay/allowance cycle – no matter how small – to your savings account and leave it there!! Put any “birthday money” and suchlike into your savings account rather than spend it.
Essentially, you need to become a “penny pincher” by shaving your spending and saving what you shave. Many of the world’s wealthiest people will tell you they started out by practising this simple rule:
“Look after the pennies and the pounds (or dollars) will look after themselves”.
On a broader scale, depending on the amount you need, there are other options that could help you. Small sums can be raised by the usual routes, for example, part-time jobs, selling odd bits of stuff that you no longer have a use for, or maybe asking a close relative or a good friend for a few pennies here and there. Try bartering. Instead of paying cash, check if a seller is open to a swap deal using some of your stuff.
Try checking if any grants are available from local or national government agencies, charities, support foundations, or other organisations that might be interested in helping you. Don’t be afraid to contact them to explain what it is that you want to do, and why you want to do it. They can’t help you if you don’t ask. The worst thing they can do is to say “No”! Bursaries and scholarships are sometimes available for education and training – although these are often kept out of the public gaze. Just ask – what have you got to lose?
Remember that any new enabling assets you acquire on your journey have a value. Every time that you learn something new, or develop any new skills – no matter how small – your value goes up! So never miss an opportunity to learn – and learn well, so that you can transform your new skills into cash. The more of an expert you become, the more often others will seek you out for your knowledge and skills. Don’t be afraid to charge them for accessing your new abilities. You’ve earned it!
It goes without saying that, in order to improve your cash flow you might try and get a (better paid) job. Use your increasing wealth of enabling assets to squeeze a better deal out of your employer. Don’t underestimate how valuable your enabling assets can be in helping you negotiate for an improved deal, especially if you can help them improve on their performance.
At a more radical level, you might consider borrowing, perhaps taking on a loan to help get you started. But – be warned! Tread very carefully, and seek proper advice before borrowing any cash. Borrowing funds which you will struggle to repay might easily defeat, or even destroy all of your ambitions.
Step 2 – COMMIT
This Means Declaring Wholeheartedly, “I Will!”
This is where you now really must step up to the mark.
As a result of your research you now understand exactly what you will do to reach your goal. That’s a great reason to celebrate! You really are doing great! It’s time for a celebration, so treat yourself! Why? Because you have identified your target goal and you have compiled all your research. You now know that you Can reach your goal.
What you will do next is commit enough of your 33thou days to deliver your goal. Don’t be put off by the work that your have to do. Just think how much greater you will feel when its done! At this stage, quitters throw in the towel and go back to wasting their precious 33thou days! But you’re not a quitter. You want to succeed – and you will! Your dream will become your reality! You now understand what you must do, and you believe that you can do it – and you will do it!
Shout out aloud and with confidence – “I Will Do this!”
Using Your 33thou days
You need to commit some of your 33thou days, so let’s look at how you do this in detail.
Your time is precious, so it would be foolish to set just a random number of days aside to reach a goal. You know full well that vague terms like “I’ll start next week,” or “I’ll do it on Monday” just do not work. What you now have to focus on is the allocation of a number of your limited 33thou days which you will commit in order to achieve your goal. This is where you 33thou Roadmap really begins to earn its colours.
The tasks your research has set you now have to be broken up into manageable building blocks. This will help you make progress at a pace which will stop you becoming overwhelmed.
Imagine how a cake recipe starts. It begins by setting out how much of each ingredient you will need to make your cake. It might say, for example: Flour – 125g; Sugar 125 g; Margarine – 125 g; Eggs – 2, etc. Next, step by step, it simply explains what to do with each of these and the order in which to do it.
To reach your goal, you simply lay out each of the steps your research has determined that you will take to reach your goal – and in the order that you will take them.
Instead of grams and eggs, etc., you set the number of your 33thou days you think each step will take. The list of tasks, together with your allocated number of days, becomes your Roadmap. It sets out the “what” and the “when” of the things that you will do to achieve your goal. As you progress along your Roadmap you will monitor your progress over time. The timeline that it provides will keep you on track and avoid waste.
Its aim is to get you on time to that point when you will succeed and feel great!
Treat Yourself Kindly, And Always With Respect!
If you look after yourself and don’t try and do too much at once, then delivering your goals will be more fun. With practice, you will become much better at organising your time and your rate of progress will improve. Until then, respect your own abilities and work within them. This will help prevent you from making mistakes. Remind yourself that if you slip up along the way – and you will, you will have to go back to put things right. By recognising your limitations and working within them, you can reduce your mistakes and so avoid wasting your precious time.
Never forget that you want to be successful. Attempting to do too much at once can exhaust you. If you set yourself a timetable that is too demanding, you will become frustrated and maybe disheartened as you slip behind. If, on the other hand, your schedule is too slack, you might never reach your goal because you are not pushing yourself hard enough. Learn to pace yourself. Your 33thou days are precious! Use them wisely!
When starting out, the golden rule is “Give yourself a winning KISS!” –
Keep It Successfully Simple!
Formatting Your 33thou Roadmap
Your 33thou Roadmap belongs to you. It is as personal as your diary. What it will look like will depend on the type of person you are, and your own preferences. For example, if you like technology, you might use a Roadmap that sits on your laptop or cell-phone. Alternatively, you might possibly prefer to keep an actual written logbook, or a diary to record your scheduled tasks. You might prefer to use a wall chart, or a colour-coded spreadsheet of some sort.
It doesn’t really matter which format you choose so long as you are comfortable using it. What is important is that, for each task, your Roadmap sets out both exactly what you will do – in the order you will do it, and how many of your 33thou days it will take to complete. Keep your Roadmap always accessible and always up to date. As you progress towards your goal you can use it to tick off each completed task.
Your Roadmap is a vital element in managing your progress, so you really cannot afford to hide it. It will reveal just how great you really are at taking control of your destiny!
Stay Positive And Remain Focused
Whatever you are doing, you should aim to keep your journey to your destiny enjoyable and fun! However, even with the best preparation possible, along the way you will more than likely hit a few snags. Never be put off by these! Life has many challenges for us all. Just stay calm and keep going.
A valuable technique to help you to stay positive and motivated is to establish key milestones on your journey. Milestones are specific tasks which you identify as being critical in ensuring that you will succeed – such as mastering a new technique, or reading a manual, or obtaining a specific piece of kit, etc.
Highlight each of these milestones clearly in your Roadmap.
Every time you reach a milestone, reward your success for a job “well done!” Rewards can be something simple – like having a fresh donut perhaps, or maybe a meal with a friend. It’s your life (its your waistline!) – You choose! Anything you like!
As well as helping you to keep your plans on track, milestones which come with rewards will also help you, personally, in two important ways:
Firstly, in allowing you to celebrate each achievement along the way, they provide a huge incentive for you to stay focused on reaching your next milestone. Also, each celebration gives you positive feedback for doing such a great job.
But don’t cheat – “You get paid only when you make the grade!”
Your Stage is Now Set
Your dreams can now become real! Your 33thou days can make them real!
Get ready for the ride of your life!
You now know exactly what you must do, how you are going to do it, and when you will do it! You want to be successful! You now know that you can be successful! And you now also know that you will be successful!
No one else will do it for you – they don’t have to because you’re now more than ready to do it. It is time to face yourself in the mirror and declare with both confidence and a smile – “I Will!”.
Step 3 – COMPLETE
This Means Proving That You Mean It When You Say “I Do!”
With your 33thou Roadmap prepared, you are now able to carry out your plans.
You have now put yourself firmly in control of your 33thou days.
Step by step, your vision of your successful future is now starting to become your reality. Nothing will prevent you from being successful because you have done your preparation properly. Just stick with your plan, which you have prepared so well. Don’t get distracted by unimportant things. Your journey, like any other, begins with you following your Roadmap and taking your first step. After that, just keep on taking one step at a time. Your Roadmap will guide you on your way. You have no time to waste! So get going, now! Your destiny awaits you!!
Along the way, never forget to recite your mantra: I Can!.. I Will!.. I Do!.. I’m Great!..”
If At First You Don’t Succeed – Try, Try, And Try Again!
– and Then Try Some More!
Because you’re preparation has been thorough, your Roadmap should lead you successfully to your goal. If you do hit a problem, don’t lose control. Life isn’t always perfect, and you know that as well as anyone. The thing to do is to accept the challenge. Step back and examine the cause of the problem.
- Has it arisen due to a flaw in your preparation? If so, do the necessary research and resume when you are ready to move on. Don’t forget to update your Roadmap accordingly.
- Have things changed since you did your research? If so, redo your research and update your plans.
- Do you need to identify an alternative route to your goal that will still get you there? Then do so.
- Do you need to modify your goal and alter your Roadmap to reach your revised goal?
- If the challenge is “time related”, can you adjust your timetable?
If you do hit a “brick wall” and just cannot progress any further, do not despair. You have some decisions to make in order to get you on your way, again. You can park the goal and return to it later – when circumstances might have changed or, you can accept that you simply cannot take it any further.
Such setbacks are what life throws at us all – you just need to learn from them.
Because you have already learned a great deal on your journey, although you may be disappointed, neither option can ever be classed as a ‘failure’. So don’t waste your 33thou days in feeling disheartened or sorry for yourself. You need to redouble your efforts in delivering your next goal – this time, successfully!
Perform – Assess – Revise – Update
Even if you don’t experience any setbacks, it is always really good practice to review your plans regularly. Every so often, assess your progress along the way to make sure you are still on target.
- Check that your goals are still clear and attainable. If not, go back and refine them.
- Clarify what it is that you really want to achieve and refocus your efforts on delivering this.
- Check that your plans are still effective. If not, refine them. If necessary, do more research to improve or revise your Roadmap so that you can get yourself back on course.
- Check if there are any unforeseen potential problems and/or bottlenecks looming on the horizon. Is more research needed to tackle these? If so, do it now, and update your Roadmap.
- Check that your allocation of your 33thou days to achieve your goal still holds..
- Confirm that you are following your Roadmap properly. If you aren’t, then kick.yourself hard for losing control of your precious time and get yourself back on-plan!
And when you are happy everything is OK, celebrate! You are winning! You’re doing Great!
Again, always remember to congratulate yourself whenever you hit one of your milestones. Reward yourself appropriately for your successes, however small. They are driving you forward towards achieving your goal! Enjoy each reward – they are real proof of your 33thou empowerment – “I Do!” They are each driving you on to reach your 33thou destiny!
Managing Those Pesky Interruptions
Even with the best laid plans, unforeseen incidents which can upset your journey might occur. A huge advantage of having a well prepared Roadmap is that, should your plans ever be interrupted, when you resume your quest you can pick up exactly where you left off. Using your 33thou days rather than plain diary dates to drive your plans means that you won’t necessarily have to update deadlines in order to fit in with any calendar.
For this to work effectively, however, you must always keep your Roadmap up to date, and the tasks you need to accomplish clear. In doing so, if you do have to take an unplanned break, you won’t need to re-design them all over again. Roadmapping really does save you time!
Step 4. COMMEND
This Proves You Mean It When You Say “I’m Great!”
You are a big Success! You have achieved your goal!
Let me be the first to commend you! It’s Party Time!
“Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of tonight’s award for being a Great success is ‘YOU’ !!!”
Fantastic! It’s time to Celebrate! You can shout out loud “I’m Great!” And you really are Great!
You have achieved something really great which you truly deserve! With the completion of each of your goals, you are proving that you can live your dreams! You are taking control of your time in order to make it deliver what you want from it!
You have real proof that your 33thou days are now working for you!
Just think about it. With 33thou you can enjoy celebrating with your friends.
If they also put 33thou to good use, then they, too, can celebrate all their successes with you. So, the more friends and acquaintances you have who are making 33thou work for them, the more 33thou celebrations you can join in with.
Over time, your 33thou journey could become
“One BIG Party With Truly GREAT People!“
Don’t forget to remember those people you met along the way who may have helped you to reach your goal. Now is the time to let them share in your success. Show them what you have achieved with their help.
And never forget to say a BIG “Thank You!” to them all!
Keep up your good work and move on towards achieving your next Great goal!
– and always feel free to spread the word about this Great 33thou website!
Design Your Personal Roadmap here
Your summary wall-chart for you to download – here
