22 Sep Lifebook Members Share: Mickey’s Story
I have to admit that I got pretty choked up while writing this. I didn’t fully realize how much my Lifebook meant to me until I took the time to write about my experience with it…
My Lifebook story actually began before I was even aware that it was happening. Believe it or not… Lifebook actually found ME!
I was a 33 year old making a decent living in the nightclub industry. According to my industries standards, I was “the old guy” in the scene and I knew that I needed to make a change in my life. The problem was, I had no idea what to do next. I was in limbo. I had no direction at all in my life. I really wanted more for myself, but had no idea where to start. Change is one of the scariest things in life if you don’t know where you’re going.
My girlfriend, Susan, insisted that I get a “real job”, so I started looking for career opportunities by surfing the Craigslist postings and Monster.com searches. That’s how I found out about Lifebook. They claimed to help people “get crystal clear about what they want out of life” and that was exactly what I needed, so I decided to give it a try…
When I first walked into my Lifebook Session, all of the pieces were in place for me to feel grounded, focused and safe. The room is beautiful and impeccably furnished. There was soothing music playing softly in the background, candles lit throughout the room, and a scent filled the air that made me feel very much at home. It was the perfect venue to melt into during my journey.
At first I was apprehensive that I would even be able to wrap my mind around the whole experience. But, I soon realized that the Lifebook team had this thing down to a science. During my session, I learned more about myself than I ever thought possible. Up until then, I had walked through much of my life as a stranger to myself. As I dug deeper into who I was and what I wanted, my life vision started to become very clear. The life changing breakthroughs weren’t far behind!
In the finance category, I came to the realization that I’d never had a true plan for this area of my life. During the program, I created a clear financial target and a road map to get there. This alone made my new life vision seem more manageable and much more attainable.
The social category was another big breakthrough for me. I recognized how through my past career, I had let so many toxic people into my life that it felt like my soul was being drained. Once I removed those people from my life I was instantly more happy and calm. And I had more time to spend with the people who really mattered to me. I also found that I had more time for myself and this allowed me to concentrate on bettering my own life versus getting sucked into other people’s negative issues.
And then there was the true game changer…
Quality of life. This was my biggest breakthrough. This one category singularly changed the way that I do just about everything. It supercharged all of the other categories for me. I finally saw the big picture of what I wanted out of life! No one thing will ever make my entirely happy. It’s the whole package that matters. I need to achieve the highest quality that I can in everything I do and in every part of my life. Once I started to strive for a higher quality in everything I did, my life started to change exponentially for the better.
For example; I would join the nicest gym that I could afford instead of going to the budget place. In turn I appreciated the niceties that new gym offered and started to go more. My fitness level improved. I started to put extra effort and thought into my dates with my girlfriend. We wound up having more fun, creating better memories and our relationship improved immensely. My friendships grew much stronger. I started surrounding myself with higher quality people, and as a result, I started to grow more as a person, because I picked up some good character traits from my new friends. I can go on and on about the cause and effect of increasing the quality of everything around you. But suffice it to say, I believe the secret to my success has been infusing high quality into everything I do.
It wasn’t until recently that I realized this, but a little over 2 years since my Lifebook experience, EVERYTHING that I wrote in that book has become a reality! In the last two years, my life went from chaotic and uncertain to slightly better than perfect! J
I have found my dream job! I work for a top tier education company and not only do I get a chance to use my skills to help people every day, I have increased my salary to almost four times what I wrote in my Lifebook.
My then girlfriend Susan is now my wife. We were able to afford the most amazing beach wedding ever – we were surrounded by all of our friends and family for one of the best weekends of my life. And most importantly, we have turned a tumultuous relationship into a near perfect union.
My family’s quality of life is off the charts now. We can afford just about anything we want and have a level of comfort in our lives that I didn’t think was possible. My newfound financial success has positively effected every area of my life.
Since Lifebook, intelligence isn’t just something I use to whip up clever banter in a nightclub – my mind is a tool that I use to calculate and design my future. I enjoy looking forward and thinking about my future instead of being scared of it.
But here is the biggest surprise of all…
Before Lifebook I wouldn’t have trusted myself to dog-sit for a weekend! Now I’m seeing myself becoming an amazing dad! When I was going through Lifebook, I had no children and didn’t really have very much to write about in the Parenting Category. Instead, I copied down pages of advice, quotations, and stories that other parents had to share. But now that I have a 1 year old son, those pages have proven to be the most valuable pages in my Lifebook! Although he is still really little, I feel that I’m raising the most amazing, healthy and happy little kids that I have ever seen! On top of that, Susan and I are expecting our second baby in the spring of 2011!
I could go on and on about the many changes that have come about since my Lifebook experience, but bottom line is… IT WORKS!
Lifebook wasn’t a quick fix. It wasn’t a magic wand that solved all the problems in my life in one waive. Building the life I designed in my Lifebook has taken a amazing amount of work and commitment. But when all is said and done, the Lifebook Program is the most worthwhile thing I’ve ever done for myself. It gave me a definite edge in the game of life – and now I truly feel like I’m winning!