There are plenty of twelve-step programs out there. This isn’t one of them. It’s a six-step program. And here, briefly, are those steps.
Step one: set some goals.
You don’t have to know exactly where you want to be at this point—you can always revise the goals later on. But you need some sort of motivation, something to work toward. You need a reason to make some changes. So what would you like to be different about your life?
Step two: data dump.
You need to get thoughts out of your head and onto paper. I call this my external hard drive. You can only hold so many thoughts in your head at once, so you need to get them out of your head to make room for another thought. And it will take a while to do this. Think of an hourglass – all of the sand doesn’t drain at once; it takes time. This book is 40,000 words, and I didn’t do any research at all until I hit 30k – it all came out of my head. But, while it happened quickly, it didn’t happen all at once or in any logical order. I would have a thought, capture it, and then I’d have another thought, sometimes related, sometimes not. And the thoughts would come to me at different times and different places – first thing in the morning, while taking a shower, right in the middle of another project. Whenever and wherever it happened, I tried to capture the thought right away. So what kind of data should you get out of your head? Anything that comes into your mind: to do items, ideas for upcoming projects, dreams about future vacations, a new house, or more time to spend with loved ones. Anything and everything that needs to be different than it is right now. This is a form of brainstorming, but you’re not really brainstorming about any particular topic right now.
Step three: Organize the data.
For this, you need two additional tools: a to-do list and a crystal ball. You know what a to-do list is, but what do I mean by “crystal ball”? I mean a tool that helps you predict the future. You may not realize it, but much of what will happen in the future is actually very predictable. That’s because we create our future, and we often know what’s going to happen because it’s scheduled. So your crystal ball is actually your calendar. But we’re going to go way beyond a normal calendar.
Step four: Get to Zero.
You want to free up as much time, money, and space as possible. And yes, the three are related.
Step five: Start spending the time you’ve freed up.
Remember, you can’t save it. Initially, you might use the extra time to continue to purge or to knock other items off your to-do list. Eventually, though, your tasks list will be much smaller and you’ll be able to start doing what you want to do rather than what you need to do. You’ll be a time millionaire.
Step six: Live your life.
Once you’re financially independent and a time millionaire, you can start tackling your bucket list. And you may need to add a few items to that list. Remember to document what you’re doing—these are things worth remembering, so take lots of pictures, make videos, write down your memories. That way, you can relive these moments again and again.