Transforming your life is a huge undertaking. Just changing one area can be overwhelming, especially if you don’t know where to start. Fortunately, there are a few practices that will help you make a change quickly regardless of what area of life you’re looking to master. I call these the Big 3 Journey Principles. 

Seriously, these 3 steps are fundamental if you want to experience lasting growth and change. If you apply them, you will have laid a foundation for a fulfilling life and immediately surpassed your peers. So, if you want to get the quickest and firmest traction possible, do the following.

The Core Journey Principles

#1 Discover what drives you

One of the most important traits anyone can have is self-awareness. There are a number of reasons for this.

First, self-awareness is foundational to emotional intelligence, which is the #1 predictor of success in business. You can’t regulate your own emotions if you’re not aware of them, nor can you effectively engage with others.

Second, self-awareness is crucial to understanding your own thought process. This matters because your beliefs determine everything that you do. Unless you’re aware of your beliefs, you can’t know your blindspots. If you don’t know your blindspots, you’ll continue to sabotage yourself without even realizing it.

Finally, you need self-awareness because you need to grasp your gifts and your passions. Until you are exercising your gifts and passions, you can’t lead a fulfilling life. At best you could still make a lot of money, but you will eventually become miserable and empty. In order to live a meaningful and happy life, you need to live your purpose. 

Here’s some ways you can grow in self-awareness:

1. Take the Journey Principles Emotional Intelligence Quiz here. 
2. Read this post on the 7 steps to improve your professional life and do the exercise under #2, “Know Your Value”.
3. Download our E Book, Discover Your Inner Greatness. You can get it right now for free. 
4. Identify your learning style and learning modality. 
5. Take the Journey Principles Personality Assessment. This is a unique test our team designed to give you actionable insights on how you’re wired and how you can do what you’re designed to do.

#2 Create a Plan

Software guru Peter Thiel famously wrote in his book Zero to One that “a bad plan is better than no plan”. I agree, and apparently so does the empirical data. This is why once you get a sense of what your gifts are and what you’re passionate about, you’ll need to make a plan to act on this information. You won’t have all the answers, and that’s ok, but what’s not ok is doing nothing with the information you do have.

Your plan should include the following:

• Your Top 2 areas of improvement in the 8 Pillars of Life.
• A clear destination within the next 5 years that you can describe with all 5 senses.
• The specific number you want your net worth to be, and why you want that number.
• An industry to focus on, and a role to work up towards.
• Your next career step in moving towards that role.

#3 Build Strategic Relationships

You can’t get where you’re going alone. In order to become your best self, you need a community of people to help and challenge you. Not only that, but you will also need people who are different than you and can give you a different perspective. This is the only way you can become wise. 

Additionally you’ll need to avoid toxic people who will try to use you. These people can seem harmless and even helpful initially, but they will drag you down if you give them your time and energy.

“Show me your five friends, and I’ll show you your future.”

-Keith Craft

There are certain roles you will need to fill in your inner circle in order to achieve success. I call these the 7 Success Relationships. Here’s a quick breakdown of each one:

• Guide – a mentor who is where you hope to be one day.
• Coach – an additional mentor who isn’t quite as far ahead as a guide but that can perhaps offer you more one-on-one time and train you in a specific pillar of life.
• Empowerer – the cheerleader who is your biggest fan and consistently encourages you.
• Driver – the bulldog who will challenge you directly rather than let you off the hook.
• Educator – someone who trains you in a specific skill (sales, golf, dance, etc.)
• Gatekeeper – a protective friend who alerts you to toxic people.
• Inner Voice – your own mind, trained to give you positive affirmation instead of negative criticism

Each of these relationships is invaluable, so identify which ones you’re missing and start intentionally seeking them out. Keep in mind that some people can fill more than one role.

Learn More With Our Free E Books

With the 3 Big Journey Principles, you can kick-start a holistic campaign towards a much better life than you have right now. If you ever get stuck, return to this list and ask yourself which of these principles is the weak link at that given time.

If you want to learn more about yourself, sharpen your five year plan, or want more help attracting the right inner circle, I’ve got great news. Right now JPI is giving away our entire library of E Books for free. These include:

• Discover Your Inner Greatness – a great resource for learning what drives you
• The 5 Must-Have Principles for Personal Breakthrough – written to help you craft an actionable plan that will get you the results you want.
• 7 Relationships You Must Have to Win at Life – a deep dive into the 7 Success Relationships.