INSPIRATION GAL – Live the Last Year of Your Life

By Inspiration Gal | January 24, 2011 | Relationships

Being in my 30s, I don’t spending a lot of time thinking about the last year of my life. I’d like to think that is many, many, many eons off.

But what if you did know it was the last year of your existence? Would you be motivated to do all the things you’ve been ΓÇô pardon the pun ΓÇô dying to do, but never gotten around to?

That’s the premise behind life coach Clint Arthur’s new book, The Last Year of Your Life.

Life wasn’t always easy for the business entrepreneur (he deals in butter!), who graduated from Wharton Business School and moved to Hollywood after college to pursue his dream of being a director. After a decade of disappointment, Clint made a decision to change his life.

“I met a crippled old white man whose skin had turned black as coal. He said to me, you don’t know it yet, but you’re already dead,” Clint shares of the turning point in his personal journey.

From those few words, Clint devised a plan to reinvent his life based on the concept that he had just one year left to complete all his goals.

Now through his book and mentoring program, Clint gives participants a 52-week plan to train their brain and reprogram their subconscious minds to finally have the lives they want.

I met with Clint on a chilly afternoon where he warmed up the atmosphere, sharing six empowering steps to living the life you want as if you only have one year left to live.

1. Feed Yourself the Foods You Love. “Self love is the foundation of it all,” Clint declares. “I was really going nowhere until I started loving myself more, first through food.” Clint says to jot down your seven favorite foods and eat one item every day for the next seven days. “It opens up the the path for your brain to believe you are giving it the best things in life.”

2. Make Your Love-to-Do List. The next step is to write down 12 of your all-time favorite things to do and each month of the next year, do one activity from your “love-to-do” list. “If you love to go skiing, put it down,” Clint instructs. You should be recognizing and rewarding yourself for the accomplishments you’ve made and will make over the next year.

3. Acknowledge You. You’ve got to be your own cheerleader. “We had a man in our group who had gotten an honorable discharge from the military, and he didn’t think he had anything to acknowledge about himself. I literally had to yank it out of him,” Clint shares. Know that it’s okay to tell yourself “atta boy” regularly for the things you have survived and have achieved.

4. Create An Inspiring Plan. “What are the things you’ve always dreamed about doing: writing that great novel or visiting the Holy Land or reconnecting with a family member? You have total control over making those things happen,” Clint declares. He suggests making a list of 15 ΓÇô 25 specific goals to achieve in your last year (known as your CPR plan: context, purpose and result). “Write it down in this format: It is now Dec. 31 and have achievedΓÇª Then reread and repeat it for 90 days so it becomes a permanent in your brain,” Clint says. “I find that people accomplish 50 to 80 percent of their listed goals this way.”

5. Get A Network. “Don’t try to do this alone. Get together with a group of people who can inspect and analyze what you’re doing, who offer suggestions and hold you accountable,” Clint advises, “and can celebrate with you when you win.”

6. Shift One Degree. Making major changes can seem daunting, so Clint suggests making one small shift in your life that reps big results. “It’s called the one-degree program. Pick out one little tiny habit that you can do every day that can change the course of your life.” Clint added an hour of walking every day to his life plan and lost 40 lbs. in a year. “If you drank 100 ounces of water every day, imagine the impact that would have on your life. You’d be so much healthier,” he shares. “Imagine how over a decade you’d change the course of your destiny.”

Green tea with lemon every night, here I come!

For more on Clint’s 52-week program, visit his site here.