By Patrick Cahillane – Life, Executive & Business Coach with One Source International Coaching & Training and Founder of the One Source Personal Development Network
Ready, Set, Go! –
Are you excited? Well, if you’re not, you should be. In just a few moments you will begin the
process of learning the One Source Personal Development System. It is important to note that
in addition to learning the system, you will also be designing your own personal system to ensure
you have the ability to produce the results you desire.
Before we begin let us take a moment to review some key points of what we have covered so far.
In chapter one, we discussed the power behind the words Focus, Balance and Purpose. We also
explained the importance of pleasure and pain and the role they play in making all your decisions.
In chapter two, you completed a series of exercises designed to focus on what we refer to as the
four key areas of your life.
The key areas consist of your relationships, your level of health and fitness, your personal growth, and your finances. Based on the results of those exercises, you then rated yourself between 1 and 4 to gauge exactly where you are at this moment in time in each area in order to establish what we refer to as a baseline or a starting point.
Allow me to offer you just one final bit of information before we begin. One of the most common
mistakes people make when they attempt to create lasting change in their life is to overestimate
what they can achieve in a month and underestimate what they can achieve in a year.
Remember to keep in mind that the system is not designed to solve all your problems overnight. It
also is not designed to be a quick fix that you use once or twice and never need to use again.
The system is designed to get you to take consistent action in the key areas of your life on a daily
basis to improve a little bit every day.
It truly does not matter where you are or how imbalanced your life is at this point and time. By consistently focusing on the four key areas, you will improve a little every day and over a period of time you will achieve results you never ever dreamed possible.
Okay, let’s get down to it. What I want you to do right now is to take out a piece of paper and a pen
or pencil. On the top left-hand side, I want you to write in bold, Relationships.
Then on the top right-hand side, I want you to write in bold, Health & Fitness.
Next, halfway down the page on the left-hand side, I want you to write in bold, Personal Growth.
Finally, on the right-hand side, write Business/Career and Finances (If you are self-employed,
write business, and if you have a job, write career). In the event that you are neither self-employed
nor an employee at the moment, simply write finances.
Once you have completed writing in all the key areas your page should look something like this:
Relationships Health & Fitness
Personal Growth Business/Career & Finances
We will begin the process of designing your personal development system by focusing on your
relationships. What we are going to do is create a list of individuals in your life that you desire to
achieve and maintain a good relationship with.
It is important to note that the very first person on your list needs to be YOU. Your relationship
with yourself is almost always the most important of all your relationships.
Why? Because if you don’t love and respect yourself, it will be extremely difficult to develop and
maintain loving, meaningful relationships with others.
So right now, I want you to write on your piece of paper, and underneath the word relationships,
the word – Myself
If you are currently in a relationship, what I want you to do is write the name of your
Spouse/Partner, boyfriend, or girlfriend on your page directly under the word Myself.
If you are not currently in a relationship, that’s okay. This will allow you extra time to focus on
your relationship with yourself. This way, when the right person enters your life, you will be in a
much better position to make a real connection with that individual.
Next, if you are fortunate enough to have children, I want you to write Children or Kids on your
page.
If you do not have children, I want you to write the name of a person or a group of people that you
love and care about very much. It could be your siblings, your parents or even your best friend.
The key point is that it should be someone that you love and have or would like to have a strong
relationship with.
The next name or phrase you will be adding to your list is a name to represent the group of
individuals or people you have day-to-day contact with. For example, I generally use the term
Friends, Family and Associates. I find this works well because it covers a wide range of
individuals whom I have contact with daily.
These individuals could be siblings, co-workers, friends, in-laws, or a host of others. They represent
individuals in your life you interact with regularly, and you want to ensure you maintain a good
relationship with them.
If you have four names or groups under relationships, you are finished for the moment. In the event
you only have three because you are not in a relationship or perhaps you don’t have kids, I want
you to write ‘Everyone else’.
This group represents everyone else you come into contact with throughout your day, however, not
on a regular basis. This includes people such as the waitress who serves you coffee in the morning,
the person sitting next to you on the bus and even the ignorant S.O.B. who cuts you off in traffic.
Now it would be impossible for me to supply everyone with a list of people they need to include.
The suggestions I have provided are just that; suggestions. The thing to keep in mind is that once
you have a better understanding of how the system works, you will have no problem re-designing
your program to include everyone.
For the moment I want you to select four of the suggestions I have recommended or add the name
or names of the people in your life you want to direct your focus to on a daily basis. Please ensure
you do not have more than four in total when you complete your list.
Your page should have all four key areas written in bold. Under the area of Relationships, you
should have the names of four individuals or groups of individuals. There is an important reason
why you are required to have no more or no less than four names in this area, and this reason will
become clear as we progress.
The next thing I want you to do is to place the symbol ¼ pt. to represent a quarter of a point next
to each of the four names under the area of Relationships.
Once complete your page should look something like this:
Personal Development System
Relationships Health & Fitness
Myself ¼ pt.
Spouse or Partners ¼ pt.
Children ¼ pt.
Friends and Associates ¼ pt.
Personal Growth Business/Career & Finances
Next let us shift our focus to the area of your Health & Fitness. What we are going to do here is
list four key actions you can take on a daily basis that would improve your health and level of
fitness.
It is important to note that, for the moment, I would not encourage you to make this too difficult.
The most common mistake people make is to overestimate what they can achieve in a month and
underestimate what they can achieve in a year.
Try and think of your system as starting a weightlifting program. You are going to start off with a
light amount of weight and gradually increase the weight over time.
For example, if you are a smoker who smokes twenty cigarettes per day, you might include as one
of your actions fifteen cigarettes max. Or if you have a serious weight problem, you might start out
with something as easy as walking around the block every day.
The key point to remember is you want to set yourself up to win. Do not make these action items
too painful or difficult to achieve in the beginning. Also, keep in mind that you have to design your
system based on your current level of health & fitness.
Below are some examples or suggestions of action items that you may want to include on your list.
Understand that you do not have to choose an action item from this list as these are only examples.
All that really matters is that you write down four action items that you are confident you can
consistently do.
● Drink eight glasses of water
● Light exercise
● No eating after 8:00 p.m.
● Bed by 10:00 p.m.
● No sweets
● 15 cigarettes max
● Walk
● Deep breathing exercises
● Reduce alcohol intake
● No fast food
● Take stairs
● Swim
● Health Club
● Run
● Yoga
Now that you have selected four action items that you are confident you can do on a daily basis,
I want you to write the symbol ¼ pt. next to each action item.
The reason I am instructing you to include the ¼ pt. symbol is because your personal
development system is based on a point system that will be introduced in the next chapter.
Let us now move on to the area of your personal growth. By far, this is my favourite of the four
key areas because it allows me to do what I really enjoy doing.
Before we begin selecting your action items for this key area, let’s take a quick moment to get
a better understanding of exactly why this area is so important.
In order to reach your full potential as a human being, it is critical that you consistently push
yourself to learn and grow. As Tony Robbins likes to say, ‘You are either green and growing or
brown and dying’.
Your mind, or more specifically, your subconscious mind, craves stimulation and requires
almost constant attention and/or focus.
The problem is that if we don’t direct our focus, our subconscious minds will direct it for us.
The subconscious mind will find things in our day-to-day lives to either stimulate them or
distract them.
In addition, our subconscious mind does not always make the right choices. All too often, it will
direct us towards distractions such as TV, video games, listening to the radio and other non-productive activities.
This is why it is so important to direct the focus of your mind to productive activities that will
contribute to your mind’s growth. This, in turn, will allow you to not only grow as an individual
but also to get the absolute most out of life.
It is also important to note that the activities you choose for the development of your mind do
not have to be boring or overly complicated, in fact, quite the contrary.
Below are some examples of daily activities you may select to place under the section Personal
Growth.
● Reading
● Listen to self-improvement audio
● Charity work
● Online courses
● School
● Networking events or groups
● Creative writing
● Blogging
● Keeping a journal
● Learn to play a musical instrument
● Meditate
● Creative think time
● Hobby
● Photography
● Art
Of course the above list is only a suggestion. The most important thing to keep in mind while
selecting your action items is that you choose things that you will enjoy and contribute to your
individual growth.
There is one final thing you need to understand before selecting your action items. The importance
time will play in this area. You want to ensure when selecting your actions items, you set yourself
up to win, so please do not select four activities that will take an hour or more each to complete.
Try selecting a variety of actions that range from ten to thirty minutes to complete. Keep in mind
you can always do the activity longer than the time allocated, but you are not required to do so.
For example, you could select to read for a minimum of fifteen minutes as one of your actions. If
you decide to continue reading after fifteen minutes and end up reading for an hour or more, that’s
great. However, you are not required to do so.
Keep in mind we are creating habits that will become part of your daily routines. If you attempt to
do too much before you are ready, it will become too painful, and you simply will not do it.
Eventually, you will have a multitude of activities on your list to choose from on a daily basis,
however, for the moment I want you to only include four. Also, it’s important to note that the system
does not require you to do all of these activities every day.
Finally, let’s devote our attention to the area of your Business/Career and Finances. As you may
remember from the early part of this chapter, I instructed you to write business and finance if you
are self-employed or to write career and finance if you are an employee. Also, to simply write
finance if you were neither a business owner nor an employee.
This particular area is one of the trickiest for many people because they are actually dealing with
two areas in one. However, allow me to simplify things for you. I find it best to think of this key
area as to how I manage my money and how I earn money. Keep in mind that both are equal in
regards to their level of importance.
When it comes to managing your money and generating an income, I believe that one should
consistently focus on four things. They are as follows:
● Money In
● Money Out
● Savings
● Growth
Let’s start with money in. I believe that a person needs to control and direct their focus daily to
maximize the amount of money they earn. It doesn’t matter if that person is an employee, self-employed, unemployed, business owner, benefactor of large inheritance or lottery winner.
There are always things that can be done or actions that can be taken to ensure you are maximizing
the amount of money you are earning or potentially earning every day.
For example, let us assume you are an employee who is earning a fixed salary. You may be thinking
to yourself that as you are on a fixed salary, you really don’t have the opportunity to maximize or
increase the amount of money you are earning.
However, this really isn’t true. You have the opportunity to give 100% percent to your job every
day, which in turn will give you a better chance of being promoted.
Also, it can create better annual reviews, and increased opportunities within or even outside the company to earn more money.
If you are self-employed or a business owner devoting 100% of your efforts, attention and skills to
your profession means higher profits and more business. This may not happen overnight, however,
it will at some point in the future.
In the event you are unemployed, you have the opportunity to work on your skills, education or
business plan every day. This in turn will make you more valuable in the marketplace and increase
your chances of finding the right job or increasing the chance of success with your business when
you do start.
Even if you are the benefactor of a large inheritance or lottery winner, there are certain qualities,
traits or virtues you can incorporate into your life on a daily basis that will ensure money continues
to flow in your direction.
The point being that no matter who you are and what your station in life is, there are always things
you can be doing daily that will earn you more money today or at some point in the future.
Similar to money in, I believe you also need to direct your focus on a daily basis to the money going
out.
Think about it. Isn’t this exactly what any successful business does? They work to maximize
the amount of money coming in with increased sales and minimize the amount of money going out
by reducing cost. What remains is profit.
This is the same formula you should incorporate into your life. You need to maximize the amount
of money coming in and minimize the amount of money going out. What is left is what you refer
to as your savings.
The way you minimize the amount of money going out is to stick to a budget, track your spending,
question every purchase and always shop around for the best deal. You should also always be
looking for ways to either do without something or substitute the item with something else which
is less expensive.
For example, pack a daily lunch instead of going out to eat. Bring a travel mug of coffee made at
home instead of stopping off on the way to work. Wear a sweater in winter and reduce your heating
cost at home.
By directing your focus every day, you will come up with dozens of ways to reduce or eliminate
your bills and living cost. Less money going out allows you to capture what is left and leaves you
more money to save.
In addition to money you capture, when it comes to your savings you need to dedicate a set
percentage of your income to your area. I would suggest a minimum of 10% to start, however, it
can obviously be more or less if absolutely necessary. The main thing to keep in mind is that
whatever the percentage is you decide you stick to it no matter what.
So what are you going to do with all this money you capture and the percent of money dedicated
to your savings from your income? You are going to grow it.
If all you do is stick the money in a low interest or worse a no interest account it will be eaten up
by inflation and the high cost of living. You need to put your savings to work for you. You need to
ensure your money is growing and not shrinking.
This is where the fourth thing you focus on each day comes into play. Growth is done by investing
in either low risk or high-risk markets depending on your situation, age, ability and goals.
You can also invest in things such as education and skills if you believe this knowledge or skills
makes you more valuable in the marketplace thus increases your earning potential in the future. I
refer to this as investing in yourself.
When you put all these points of focus together in a systematic approach as in the One Source
Personal Development System, you have what I refer to as a common-sense approach to managing
your finances.
If you direct your focus each day to maximizing the amount of money you have coming in on that
day or in the future, minimize the amount of money going out on a consistent basis, eventually you
will be left with some money for your savings.
If you focus on devoting a small portion of your time consistently to learning, planning and
exploring opportunities to grow the money you save, eventually your finances will become secure
and allow you to maintain the standard of living you desire.
In the majority of cases I believe if the only actions you take in the area of your finances were to
focus for ten to twenty minutes per day on each of these four things, you would find that within a
month your finances would begin to shape up.
Within a year or even less you could completely transform your finances. Remember the biggest
mistake people make is overestimating what they can achieve within a month and underestimate
what they can achieve within a year.
If you are unclear as to what you are to do regarding the above actions, do not be alarmed. As we
progress it should become clearer.
For now, just look at the sheet to ensure it looks somewhat like the following example:
Personal Development System
Month / Year
Relationships Health & Fitness
Spouse or Partners ¼ pt. 8 Glasses of Water ¼ pt.
Children ¼ pt. Light Exercise ¼ pt.
Friends and Associates ¼ pt. No eating after 8:00 p.m. ¼ pt.
Everyone Else ¼ pt. No Fast Food ¼ pt.
Personal Growth Business/Career & Finances
Read ¼ pt. Money In ¼ pt.
Watch Video ¼ pt. Money Out ¼ pt.
Online Course ¼ pt. Savings ¼ pt.
Write ¼ pt. Growth ¼ pt.
Take a good look. Does your system look anything like our example? If not, take the time to
reconstruct it now until it does. Of course, it is not going to look exactly like our example, however,
the format should look similar.
In the next chapter or post, we are going to explain how the point system works and how we can use it to