Take inventory of past victories in your life.

Do you know that in ancient times, there was a formal discipline that historians used to record past wins in order to encourage others, both now and in the future? One of the places that you find this discipline is within the ancient spiritual writings. Just look at the biblical accounts of the great leaders who always, when facing a daunting task and almost sure failure, reminded others of the great victories of the past.

When you begin to record, in writing, your past victories in your life, you will begin to see that you've lived a pattern of overcoming one adversity after another. You see, for you to still be 'in the game of life', you've experienced hard times and the subsequent victories of overcoming those hard times. When you begin now to recount those 'moments' in your life when you overcame and won, you'll begin to set yourself up to go to the next level and face it with courage and personal power.

When you don't even know the next step to take, learn to ask yourself 'powerful questions.'

I love all the personal development writers, coaches and success experts. I've never read one of them that I didn't gain powerful insight in success and living the life of my dreams. But there is none that I love more than the great Tony Robbins. Tony has been my 'coach from afar' for a long, long time. I know how Tony thinks because I've spent a lot of time inside his mind while reading his books, listening to his tapes and watching his videos.

A little mind game that I started playing with myself several years ago is one that I learned from Tony. When I don't know the 'next step' to take in my personal journal of success, I pretend (trick my own mind) that I DO know the answer or step. Let me explain.

Tony said that when you ask yourself the question, "What is my next step?", you might invariably come back with an answer like, "I don't know what my next to take is." Then Tony says to respond to that dilemma with, "But if you did know, what would it be?" Then if that question doesn't elicit an answer then Tony says, "PRETEND that you know how."

All of these are just simple actions to keep digging to find your answer. You see, whether you realized it or not, ALL of your answers lie within your own heart and mind. They're in there somewhere. You just have to take the action to 'get them out here'.

I've played this little game with my children. In fact, I played it so much that they learned it very well themselves.

One day, Ashley, at the time, my 12 year old, asked me, "Dad, can you take you me to get ice cream later?" I wasn't too keen on the idea so I said, "Honey, I don't know." Without me even realizing that she had learned this strategy so well, Ashley said, "Dad, if you did know if you could take me to get ice cream, what would your answer be?" Well, I was preoccupied with something else and still wasn't catching on. So I responded again with a certain irritation, "Ashley, honey, I SAID I don't know." Well, you know what happened next. Ashley said, "Dad, could you PRETEND that you know and tell me if we can go get ice cream?" I started laughing. I knew I had been 'had'. Ashley got her ice cream.

These are powerful questions that enable you to find the answer within yourself that you will need and which you long to know.

Write everything down.

I learned something from the master business philosopher, Jim Rohn (who was one of Tony's mentors by the way; Tony got started in personal development professionally by selling tickets to Jim Rohn's events). Jim Rohn taught me to use a journal. I take my journal with me everywhere. I take notes in my journal when I hear something that is worth remembering. I jot down 'light bulb' moments and ideas in my journal.

I was recently in a Sunday morning church service and was taking notes on what the minister was saying. I rarely find myself in a public presentation type environment, like a church service, that I don't hear something that I want to remember.

I had a meeting with the minister later that week. He told me that someone saw me taking notes of what he was saying in his message. He asked to look at my notes. Of course, I always have my journal in my hands so I opened it and showed it to him. He was amazed at many things I had written down which he had delivered in the message on Sunday. He then asked me why I wrote so much down. I told him that I get wealthier by holding on to and hiding golden nuggets of wisdom, advice and good common sense in my mind.

You need to record your life, thoughts and ideas. Jim Rohn said that people ask him why he would spend $10-40 for a book that had blank pages in it (a journal). His response is, 'I'm going to put something in my journal that is going to be worth thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars to me.'

My greatest books are the ones that are on my shelves that have hand-written pages in them. They are my journals. As Jim says, "If my life is worth living, its worth writing down."

There is organizational magic to writing things down. Start writing down your questions that are described in Step 2 above. You will be shocked how you too will find your 'next level' and what actions you must take to get there.