Shape your own destiny, take the rocking chair test
THE ROCKING CHAIR TEST
'It is in your moments of decisions that your destiny is shaped.'
Tony Robbins
The Rocking Chair Test helps you to commit to accomplishing each of your goals, because it helps put things into proper perspective based on what's important to you right now and in the future.
(image credit: The Old Rocker by Anne Worner some rights reserved - licence Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic CC BY-SA 2.0)
The Rocking Chair Test will help you see your long-term options in the present. You will have the benefit of knowing how differently your life would have gone had you made an alternate decision. It's almost like viewing a parallel Universe and having an insight into the outcomes of opposing decisions that you make on any single issue.
At any rate, if any decision that you make passes the test, then you will know that it was a good choice.
The Rocking Chair test is a great tool when it comes to making difficult life changing decisions.
Ask yourself:
What decisions are you presently struggling with?
What decisions are stopping you from having the life that you desire?
What one decision do you keep putting off that could turn your life around?
Maybe you need to make an impactful work related decision?
Maybe you need to know if you should follow your childhood dream and do what you really feel passionate about?
Maybe you need to be certain of taking a risk and doing something new and different that you have never done before?
We all come across questions like these during our life. And if you are like most people, you probably just shut them out, choose the safe choice, and go with the familiar.
We all want incredible results in our lives. But we also want to do things that are safe, practical, pragmatic, secure, logical, realistic and normal. We are unwilling to do anything New and Different because it's a risk. If you feel you must make a decision but fear that it might be a wrong one, then I suggest you take the "rocking chair test" right now and make a better decision for tomorrow, and your life might never be the same again. And all it took was one well-informed decision.
The Rocking Chair Test decision-making process imposes no risk because it helps you make an educated decision based on what outcomes are important to you.
It allows you a peek into the future. A glimpse at the possible outcomes tells you what decisions you need to make today, that will lead you to the preferred outcome in the future.
It is like going into the future and looking at where your life ends up based on the decisions that you made in the past. You then get to come back into the present and make exactly those decisions.
All you have to do is to imagine yourself as an old man or an old woman, nearing the end of your life. As you sit yourself down in your rocking chair, get comfortable and contemplate upon your life. Look back to where you are right now, struggling with the decision of what to do.
Step 1 - Ask yourself:
Will this decision have any meaning to you in the future?
Will you be proud or ashamed of your decision?
How will this decision have affected the course of your life?
How different would your life have been had you made a totally opposite decision?
Step 2 - Now, look back to this moment in your life as if you had not achieved your goal.
Step 3 - Then, imagine yourself having achieved it.
As you take each step, get specific and feel your way through the answers. Experience a difference? Maybe this can be pain that would follow from not taking a chance? Or happiness that would come from accomplishing your goal?
Other questions you can think about when taking the Rocking Chair Test:
How do I feel about my choices and the life I have lived?
What are my regrets?
What do I wish I made time for?
What do I wish I had tried?
What if I never made this particular choice? How would I feel? Would my life be different?
Do I regret not taking the chance? Is it something I would always wonder about?
Do I feel like something is missing? Is there a sadness or longing?
Is there a great pride and comfort of having made that decision?
What if I just stayed in my job, would I regret not taking the chance to explore my options when I was younger?
What if I didn't at least try to follow my dreams, would it be something that I would always look back upon and wonder, what if…?
What would I wish I could tell my younger self, if I could make the choice again?
Use this tool as a shot of courage to go for something that you really want out of life.
What is currently standing in your way to achieve the happy feeling in the rocking chair?
'Regret for thing we did, can be tempered by time;
It is regret for things we did not do that is inconsolable.'
Sidney Harris
The Rocking Chair Test TEMPLATE
The Rocking Chair Test helps you to commit to accomplishing each of your goals, because it helps put things into proper perspective based on what's important to you right now and in the future. The Rocking Chair test can help you make career decisions.
Imagine the future
Today is your eightieth birthday. You're sitting yourself down in your rocking chair on the porch for a quiet moment, just before your family will come visit to celebrate. You look back on your life and contemplate on the choices that you've made…
What would your eighty-year-old version ask and answer of him/ herself?
“The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand.”
Irene C. Kassorla