Andrea Molloy - Redesign Your Life: 12 Easy Steps to a New You

Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

JAMES BALDWIN

Do you feel that life is passing you by or you have outgrown your past? Can you honestly say you are 100% sure you are living your best life? Maybe you are in your early 20s, forging a career or feeling trapped in an unfulfilling job. Perhaps you are in your 30s and worrying about committing to a partner, or wondering whether the time is right to start a family. You may be juggling raising a family with developing a career, or even facing retirement and wondering what lies ahead. You may have spent the last year (or 10!) struggling financially and have decided it really is time to start afresh. Perhaps you are unhappy with your health, fitness or a relationship, or you simply feel overwhelmed by the continuous treadmill of life.

If you are reading this book, it is likely you want to make some kind of change to create a greater sense of satisfaction about your life. Start thinking now about what you want to do to recharge your life. Clients regularly come to our coaching practice with specific goals anything from changing their career to relocating to another city. As coaching progresses, it quickly becomes apparent that to reach their goal they need to review other areas of their life such as health, fitness, nutrition, finances and relationships. In fact, the development of each area is related to the other components of your life. It is for this reason that I have created an easy-to-follow 12-week programme that gives you the power to redesign your whole life, step by step.

Redesign Your Life shows you how to shape your ideal life in 12 weeks, by making positive changes to your health, fitness, eating habits, relationships, work, money, environment, attitude and leisure time. While many books and programmes focus on only one area, such as exercise, weight loss or career, this 12-week challenge is the ultimate mind-body makeover.

Each week, Redesign Your Life includes standard advice, some of which you may already have heard. This has been described as the age of information overload, and everything we need to know is out there somewhere often, the hard part is to distinguish the facts from the fads and hearsay. I have spoken to a range of experts in different areas, and summarised the latest findings for your reference. But more importantly, I show you how to transform your life and make lasting changes, beyond what you thought possible. As a coach, my role is not to tell you what to do or not do, but to facilitate your personal development and uncover your full potential.

Coaching is a powerful process, and as with my previous books, the underlying concept throughout this book is the GROW model. Each week you will be aware of being challenged to create a specific Goal, complete a Reality check, consider Options, and commit to a Way forward. You will start this programme by making an assessment of each area of your life and learning how to set goals, then each week you will focus on a particular area and learn new strategies, so that by the final week you will have incorporated all the concepts, strategies and tools necessary to redesign your life.

Let me summarise the coming weeks:

In Week 1, I will show you how to get started on your own life makeover. You will take stock of your life and identify key areas that you can improve in order to boost your life satisfaction. You will also learn how to use practical tools like goal-setting to help lay the foundation for change during the next 12 weeks.

During Week 2, I will challenge you to make a long-term commitment to healthy living. No matter how busy your life is, always remember that you cant take care of anyone else until you take care of yourself. So first, your overall wellbeing takes centre stage, to give you the stamina you need to fulfil your new life plans. In Week 2 you will discover how well you really know your body, learn about preventative health care, take a physical Warrant of Fitness and learn how to minimise your risk of disease.

Your mission during Week 3 is to create a positive exercise habit as part of your daily routine. First, I will show you how to overcome your excuses for not exercising. Then you will discover how to develop a balanced exercise programme. If you are new to exercise you will be introduced to a simple walking schedule to help you get started. In addition, you will learn how to improve your fitness, push your barriers and increase the frequency, intensity and amount of time you exercise.

Most clients I work with reluctantly confess that they know they could be eating better. Lets be honest, most of us have heard the basic messages about good nutrition. In Week 4 your objective is to enthusiastically choose healthy eating options. I will show you how to understand your existing eating patterns and permanently ditch fad diets. You will then be armed with the information to make over your eating habits with simple changes that will improve your wellbeing.

The quality of our relationships contributes greatly to our total sense of fulfilment, and during Week 5 you will learn how to reconnect with the people who matter most to you. You will identify people who energise you and those who drain you, plus learn ways to enhance your partnerships or attract new relationships.