This is the first in a series of ten blogs about the elements of a life well-lived. It is not DIRECTLY about Transformation principles, but I promise you that every one of the principles I write about is beneficial for helping you to complete and retain the results of an excellent transformation, and to build on it day by day for many years. This material comes from a presentation I give to men who wish to live an effective life of lasting faith. The principles are equally applicable to women, and they will work well no matter your faith or your current spiritual condition.

We are created and hard-wired for stories—to listen to them, to relate them, and to live them. Pay attention to your story; put it in writing, and commit it to memory.

 Your story will change more lives than your job, your reputation or your checkbook. Life is short—live, organize and commit your story to writing now.  You don’t know how much time you have left, and if you die without telling your story, what do you leave to others?  “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.” (From the letter of James in the New Testament)

If you have read this far already, stay with me a while. I know what many of you are thinking—“no one would find my story interesting or inspirational. I haven’t accomplished a thing yet.”  Well, that’s not exactly accurate, unless of course you are much younger than I think.  If you are reading this you have made a commitment to do something that few other people seriously do—to remake your life physically, emotionally and maybe even spiritually.

I cannot think of a thing that is more important in remaking your life and your body than keeping a thorough journal of your activities. A journal helps you remember what you did, and it helps you to understand what worked and what didn’t. Simply reviewing that journal every couple of days will give you a flyover view of your activities of the last few weeks and will save you a lot of time in planning all your future activities—because all you have to do is to mark the spot where you did the activity that worked, and just do it again for the current day.  You can also keep track of foods and supplements and calories. You can record all your exercises—including your beginning and ending weights lifted, as well as positions of seats on exercise machines. A journal should be carried with you wherever you go.

So, if you go to all that trouble to create an exercise and food journal, for just a few minutes more at the end of each day you can journal in the other things that added value to your life.  Enter the celebrations, and  the passages of lives of others or your own. Make notes about the little personal goals you established and met that day, and take a few moments to plan out that next day as well.  Also note any special events that took place on a particular day, because that may help you to put a lot into perspective. For example, in my last transformation journal, I put down the day that my Brittany spaniel dog, Millie the wonder dog, died.  In my current journal, I have the day that our new dog George came to live with us. These are dates I never want to forget!

Once you are done with the twelve week challenge, your journal will also help you to write your contest entry.  It will help you tremendously to relive the experience of the whole journey.

The next thing you need to do for yourself is to create two minute and five minute versions of your story! See, you’ll find that few people unless they know you really well will listen to you for more than 2 to 5 minutes, depending on circumstances. Have you ever had the frustrating experience of seeing someone in the gym who came up to you and asked you what you were doing to see such great results, and then as soon as you start to tell them, they wander off or start looking around or at their watch? It’s not that they don’t care—it’s just that you don’t have their undivided attention! How do you get it?

Well, begin your story with something like, “I never thought I could lose twenty pounds of fat so easily……and all by just exercising less than 3 hours a week!  I tried all the other stuff and none of it worked, but this does! You can do it, too, and it doesn’t even require any special skills or expensive diet supplements.  Here’s the name of the book I read, and my phone number’s at the bottom if you have any questions. I’m not a trainer, but I’d love to help you get started on this if you are interested. This program can change your life!” Then, just hand them a card that you’ve prepared and printed off on calling card sized cards. Mine say, “Mike Harris”, along with my phone number, and the name of the book(s) and then “2006 Body for Life Champion.”  They probably cost me less than 25 cents a piece to print, even on the heavier stock paper I used, and I just keep them with me always, in my billfold and in my workout journal. This little moment is sometimes all the time you have with someone, but the key is to tell them something great quickly, and then assure them THEY can do it too, and give them something they’ll remember or be able to look at. This is the two minute version.

The five minute version can be a little more interactive and is usually appropriate for formal settings instead of casual contact situations. I often give my five minute version when I’m waiting with people, or riding on commercial transportation, or sitting next to someone at a dinner party who is interested in what I do. It can allow a bit of time for a few questions, and still will leave people wanting to know more.

The more you do this the more confident you’ll become in telling your story and the more joy you’ll build into your life. Trying to help others with absolutely no monetary or other expectation in return is truly the most rewarding activity any of us can do.