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Do It Now!

Neil Fiore's The Now Habit is an inexpensive book packed with practical strategies for overcoming procrastination. In the chapter titled "Overcoming Blocks to Action," Fiore offers six questions designed to help people move past paralyzing fears and make achieve profound changes in their lives.

Pairing these six questions with Tarot-generated insights can radically alter your perspective. Don't allow fears and worries to keep you from embracing your best possible future! Use this simple exercise to move beyond hesitation and start living your life now. Here's how.

Worry -- essentially, manufactured fear -- generates pointless stress and reduces you to a victim of your own darkest imagination. One of the first signs that you're holding yourself back with manufactured fears? An endless chain of "What if" questions.

What if I took a chance, left my current job for my dream job, and then couldn't make a living? What if I left this relationship and couldn't find someone else to be with? What if I said what was on my mind and people didn't like it? What if? What if? What if???

You can free yourself from bondage to fears by breaking through the "What Ifs" with this handy brainstorming spread, based on questions from Neil Fiore's book. Grab your Tarot cards, give 'em a shuffle, and deal yourself seven cards representing answers to each of the following questions:

1) What is the worst that could happen? Move beyond asking "What If?" and confront your fear. Be as dark and spooky and melodramatic as you can. Interpret this card in the worst possible way. In your mind, take the action you long to take ... and let the disaster play itself out. What is the worst possible outcome?

2) What would I do if the worst really happened? Allow this card to inspire actions and responses. If the worst really came about ... what would be your next step? How would you cope? Where would you get help? Do NOT read this card as an emotion ("I would feel so lost and small!") ... make it an action ("Hmmm. Eight of Cups. I would start looking for another job, or I would go back to my old one.")

3) How would I lessen the pain and get on with as much happiness as possible if the worst did occur? This is another strategy question: what would you do to deal with the emotional pain of failure? On whom would you call? What spiritual reservoir would you tap? What strategies have you used to heal after previous disasters?

4) What alternatives would I have? This card should help you think of other ways you could be happy and fulfilled, should the one perfect future you've defined for yourself fall through. Too often, we pick one possibility ("I want to be a best-selling author of suspense novels!") and use it to blind ourselves to other options for success. If we can get past The One Future we've imagined and see alternatives, we frequently discover we could be happy in many times and places.

5) What can I do now to lessen the possibility of this dreaded event occuring? Having imagined the worst ... what action can you take right now, today, to keep that future from coming about? Is there a phone call you could make? A letter you could write? How can you increase your chances for success?

6) What's the BEST that could happen? Ah, see? Here's where you turn the corner, stop focusing on the darkest possible "What If" future, and start focusing on the future as you'd like it to be. Allow the image on this card to inspire a vision of the best possible outcome. What would life be like?

7) Is there anything I can do now to increase the probability of reaching my goal? This card weds your best possible vision to action -- what small step can be taken right now, today, to move you closer to the future you'd love to live?

I like arranging these cards in a simple line, representing a spectrum from worrisome inaction (on the left) to positive action (on the right). Give it a try! This moment with the cards might be just the thing to launch you beyond your fears and encourage progress toward the more fulfilling future you crave.

WHEN Questions: Brainstorming the Future

"Tarot, eh? Aren't those them fortune-telling cards?"

If people know nothing else about Tarot, they know Sister Doololly claims she can use the cards to foretell future events. (No one ever seems to ask why someone who knows all and sees all would be operating out of a tumble-down shack on the wrong side of the tracks.)

Personally? I'm not interested in turning my life over to seventy-eight pieces of laminated cardboard. I'm not seduced by the velvety comfort of seeing my life laid out for me like a cosmic Rummy hand.

So: when I brainstorm with WHEN questions, I handle things a little differently than Sister Doololly does. Here's an empowering alternative to the Sister's predictive technique.

Fate vs. Fortune
Ask Sister Doololly "When will I get a raise?" and she'll pull a card for you.

"Ah, the Ace of Coins, my dear! Why, that's a great, great sign! You're coming into money, that's for sure! You know what that means? The Sister's gonna charge you thirty-five dollars instead of twenty-five dollars ... cause you can afford it!"

Ask me when you'll get a raise, and I'll help you brainstorm the situation by pulling 8 cards:

1. Why you want or need a raise
2. One reason you might get a raise
3. Another reason you might get a raise
4. One reason you might not get a raise
5. Another reason you might not get a raise
6. What you should do if you do get a raise
7. What you should do if you don't get a raise
8. How to increase the odds you'll get a raise

See the Difference?
Asking WHEN you'll get a raise leaves you standing on the railroad tracks of life, waiting for the Raise Train to barrel down the tracks and run you over.

The alternative approach empowers you. What motivations do you have for a raise? Do you just want a raise ... or does your work merit one? What other factors influence your raise? How can you deal with these? If the raise doesn't come through, what alternatives can you explore? And what can you do right now, today, to improve your chances of getting the raise you want?

Again and again, this approach to "fortune telling" leads to "fortune making" -- because it prompts the people involved to become aware of their motivations, analyze their actions, define their options, and anticipate alternatives.

Give it a try ... and let me know how this version of foretelling the future works for you!

Brainstorming Plan B

In his study of The Millionaire Woman Next Door, Thomas Stanley discovered a particularly important difference between successful men and women.

Men, as it turns out, come up with Plan A -- and quit. Women, however, come up with Plan A �-- and Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D. While men briefly visualize one outcome and doggedly pursue it, women imagine multiple outcomes and devise plans for dealing with each!

If it's good enough for millionaire women, it's good enough for me! Here's how ordinary Tarot cards can help anyone -- even guys like me! -- become better, more flexible planners.

But It Worked Fine on Paper!

Not long ago, one of the nation's long distance giants decided to launch a new, nationwide sales force. The plan? Sell commercial long distance to small businesses by going door-to-door.

That shouldn't be too hard, should it? After all, the company already had thousands of sales reps working in call centers across the nation. Buy 'em suits, put 'em on the road, and have 'em make face-to-face sales calls to small businesses! What could possibly go wrong?

I was one of several critics in the company's training department who voiced concerns. "Your reps are trained to handle incoming sales calls from customers who already want the product. Now you're asking them to go face-to-face with customers who may or may not be interested. That requires an entirely different set of skills!"

Our concerns were ignored. The sales reps went out -- and sales were so sluggish, it was only a matter of weeks before management started talking about dismantling the sales force completely.

Our managers had been so intent on success, they hadn't bothered to plan for challenges of any kind. When Plan A didn't work, the company was caught flat-footed. No one, it seemed, had bothered to author Plan B.

Flexible Planning, Made Easy

That planning strategy -- Pursue Plan A -- is typical of male-dominated corporate structures. As Thomas Stanley points out in The Millionaire Woman Next Door, men tend to pick a single goal and stick to it. They don't stop to consider contingencies; instead, they throw all their energy and resources into Plan A. Should that plan fail, men tend to start from scratch -- and formulate another single-minded goal.

Their female counterparts, however, think in terms of multiple outcomes. For whatever reasons, women more naturally anticipate challenges. As a result, they formulate more flexible plans -- and they edit their strategies on the fly, changing plans as circumstances dictate.

Whether you're male or female, Tarot-based brainstorming can help you anticipate issues and plan for multiple outcomes. With fifteen minutes and seventy-eight cards, planning for contingencies becomes as easy as drawing a card.

What to Do

Step One. On paper, outline your existing plan. Define where you are, the steps you'll take, and the outcome you anticipate.

Step Two. Shuffle your Tarot deck (or the Bright Idea deck) and draw five cards, placing them in a straight line from left to right.

Step Three. Reveal the cards. Pretend that each image you see before you represents an unexpected outcome -- a challenge to the "perfect world" you've outlined as Plan A.

Example: Jerry's company is excited: after months of development, they have five new products to launch. Management, with an eye toward generating as much revenue as quickly as possible, wants to launch all five products at once -- a "new product blitz," accompanied with lots of fanfare.

As directed, Jerry and his team outline the details of the product blitz. At the same time, however, they want to formulate some alternatives -- just in case things don't go according to plan. They draw five cards from the International Icon Tarot -- among them, the Seven of Cups and the Two of Coins.

To Jerry, the Seven of Cups suggests bewilderment. "See that guy? That's the customer, confronted by too many options at once. Which product really suits his needs? Which one of the five new products is right for him? He doesn't know." As a result of his work with this card, Jerry outlines components for Plan B: a memo suggesting the company adopt a phased approach, a product selection guide for customers, and targeted media campaign that alert specific customer types to the one specific product that's right for them.

A member of Jerry's team sees the figure on the Two of Coins as another potential customer. "He's got our product in one hand, and a competitive product in the other. To me, this card suggests a future in which customers really don't understand how our product is better." This insight prompts the team to come up with a series of comparative ads. While not a part of the initial product blitz, the ads will be ready -- just in case.

Why Wait? Anticipate!

Make more of your planning process! Draw a card, anticipate an outcome, and devise alternative plans -- just in case. This exercise takes only minutes, but it can save you hours -- and dollars -- should the unexpected occur! If you come up with just one great "Plan B" in the process, isn't that outcome alone worth fifteen minutes of your time and fifteen dollars for a deck of cards?

Want more great ideas? Brainstorm your way to better business with Putting the Tarot to Work. In minutes, you can generate dozens of ideas, solutions, and strategies. The book includes exercises and applications for individuals, small businesses, and corporations -- so whatever your challenge, there's a strategy that suits your needs. Buy a copy today!