I think I need to say something personal to you now. Improving your financial life and thus improve your opportunities for truly saving for retirement might not be something you wish to tackle. Saving for retirement might not be something that you believe you have power to do anything about. If you choose not commit to or not to use the process I'm outlining, thanks for reading my article, and you will not hurt my feelings. Also there are many, many books, CDs, DVDs, etc. with processes outlined in them. You are certainly free to do nothing differently in your life. Your financial life is not likely to improve but the choice to do or not to do anything is yours to make. Even if you begin the journey to change and start to live the 180 Degree Life and you find yourself having drifted back to your previous life, don't get down on yourself. If you still feel the desire to change just start again with more determination to make the change, even if it means selecting a different process. Rare indeed is the person who decides to make change and then succeeds in walking a straight line to that change. I am no exception. If you saw a graph of my journey to this point, I guarantee you'd see lots of zigs and lots of zags.

Now, let's get back to the exercise. Why, you might ask, do I begin by ask you to list beliefs, situations, habits and conditions that no longer benefit you? When I first began to make notes of my experiences with the 180 Degree Life, I knew what I wanted, but I would ask other people what they wanted from life and many times they would say they did not know or could not clearly articulate what they wanted. It gradually dawned upon me that by asking someone what he or she did not want, and then asking what was the opposite of what he or she had just said, what they did want was generally the answer. It is an exercise that has served me well.

Part two of the exercise is for you to now write what you do want on the right side of your list. It may be a little difficult at first, but you will soon begin to realize more and more easily what it is that you do want. Once completed, there should be one "what I do want" for every "what I don't want". If you used the categories I suggested earlier, what you do want will fall under those same categories. Review your list several times over the next few days. Make sure the "what I do want" list is clear. This is a list of things, conditions, or circumstances you really do want in your life, and the things on this list should be 180 degrees opposite of what you don't want. If you find any ambiguities, work them out until you are clear, first in what you don't want then in what you do want. Correct your list. Clarity and certainty are keys in this process.

Remember, you do not have to live on less in retirement. No matter where you are right now financially, you can build and enjoy a Million Dollar lifestyle retirement.