Introduction
I want more moments that are spectacular

The year I turned 50 I experienced the first tantalising taste of how I could (and should) live an audacious life if I simply learned how to master every moment. I went skiing for the first time in my life. In France no less. I mean - if you are going to do life-or-death, crazy-as-bat-shit stuff in your 50s, you may as well do it right!

In all honesty, I did not want to go skiing, had never had the faintest desire to go skiing, and would not have gone skiing at all but for my daughter.

The reason I am introducing a tantalising little taste of the skiing incident up front is to foreshadow the whole Life List plot - to set the scene for exactly why and how to create your own Life List of audacious, wonderful, life-changing and singularly spectacular moments. Because, fair to say, if I'd had a Life List prior to the skiing incident, skiing would not have been on that Life List. Because I did not want to go skiing. Ever.

But skiing I went, and it changed my life. Not that it sparked a life-long, enduring passion for skiing - god no. Rather, skiing was the vehicle by which I changed my whole approach to goal setting and goal smashing. And that is why it is so critical to this story.

Skiing was the inspiration that caused me to discover the power of the word 'moment'. Where I first fully embraced the concept of living in the moment. Where I realised that I want to have many more 'moments' in my life: moments that create memories; moments where I am fully present; moments that are anything but mundane; moments that bring me joy and wonder and delight and laughter. Moments that are life changing.

On discovering my most favourite word in the world

I use the word 'moment' a lot, and have always done so quite mindlessly. Generally I use it to buy myself time with my kids when they scream 'Mum!'

There are two inflections to that word - 'Mum!' There is the 'drop everything and run' inflection because one of my kids has cut their leg off. And then there is the 'I don't need to drop anything at all or run, just because they can't find a spoon' inflection. For the latter, my response is generally along the lines of, 'Just give me a moment'.

'Moment' is the word I use to buy myself time. And as a time management specialist I am all about buying time.

But what exactly does the word 'moment' actually mean?

On looking into the word properly I was thrilled to discover that it can be so much more than just a vehicle to buy me a little time to finish whatever it is I am doing before I go and show the 20-year-old where the spoons are kept.

In fact, there are three separate definitions for 'moment', and it was a combination of these three definitions that gave me the willpower, in the face of massive self-resistance, to get myself onto the ski slopes in France, and which I have continued to use to completely redesign my life.

And that's what this book is all about - a life by design. A life where you get to master every moment and live a truly audacious life.

Moment 1 - as a unit of time

First, I discovered that, rather than buying me an unquantifiable amount of time, the word 'moment' is an actual unit of time. 'Moment' first appeared in the English language in the eighth century when Saint Bede the Venerable recorded that each hour of the day is divided into four quarter hours, 10 minutia and 40 momenta - the latter representing 90 seconds of time. Just like a 'minute' is 60 seconds, a 'moment' is 90 seconds.

This tickles me pink. Next time I say, 'Just give me a moment', what I am actually doing is buying myself exactly 90 seconds of time.

Moment 2 - as a measure of energy

Second, a 'moment' is a measure of energy. The Moment Magnitude Scale (think an enhanced version of the old Richter scale) measures the actual size and magnitude of an earthquake the moment it strikes.

Moment 3 - as a unit of force

Third, a 'moment' is a unit of force. In physics, a 'moment' is the measure of how an object pivots or rotates around a specific point. For example, when you open a door and the door rotates around the hinges, this rotation is called a 'moment'.

MOMENT

=

A unit of time

A measure of energy

A unit of force

After exploring these three definitions and thinking about them a lot, I was very much taken with the word 'moment'. Just imagine how profoundly I could change my life if I combined these three 'moments' together to ensure I actually live in the moment and that I actually get shit done.

I could take just 90 seconds of time to generate enough energy to open a brand new door.

Combining the Moments to create MOMENTum

Adding the three moments together - that is, taking just 90 seconds of my time to use enough energy to open a brand new door in my life - was literally the only way I got myself into those skis and onto the ski lift and up to the top of that snow-covered mountain.

Without the simplicity of 'moments', skiing would not have happened - because the idea of skiing was simply too monumental. It was too audacious. It was too overwhelming. It was complex and complicated and how on earth was I supposed to get myself from Australia to France and onto a snow-covered mountain without any ski gear or experience or indeed any desire whatsoever to ski? I mean, come on.

On the other hand, exerting just 90 seconds of effort to open a new door is pretty simple.

Once you realise that goal setting, or approaching any new challenge or change in your life, requires just a 'moment' - then getting from point A to point B becomes elegantly doable.

In fact, everything becomes possible because you can do a hell of a lot in a 'moment'.

And once that new door is open, all you need to do is step through it. And then take another step and another and another because when you add one 'moment' to another 'moment' to another 'moment' and so on - you generate:

MOMENTum

the measurement of mass in motion

Holy shit.

I mean, the world 'moment' is actually in the word 'momentum'.

Momentum is the measurement of mass in motion. Simply put, any object that is moving has momentum. If you want to generate momentum, then you have to be moving. And how do you get moving? You take action. I didn't just decide one day in Melbourne, Australia, to go skiing for the first time in my life and then find myself in the French Alps the very next day decked out in a cute little ski suit, on skis, holding poles and shitting myself at the top of a run - I took action in the form of lots and lots of small steps towards that glorious, hairy goal and I self-generated a sense of momentum.

Thinking and acting small helped me knock off what was otherwise a very overwhelming goal that I thought was impossible to achieve.

And once you are in motion, it becomes very easy to stay in motion; you are on a roll.

Nothing is out of your reach. It will become, and continue to be, easier and easier to set outrageous goals and to implement them. Again and again. All by using the power of 'moments'.

Living my best life

And that's exactly how I truly started living my best life - a life by design. A life where I get to call all the shots on exactly what I want to do. And it is stupendous.

And isn't that what you want the rest of your life to be too? The best chapter yet? Where you routinely invest time in yourself to open new doors to create earth-shaking, life-changing experiences? A life where you are a little less selfless?

That's what this book is all about.

In Section I, I share with you my journey to mastering every moment to live an audacious life as a woman with no more (or much fewer) fucks to give. This section also covers the life-changing experiences that propelled me to create my first Life List. A Life List of everything I want to do while I am still young enough to enjoy doing them.

In Section II, I walk you through exactly how I created my Life List and show you how to design your own Life List - a perfect life from here on until forever.

In Section III, I share The Master Every Moment Framework: a step-by-step guide that shows you exactly how to implement and realise your magnificent Life List goals using the power of 'moments'.

And in Section IV, I share the very current iteration of my Life List, which I hope will inspire you in the creation and implementation of your own Life List.

By reading this book and creating your own Life List, you will get to live a big, spectacular, enormous, incredible, audacious life where you create, generate, experience and manifest a life that is:

MOMENTous

of great or lasting importance or consequence

And if that doesn't rock your world and knock your skis off then I don't know what...