Do you have wishes for yourself and your life? With a challenge list you can achieve your self-realisation in no time: "Your wishes are easy and playful to achieve! Viktoria Höcht. With her talk "Challenge yourself" she inspired the audience at the Volksbühne am Rudolfplatz. "I have tried many things in my life. And the soup with ingredients I would like to share with you. In my life I was active in the event sector. There I was rather always involved backstage. But there's one experience I've had that I don't want to deprive you of: I want to make you feel that you can achieve more in your life than you think right now!"
The Austrian then takes her listeners on a journey: "Imagine you're standing on a cliff. Below you is a free fall and a few trees are subtly visible. If you look down, there's a bungee rope hanging there. Ask yourself: Can I trust a rope like that? Yes! You jump. And as you bounce in the air, countless Feelings of happiness through your body. You stand there with this feeling and ask yourself the questions: Why can I trust this rope but not myself? What challenges lie behind the cliffs and which cliffs would you like to take a step into the free fall to find out what good things will happen to you afterwards?"
There is a Harvard study that proves that people who write down their goals - as opposed to those who don't - earn more and have already achieved more in our society. Just by simply writing them down. "Do you know what a 'bucket list' is?" asks Viktoria, explaining, "It has experiences, activities, events that you'd like to experience or achieve in your life. Everyone who wants to get a little further in life should have such a 'challenge list'. I invite you to take a look at my list. There are normal wishes on it like:
But because I could tick off the last wish in one holiday, I decided for myself to set my goals bigger." She increased the number of dream beaches from 20 to 50 and even to 100 dream beaches. One thing you can never lose sight of for your "challenge list" is, "Be brave. At the time I wrote down the wishes, I didn't think I'd even make it to ten beaches!"
What else is on Viktoria's list? Writing a second book, for example. "And again a Belief Set in my head, because I haven't even written a first book yet. So I should write the first one first, and then follow it up with a second book: The how doesn't matter at all in the context of your challenge list. That's entirely about writing down dreams and desires to make yourself real. "Like playing the ukulele on the beach in Hawaii," Viktoria adds to another wish on her challenge list.
When you hear it like that, do you think of a young, dynamic person sitting there on the beach playing? No, probably not. So - next important indicator for your challenge list:
Create a timeline of when you want to achieve which desire.
"Because I had also resolved to put myself on stage with my punk band and end my career effectively. Fame, the world tour, the money have so far failed to materialize. Because I had forgotten to add these little details to my 'challenge list'. So end it effectively. It was clear to me that I needed a singing teacher. Because I wanted to show this off in front of family and friends - but also to have them in my life afterwards. In the first singing lesson I couldn't produce a sound. Great. So I called my band. Which, of course, I didn't know. So I looked for one. And they said yes! So my excuse was gone. I wrote a WhatsApp to all my friends with a 'save the date invitation' in four months. Often I tended to postpone the event.
"My best tip is to find a challenge buddy. That's someone who reminds you at the right moment why you're doing this."
Then comes that day when 50 family members and friends are anxiously waiting for you. "I went on stage. And the first thing that fell down with me, that was my lines. So there was nothing left in my head. So I started singing. For me, that was a performance. The audience applauded. Why shouldn't they? They were my friends, after all. And they don't want to see me cry. I took that as an incentive and performed the second song as well. Then came my supreme discipline: I decided to have fun! For me, that means dancing! I really didn't care about anything. I completely came out of myself in that moment. Then my performance ended with a confetti cannon", Viktoria remembers this evening with pleasure.
95% of our decisions are made subconsciously. So write down your thoughts. Because the pen gives life and reality to what you write. Speak out your thoughts so there is no way back.
"If I can sing on one stage in this world, then I can speak on any stage in this world! I've never done that before in this setting. So hooks behind it!", Viktoria is proud of herself. You too can achieve more today than you might think at the moment. And you can't start someday. But today and now!