The Four I’s is a strategy to design your life and turn your dreams into reality. You’ll establish an ideal identity of who you want to become and create goals to spark your transformation!

You can decide to start creating your future at any moment.

Before we get into The Four I’s, The Nine Embodiments of Self must be recognized. Each embodiment is universal, representing a tangible aspect of the self that resides within every individual.

The Nine Embodiments are self-worth, mindset, spirituality, health, impact, family, tribe, work, and money.

The great Tony Robbins identifies the Six Human Needs that every human subconsciously craves to a certain degree. They are the driving force behind every thought and action.

The first four needs are based on personality, which are certainty, uncertainty, significance, and connection/love. The last two spiritual needs, growth and contribution, come from within and create fulfillment. Acknowledging these basic human needs is essential because each of The Nine Embodiments contributes to multiple needs.

The 9 Embodiments Of Self

Self-Worth:
Self-worth and self-love go hand in hand and compose your relationship with yourself. Self-love is having self-awareness. Do you stay true to yourself? Are you accountable? What are your standards? If you don’t love and value yourself, how can you value and serve others?

Self-worth embodies the needs of love/connection with yourself, significance, contribution, and growth, making it a highly valued embodiment that flows into the rest of your life.

Mindset:
Your mindset is your perspective on life. The way we associate things is how we give meaning to life. Nothing is ever good or bad, only how you interpret it. Do you see the glass half full or empty?

Mindset involves your thoughts, ethics, gratitude expression, associations, and satisfies certainty and growth needs. Put yourself in a position to succeed by cultivating a growth mindset.

Experiences + Mindset = Growth

Faith:

Regardless if it comes from religion or your personal beliefs, having faith beyond yourself helps guide you through uncertainty and serves as an anchor for when life strikes! Faith fulfills the needs of love/connection, certainty, contribution, and growth.

Health:
We should all know that health is important, but did you know it’s where individuals attain their needs for certainty, significance, and growth?

Heath incorporates both the mental and physical. It’s vitally important that we take time for ourselves. Sometimes it’s better to tune in and listen to your body and rest when you feel out of sync. Just like lifting weights, a certain amount of rest is needed to build muscle and perform at your highest level.

Set aside time to invest in your mental and physical health equally. Try listening to podcasts when you exercise to sharpen both aspects of health simultaneously.

Impact:
Similar to how health incorporates mental and physical, impact includes both people and the environment. Impact provides lifelong fulfillment and gives meaning to life. It boosts self-worth and meets contribution, growth, connection, and significance needs.

How do you want to be remembered when you’re gone? How have you changed the lives of those around you? If you died today, would you be happy with what you’ve accomplished?

Family:
Your inner circle provides support, accepts you for who you are, and consists of lifelong bonds. Your family doesn’t have to be explicitly related by blood or marriage either. A healthy family contributes to love/connection, certainty, and contribution.

Tribe:
Your tribe consists of individuals who share the same values and beliefs as you. They’re the supporting cast that sticks with you throughout the lows and celebrates during the highs. People that you can count on going into the future with that provide love/connection, uncertainty, and contribution.

Work:
Statistics reveal that more people than ever before do work that makes them unhappy. The problem is that most aren't following their passions. Whether you have self-doubt, financial restrictions, or don’t want to make the necessary sacrifices, these paralyzing beliefs hold many back from accomplishing their dreams. In order to solve this dilemma, one must identify their natural calling.

Work that makes an impact provides purpose to wake up every morning and attributes to the needs of contribution, growth, significance, certainty, and uncertainty.

Money:
What does money mean to you? Is it where you find success or social status, or is it just a monetary number? Money is how some boost their need for significance while providing certainty for others. Once you identify what money means to you, proper action can be taken toward a healthy path.

If you find that your work doesn’t provide enough for your needs or desires, enhance the specialized skills you already possess or learn new attainable skills to share with the world and impact your financial situation.

Now that you know The Nine Embodiments of Self and understand the Six Basic Human Needs, it’s time to start your transformation!

Download and print The Four I’s Blueprint then locate The Nine Embodiments of Self at the bottom of the page. Identify where you are for each embodiment and where you want to go. Rank yourself from 1 to 10, write your score under each embodiment, and shade an upward bar graph.

The goal is to achieve balance with your embodiments. Be completely honest with yourself when analyzing each ranking. There may be shame associated with low scoring embodiments that you don’t want to admit, but this is for your improvement, no one else’s.

Cheating on your numbers is cheating on yourself!

Use The Nine Embodiments of Self to tune into your Intuition and discover what you truly want in life. What type of person do you want to become? What embodiments do you want to boost? How do you want to be remembered?

Your envisioned creation is mutable, meaning change is anticipated due to new experiences and realizations. Once you’ve imagined an ideal base identity, you’ll channel your energy into becoming it. Think of it as having a role model, except you’re the one in control, creating your ideal identity.

Pro tip: find people in real life that match your description of who you want to become and model them. Pinpoint what you like most about them and fuse those qualities into your new persona.

Good artist copy, great artists steal.

You will then map out what you need to do to become that person. This process involves goal-setting based on your newly established identity. Each goal is broken down into multiple tasks. For example, if your goal is to achieve financial freedom, you’ll bullet “financial freedom” in the I HAVE column.

The next step is to break down your goal into attainable tasks. In the I WILL column, number out tasks that pertain to accomplishing your goal, such as “save 20% of my income, eliminate unnecessary spending, or discover ways to get paid to pursue my passions.”

“Figure out what your purpose is in life, what you really and truly want to do with your time and your life; then be willing to sacrifice everything and then some to achieve it. If you are not willing to make the sacrifice, then keep searching.”

– Quintina Ragnacci

Now take a moment to pause and reflect. Recall the essence of your new identity. Imagine that you’ve become them, fulfilled all nine embodiments, and received all of the have’s on your list.

Write down how that person feels, their unique qualities, and their essential core values in the I AM column.

These are the affirmations that you will religiously preach to yourself every morning and night. The beauty of affirmations is that each is abundantly available to you right now!

The exact qualities and beliefs of your higher self are easily obtainable at any moment. Choice is the single element that separates one from their true potential. Consequently, one can choose to be consistent, kind to others, creating their life, and resourceful every day!

Once you understand that your thoughts construct your reality, the possibilities are endless.

“Life is about the management of energy, where you place your attention, is where you place your energy.”

– Dr. Joe Dispenza

Locate each “I” and complete the corresponding column

I AM GRATEFUL:
Gratitude biologically puts you into a state of receiving and is the keystone that brings this exercise to life!

Usually, we express gratitude after we receive something we enjoy. Dr. Joe Dispenza defines gratitude as the signature emotion that something has already happened and is the ultimate state of receiving. The act of feeling grateful for fulfilling all of the Nine Embodiments satisfies the Six Human Needs, resulting in wholeness.

Express gratitude for the past, present, and future. All of your past experiences led you to the present and there’s always so much to appreciate now! Then, visualize wholeness for each embodiment and embrace how that feels. Know that if you can see it in your mind then you can bring it to life.

Everything you wish for has already been granted, time just hasn’t caught up yet.

When you express gratitude for receiving your have’s and becoming the best version of yourself, biologically, your body can’t tell the difference between thought and reality. You begin to feel as if everything has already happened! This is how you change your inner world and see the outer world from a new perspective.

“If you mentally rehearse that unknown future with a clear intention and an elevated emotion, and do it repeatedly … you should have real neuroplastic changes in your brain and epigenetic changes in your body.”

— Dr. Joe Dispenza

I HAVE:
Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Traveling to the moon was impossible until we did it. The same is true for your dreams and feeling of worthiness. When we don’t feel enough, we naturally succumb to less.

Imagine that you live in a perfect world where time, money, and image are nonfactors. Eradicate any self-doubt and think “unrealistic” for the moment.

Who do you want to become? What would you have physically, spiritually, and emotionally? Which Human Need or Embodiment of Self would you have that you’re currently missing?

”Aim for the moon. If you miss, you may hit a star.”

— W. Clement Stone

I WILL:
Select and highlight your three foremost goals. The aim is to accomplish these goals by the target date at the top of the page. You can also choose to achieve milestone goals that take major leaps toward chipping away at a long term goal, turning your five-year plan into a two-year project.

Build a tactical plan of three to five tasks for each goal. Challenge yourself but also stay realistic to ensure you don’t give up.

The clearer the intention, the more likely it is to become a reality.

Don’t forget about your other goals either. Always retain them in the back of your mind, striving from a subconscious level. As opportunities arise, you will be ready to capitalize on them.

“Vision without action is merely a dream.

Action without vision just passes the time.

Vision with action can change the world.“

— Joel Barker

I AM:
The I AM process affirms your envisioned creation in the present moment. Using the power of imagination and repetition, you will step into the shoes of that individual.

How does it feel? Embody their thoughts and emotions. What does that person intuitively have that you don’t? How do others view them?

Side note: to want money or recognition isn’t enough. Many think that materialism will bring happiness. Yet that emptiness inside doesn’t go away because of the feeling that lies beneath – an unfulfilled embodiment or need.

The lack of self-worth, significance, acceptance, or connection is what most are afraid to admit. Take this time to reconfirm your new identity and figure out what you truly stand for. Write down the essence of that identity.

“To create something out of nothing, we need to match a clear intention with an elevated emotion.”

— Dr. Joe Dispenza

You may have noticed the blueprint is filled out in reverse order. The process is to become that person through routinely affirmations and complete specific tasks while maintaining a clear intention of who you want to become.

I AM GRATEFUL: PAST - PRESENT - FUTURE

I AM. I WILL. I HAVE.

My routine is to review this every morning and night by starting with affirmations and then shifting to my first highlighted have. I’ll go through the tasks for that goal and then go to the second have. After doing the same for the second and third highlighted have’s, I’ll run through the rest as I did with affirmations and finish by expressing gratitude to put me into a state of receiving.

It’s encouraged to periodically revise and update your columns quarterly as you progress throughout the year. The goals shouldn’t change much, but the affirmations and tasks may need to be updated to align with who you are becoming.

Never forget that you can decide to start creating your future at any moment. Choice is the single element that separates one from their true potential.

“At first, dreams seem impossible, then improbable, and eventually inevitable.”  

— Christopher Reeve