If defining your passion and your values is creating stuck or resistance, try getting to your calling by starting from a vision of your ideal life.
Here’s how it works
Put yourself someplace you can concentrate without interruption. Take a couple of deep breaths to center yourself. Then begin imagining your ideal day — not a vacation day, but your ideal everyday day.
Where are you when you wake up? What time of day is it? Who’s with you? What does your sleeping space look like? What are you wearing?
What happens next? Do you eat breakfast? If so, what is it? Where do you eat it? Who, if anyone, do you eat it with?
What does “getting ready for the day” entail? What are you wearing when you’re ready for the day?
Where do you go next? Who’s around? How far is it? What does this space look like? What do you do there?
Where do you eat lunch? What does that consist of? Who, if anyone, is with you?
What happens after lunch? Where are you? What are you doing?
What does the time between lunch and dinner consist of?
What do you eat for dinner? Where do you eat dinner? Who’s with you? When does it happen?
What happens after dinner? Where are you? What are you doing?
When do you go to bed? What does “getting ready for bed” consist of? Who’s with you?
Why this is useful
It’s easy to get caught up in “what’s possible.” By focusing on our ideal (every) day, we can free ourselves from our limited ideas of what’s possible and start honing in on the lifestyle and activities that speak to our deep selves.
Once you’ve got a sense of your ideal day, you can work backwards — what does this tell you about your passion and your values? If you already had a sense of your passion and your values, what insight does your ideal day provide about how you want to be living? What does this imply about what happens next?
Using your passion, your values, and your ideal day to create a map of your dreams creates the ground for thinking about how to turn those dreams into a lived reality — and that’s what we’ll be talking about next week.
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