Task: Define your optimum lifestyle in one sentence. Write down your response every day for a week/month/or even a year (FRIENDS). Read your previous day's answer and ask "why" before writing a new response for the day. You may say the same thing a day or two in a row, but keep asking "why" until you feel like you have got to the heart of what you want. When you complete your week or month ask yourself the following questions.
Follow up Questions:
How much of that life can you already be living today?
What can you do today to make more of that life a reality now?
What is the biggest change you would need to make to start living more of that lifestyle?
Mine: Have the ability to say YES to any/all experiences shared with those that I love.
~ I want to have as many experiences, adventures, opportunities, challenges with the most important people in my life as possible before I die. Thats it. That is what I want out of life. Set my life up so that I can say YES as often as possible to experience as many new parts of life and do it with great people.
Most of us have not taken the time to even define what we really want. We make decisions every day that determine the trajectory of our lives without knowing if thats the direction we want to be heading. "Spend your whole life climbing a ladder only to discover its leaning up against the wrong wall" Ive used that quote before, yes I know but its so powerful.
I asked myself this question each morning and wrote down my response on paper every day for a month. My responses have gone through many iterations and will continue to be refined, redefined, and flexed as I grow. What started out as: "Be financially stable enough to retire at 50 so that I can do what I want" has come a long way. I found that I do not care about the money as much as I care about the life that I thought came after retirement. My vision of that life was a level of freedom that I did not feel like I currently held. When I asked myself the follow up questions I discovered that I can already live like 70% of it. There is lots of work to do to get where I want to be but what is most important is that I know what I am shooting for. I can work backwards from that magical place and create the steps I need in order to get there. Without a clear understanding of what is most important we end up lost in the woods, making decisions that might take us in the exact opposite direction of what we really want. When I wake up, I can now ask: What can I do today to get me closer to that ideal life? 2. How can I live that ideal life today?
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