This group of exercises may help you imagine broader dreams for yourself dreams to inspire you and move you forward, add meaning to your everyday life, and give it some long term purpose.
It's OK if you never reach your dreams. In fact, it can be better to have some dreams that you will probably never reach, so long as you enjoy the process of trying to reach them. For example, a real estate developer may dream of owning all the real estate in Phoenix. He may wind up owning much more than if he did not have that dream. If he enjoys the process of acquiring real estate, that's all that matters.
EXERCISE #1 WRITE YOUR ORITUARY
Every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral... I ask myself, "What is it that I would want said?"... Say I was a drum major for justice; say that I was a drum major for peace; say that I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.
- MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Martin Luther King, Jr., knew how he wanted to be remembered. He had a dream, and it drove his life. Write out what you would want the newspapers to say about you when you die. Alfred Nobel had a chance to rewrite his obituary. The story goes that his cousin, who was also named Alfred, died. The newspapers, hearing of the death of Alfred Nobel, printed the prepared obituary, which Alfred read the day after his cousin's death. Alfred was upset by what the obituary said because it starkly showed him how he would be remembered: as the well known inventor of a cheap explosive called dynamite.
Alfred resolved to change his life. Today, he's remembered as a Swedish chemist and inventor who provided for the Nobel Prizes.
Write your obituary as you want to be remembered after your death. It should also include parts that are not related to your job. If you don't like the way your life seems to be headed, change it just as Alfred Nobel did. Some people do this exercise every, five or ten years. It keeps them on track and moving forward. Write your own obituary, and then make a list of the things you need to do to get there.
EXERCISE #2 INVENT A JOB
If you could have any job in the world, what would it be? Don't worry about the possibility of ever finding that job make it up! Invent it. Write it out. It may spark you to think of how to create that job in real life.
EXERCISE #3 IF YOU HAD A MILLION
If you had a million dollars (or maybe ten million) but still had to work, what would you do?
When I asked myself this question, I decided I'd like to continue doing what I was doing at work, but would like to write a book on job hunting because I felt I had something to say. And here is that book.
People often erroneously see a lack of money as a stumbling block to their goals. Think about it: is there some way you could do what you want without a million dollars? Then do it!
EXERCISE #4 YOUR FORTY YEAR PLAN
If you could be doing anything you wanted five years from now, what would it be? How about ten years from now? Twenty years from now? OK now try thirty and forty years from now. Why not!
Write down, in the present tense, the way your life is right now, and the way you see yourself at each of the time frames listed above. This exercise should take no more than thirty minutes to an hour. Allow your unconscious to tell you what you will be doing in the future. Just quickly comment on each of the questions listed below, and then move on to the next. If you kill yourself off too early in the process (say, at age sixty), push it ten more years to see what would have happened if you had lived. Then push it another ten, just for fun. Now, relax and have a good time going through the years. Don't think too hard. If you like, have a friend ask you the questions:
What is your life like right now?
- Who are your friends? What do they do for a living?
- What is your relationship with your family, by however you define "family"?
- Are you married? Single? Do you have children? (Please list their ages.)
- Where are you living? What does it look like?
- What are your hobbies and interests?
- What do you do for exercise? How is your health?
- What kind of work are you doing?
- What else would you like to note about your life right now?
Some people feel locked in by their present circumstances. Many say it is too late for them. But a lot can happen in five, ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years. It's all in the way a person looks at life. I've had clients in their early forties who were waiting for the Grim Reaper. But I've had others in their seventies who were making plans and telling me that I ought to be doing more with my life. Compared with some of these seventy year olds, I looked as though I was standing still.
A lot can happen to you over the next few decades and most of what happens is up to you. If you see the next few decades as boring, I'm sure you will be right.
Pick your own vision of the future, and be as sure as you can be that it is what you really want. If it is what you want, chances are you will find some way to make it happen.
