06 Jan For the New Year, Try Imagining Your Best Possible Life
There’s nothing inherently wrong with identifying problems, our faults and failings, and then working to fix them.
In fact, this is sensible and helpful.
But not enough of us take time to think about ourselves at our best; our best possible lives and how we can maximise the chances of making this a reality!
In this great article by Jill Suttie from the Greater Good website, she explains the process underlying this and how you can benefit …
When I was in my late 20s, I was living in Santa Barbara and wondering about the course of my life. I had a job that was interesting enough, but it came with a terrible boss who actively sabotaged my work. I’d been in a few serious relationships, but none of them panned out. I’d enjoyed working at a university, but hoped to use my science background more and, perhaps, tap into my creativity. I wanted something different, possibly even a new town. But I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted or how to get there.
That’s when I came across a book called Creative Visualization, and, for some reason, it spoke to me. Though I thought the main premise of the book was bogus—that all you need to do is figure out what you want, and the universe will provide—I nonetheless found its goal-setting exercise extremely helpful. In it, the author tells readers to imagine their best possible lives, considering many different aspects of life, including relationships, work, leisure time, personal development, the condition of society, and more. Then, they should write about this perfect life, as if everything were just as they wanted it to be.
Doing this exercise at that time helped me a lot, by encouraging me to reflect on my values, deepest desires, and goals. And I believe that taking the time to imagine a better, more fulfilled future started me on the path to where I am now. For example, back then I envisioned myself being married to a loving man (check), having a job where I could help foster more compassion in others (check), speaking new languages (check), and playing more music (check).
Did these things magically appear in my life? No, they didn’t. But knowing what I wanted helped me set an intention to work toward them. No doubt, my subconscious kicked in, too, and I began to notice opportunities that presented themselves to me or to actively seek out information I needed. Plus, having a direction to take based on my truest desires gave me impetus to make hard choices that ultimately changed my life—like moving from Santa Barbara and forgiving my alcoholic father’s past abuse…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE