Have you ever done a perfect average day exercise?
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here are two good articles... https://www.huffpost.com/.../the-life-transforming-magic... and https://www.mysweethomelife.com/average-perfect-day.../ But if you don't want to take the time to read the articles, the summary is: envision and write down your ideal random weekday as a way to make achieving it a goal for the future. And don't worry. You can participate in this as much or as little as you like! Maybe you're working during this ideal day, maybe you're independently wealthy at this point, maybe it's something in the middle. All of those are valid desires. This isn't a bucket list or dream vacation day where you wake up at South Base Camp on Mt. Everest or when your butler knocks on the door of your over-water hut in Bora Bora. It's just a normal Tuesday. I'm not into meditation or visualization or manifesting, so this always feels a little woo-woo to me, but I do see the benefit of it and I've been steadily moving toward attaining my perfect day for several years even though I never completed the exercise. Step 1: Write down/Type out what happens on your perfect day. Do this however it makes sense to you - like a list of events, like a schedule hour by hour, ordered from most important to least, scribbled down however you think of each moment, whatever. Step 2: Arrange your day chronologically. That doesn't mean you have to start it at 6am, just start with whatever happens first during your day, whether you're waking up at sunrise or after lunchtime. Step 3: Make no moral judgments on the things you've written down. If your perfect day means you lie in bed and watch game shows until 11am and someone else's has them out the door for half-marathon training at sunrise, that has nothing to do with the character or morality or "laziness" or "productiveness" of either of you. If Drew Carey makes you happy, then keep watching The Price is Right! Step 4: Assign emotions or feelings where appropriate to each item on your list. Pointing out something you want to avoid is legitimate - I don't want to feel rushed - but positive connections are stronger - I want to enjoy my first cup of tea in peace and quiet. Step 5: Use three different colored highlighters to mark which things you're already doing, which you feel are easily attainable in a reasonable amount of time, and which are your stretch goals. Step 6: Rewrite your list as a narrative and save it somewhere you'll remember to look at it at least a few times a year if not weekly or daily. Step 7: Choose one goal from your list that you want to work toward achieving and give yourself a timeline to do so. Step 8: Join The HEA Club to share your perfect day with other romance authors and support each other on your journeys! Like I said above, do as much or as little of this as you want. Because I'm a to-do-list, action-oriented, check-the-box kind of girl, rewriting my day as a story isn't useful to me. It's just extra words. But I do love a bullet point! So here's mine...
Instead of a single goal, I'm forming a habit around putting money into savings each week. That doesn't directly relate to anything in my "perfect day," but being a nomad is definitely in the perfect day. And since my car is 11 years old, I don't want to be driving it all over the US. So I want to save money to buy a new car, at which time I'll pack up the dog and we'll start our new nomad life. Tell me about your perfect day!
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June 2022
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