In this one life
When the days just roll into another.
When you have exactly the same New Year’s Resolutions as the previous year.
When there’s a low-lying disappointment that life is just passing by, and it’s not quite matching our expectations.
And when you feel worn down, overwhelmed and silently drowning…
...then lady, it’s time to dream a little. It’s time to get back in touch with your child-like imagination - full of possibility.
Because we trap ourselves in our circumstances. We believe less is possible for us than it is. Just because things have been a certain way doesn’t mean that will continue.
We have one precious human life and just because things have been a certain way, doesn’t mean they have to continue that way!
So let’s dream.
Without holding back - the biggest craziest most fanciful dreams.
Here’s what I want you to do: Transport yourself to the end of your life. You are sitting on a rocking chair (let’s bring in the cliches!) thinking about your life.
What are you looking back on?
Where did you live?
What did ‘home’ feel like?
What did you study/learn?
Who did you work with? For?
What were your relationships like?
Where did you holiday?
What were the feelings you walked through this one life with?
The In This One Life exercise is designed to get you thinking about your life in a big picture kind of way. It IS more than this moment - but it is also JUST this moment. If that makes sense?
Without a clear idea of what we’d like from this one life, how are we meant to go and create it?
My husband and I use this exercise in a back and forth way. I write, then he does. And it can be as random, and go for as long as you want.
Get honest.
What do you want from this one life?
I’ve written things like - a fireplace.
It might end up that I don’t have a house with a fireplace, but our family will have a cosy favourite restaurant that has a fireplace and gives me that same feeling.
Your life, this ONE life, matters.
What do you want from it?
Download the worksheet and write all the things that come to mind when you think about YOUR one life. What don’t you want to miss? Or have pass you by?
I’ve got things like:
“A vegetable garden”
“A crew of close girlfriends”
“Holidays in Europe”
“Hot sex with my husband” (no joke - it’s there - In This One Life I will continue having great sex!)
“A fireplace”
“No working at night”
“Writing a book”
It goes on and on. So don’t limit yourself to the spaces on this weeksheet - fill the damn page!
This is not an exercise in restraint - we can craft realistic or SMART ‘goals’ any old time. Give yourself permission to immerse yourself in all the possibility that exists for you in this one life.
I bet you’ll learn something about yourself and if you do this with your partner - I have no doubt you will learn about them.
And sometimes, like magic, when a thought pops into our conscious mind, and it’s been sitting there waiting to breathe some air - extraordinary things can happen. We create what we think. So think BIG!
MANIFESTO TASK:
Choose a space and enter the words ‘In This One Life’ to remind you of this exercise.
OR
Choose a word, an image, a sentence that encapsulates the feeling that you have after doing this exercise.