During my life, I have struggled several times with the question: “What do I want to do next?” And over time I learnt that it does not always matter if I don’t know exactly what I wanted. It was enough to have some ideas about what I want my life to look like to be able to move forward.
An exercise that I found in Barbara Sher’s book I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was has helped me several times to define my next career. A Day in Heaven also called Your Ideal Day will add more clues to the picture of you and your perfect work/life.
I want you to describe your best day imaginable. It has to be a regular working day and you start from when you wake up in the morning till you go to bed at night. Describe it in as much detail as possible, but focus on these three questions:
- Where are you?
- Who are you with?
- What are you doing?
Keep adding to it until you run out of steam. It helps to do this with a partner who can ask you questions to coax out even more answers out of you. Think back to when you were happiest, healthiest and/or most energised in your life? What were you doing and what was your environment like? What elements do you think contributed to these positive experiences? This can give you pointers about what you need to bring more of into your life.
Don’t worry if you have blanks. I never could answer the question of “What are you doing?” But I was able to define my perfect environment and it still brought me to my next career. Once you put some coordinates down on paper, you will start to bring them into your life and you will see opportunities that include these elements.
Now read back over your Day in Heaven and ask yourself: What elements do I have in my life already? Which elements are missing but feel essential to your happiness? What can you do to bring them into your life? This exercise will make you come up with some things that you can take action on immediately which brings you out of paralysis and feeling stuck.
Was this exercise helpful? If you need help with creating your Ideal Day, I am happy to help. Just book yourself in for a FREE 20-minute pathfinding call with me. I would love to unearth your dreams with you.