Exercise: A Life Of Indelible Moments

This exercise encourages you to create, organically, more moments that will leave a lasting impression on you. It is a reflection exercise that asks three things of you. First, answer the questions without jumping ahead to where they will lead or how they will benefit you ultimately. Second, try to answer the questions as if you were not influenced by what others thought of your answers. Finally, have fun.

If you are sincerely curious about your responses, you can eventually move toward making choices and making decisions that will allow for more joy. Of course there are details to work out! You have others to consider. You need to earn a living. You have commitments. Still, all too often we think of the details prematurely and we dim that quiet voice within that knows how to live our passions. If you allow yourself to work on the details of life from a more authentic place, your actions will naturally become part of a tapestry that is more memorable. Your life will be meaningful, it is inevitable.

Do not be impatient for fast results. It is learning to live in this way that leads to the moments that matter.

1. What did you love to do as a child? Jot down a few memories. Don't worry if they are not vivid or accurate. You might ask yourself this question by sitting down comfortably, closing your eyes, taking five easy breaths, and asking yourself, "What did I love to do or want to do when I was a child?" Keep your eyes easily closed and let thoughts, images, ideas come and go. Don't place expectations on how you receive this information. Even kernels of ideas hold important valuable insights.

After one to 3 minutes, open your eyes and jot down anything that came up for you. Repeat this short exercise again in the coming week.

2. This part of the exercise takes the lead from Alan Watts, who posed the question 'what would you do if money did not matter?' In his words, "If you do really like what you are doing, it doesn't matter what it is. You can eventually become a master of it. The only way to become a master of it is to be really with it. ..... It's absolutely stupid spending time doing things you don't like.... and to teach your children to follow in the same track."

Repeat the above exercise by asking yourself the following questions. "What do you desire? What makes you itch? What would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?"

As with the past exercise, sit down comfortably, closing your eyes, taking five easy breaths, and ask yourself these questions as if the answers mattered. Kernels of insight will come to you. Be curious about following up on them. After one to 3 minutes, open your eyes and jot down anything that came up for you. Repeat this short exercise again in the coming week. Come back to the question again and again.