Showing posts with label tools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tools. Show all posts

Sunday, February 12, 2017

you should do this


If someone were to ask you to describe the perfect day in a most perfect future, would you be able to do it? I've heard about this exercise and its seemingly magical power a few times now, but who finally convinced me to sit down and do, it was a guest on the Tim Ferriss show (if you're not listening to Tim's podcast, you're missing out on some truly deep and enlightening conversations).

Debbie Millman talked about not only her own success with this exercise, but also reports how many of her students, whom she has assigned said exercise to, reconnect years later to, incredulously, share how their perfect dream lives have become reality.

I already know how certain visualizations can manifest themselves, however, I've never gone to this specific extreme. I have to say, even though I was convinced I needed to do this exercise, I found myself at a loss of what my perfect day 5 years from now would look like. I suppose, it may have been due to fear of wishing for the wrong thing (like when I desperately wished to meet my soulmate, forgetting that I was already married. Not only did the manifestation of this dream ruin my marriage, it also "trapped" me in a deeply dependent love with someone who was highly dysfunctional and ultimately lost the battle with his demons, leaving me devastated and in grief for years.)
I also had just passed a paragraph in Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, introducing a character who, for several years prayed for nothing but an open heart and then received his wish ... in the form of open heart surgery. So, I was a tiny bit apprehensive.

But, the other day, I finally decided I'm just going to sit down and let it flow out of me, with care and consideration, but without fear. I ended up writing for almost three hours. I couldn't believe it when I looked up at the clock. Furthermore, I had immersed myself so deeply into the writing of my dream day of the future, that I actually felt the moments of the day. I experienced love and excitement, an increase in my heart rate, a warmth in my chest, a shot of adrenaline and dopamine. I was so deep in, that I found myself disoriented when "my day" came to an end and I put the pen down.

Even if nothing becomes true, it was an amazing feeling to write this perfect day of 2022. Even just for that, it was worth doing it.

Now - I wait and see, I guess. Wait and see and keep moving.


Friday, March 11, 2016

just checking in for no reason

I want to write. I put it in my journal every day.

"Things that would make today great:
  • write "
"Daily affirmation:
  • I will write"
Random rambling section of journal:
  • "Come ON. Just write something. Even if it is just 20 minutes of incoherent babble. It'll get you started."
So, here I am now. Writing. I guess. 

But, what I was ACTUALLY doing was business-related and now I am, once again, completely off on an unrelated tangent. So much for the efficacy of my Momentum browser plug-in. Momentum is a great productivity/focus tool, unless you're driven to work around your own tricks and frame-works, as I am.
Momentum is a browser plug-in I heard about on Tim Ferriss's (Ferriss'?) podcast, which btw. I love and can't recommend enough [recent favorites: Scott Adams and Seth Godin interviews]. Anyway .. Momentum - clearly a plug-in I desperately needed - it worked well for a while but, now, I find myself trying to cheat. What this add-on does, is that it redirects you to your daily focus every time you try to open a new tab. When you first open your browser, the plug-in presents you with a beautiful picture and asks you what your main task is for the day. I usually squeeze in at least four or five unrealistic productivity goals onto that _one_ line, but hey, ambition shouldn't be a bad thing. (I choose to call it ambition, when it probably is just a lack of prioritizing skills). Anyway ... this function already fails due to the fact that I never close a browser until it crashes on me. So, I can circumvent the "open a new tab" action, at least 90% of the time by reusing tabs that are already open.
So - where was I going with this? .. Yes, .. you should try it. It is still one of the best plug-ins ever invented: https://momentumdash.com

And now, I'm going back to what I was procrastinating about ...