One of my favorite activities with clients is to have them create a vision for their ideal day.
Defining your ideal day opens you up to your unique interests, personal rhythms, and best possible balance — whatever is most authentic to you.
As with anything in life, the more we clarify our desires, the more likely we are to actually build a life that reflects how we most want to live.
My life has shifted drastically and improved dramatically over the past decade. Now I find myself organically refining my ideal day whenever I feel a tug to upgrade.
At this point, my version of an ideal day includes the following:
- Quiet time every morning; I consider this to be my powerful “launch pad” for the day.
- Gentle, intermittent movement seamlessly inserted throughout the day in a variety of ways. Yoga stretches, a 2-mile walk, or an online mini-workout are some of my favorite ways to feel physically vibrant.
- Intuitive eating. Mindfulness is the key. Really choosing, tasting, and savoring whatever I’m in the mood to eat. No rules. No rigidity. Rather an enjoyable and sustainable approach to nutrition.
- Purposeful activity. This includes professional and personal activities…a range of ‘to do’s’ that result in a pleasurable, enriching, functional business and life.
- Intellectual stimulation. Lots of it. Thankfully, connecting with clients provides much of this but I seek it out from other sources as well. I do plenty of reading and am a fan of online classes, YouTube videos, and Netflix docs.
- Self-Care practices. I have an evolving assortment of ways to nurture myself and recharge my battery. Self-care isn’t something I do “if I have time”, it’s an integral part of my life.
- Puttering. There’s something so soul-satisfying to me about organizing, rearranging or refining. I LOVE to edit, clear and refresh.
- Nature. Spending some time outside whenever possible or simply noticing the weather, the sky and the assortment of birds, squirrels and rabbits doing life outside my office window each day is a soothing simple pleasure.
- Creative self-expression. A highly experimental range of interests and activities that I engage in. Lots of dabbling with sketching, pastels, acrylics and more. Ahhh.
- Sound Sleep. The more I get my fill of the above delights, the better I sleep. In fact, I need an ongoing balance of these ideal activities more days than not or I feel out of balance and sleep eludes me.
While my daily schedule is always changing, as of now these 10 items are the components of my ideal day. Some days I can actually experience all of these delights in some way. Other days are heavily weighted to only a few.
Importantly, these are not goals {I’m anti-goals;-)} … these have all become a way of life for me. They are a natural and regular part of my life, intentionally and consistently.
They are strongly aligned with who I am and how I best thrive. I’m compelled to do them; I don’t coerce myself to do them. I approach them in the most flexible way possible, and there is often significant overlap among these various choices, which is very cool.
So, just as I do with my clients, I’ll ask you. What would your ideal day include?
Undoubtedly, your day will look different from mine, but I hope you are intrigued enough to give it some thought and to play with the possibilities.
Daily ideas and inspirations to help you create a more authentic, balanced life are available here: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00FEQHI7I
