If you've been setting goals the traditional way and not been achieving them, then you're in for a treat. I have for you a totally awesome exercise that you can do, to start achieving your goals.
My mentor shared this exercise with me a few years ago and I do it every year, just to make sure that I have full clarity in what I am looking to achieve, and what I want my ideal life to look like.
I'm really excited to share this with you, because I know it has the potential to change your life if you try it.
It's called the "Perfect Day" exercise.
So what is the perfect day exercise?
To understand what it is and why it's such an amazing method, we need to take a minute to understand how traditional goal-setting works.
Traditional goal setting is when we sit down and ponder over what it is that we want to achieve. Generally, these are physical things such as a house, a car, a certain amount of money, or a person maybe!
You may set new years resolutions, such as I will lose 10 pounds or I will build a business that makes $1 Million per year.
Now that's great and if you aspire to do any of those things, then all the power to you! Setting some goals is better than setting no goals, because that allows you to see exactly what your target is and what you're aiming for.
Goals setting is great to give you the initial direction, but not so great for the follow through.
What you've done is set a health goal or a financial goal, that has no indication as to what lifestyle you want to live, how you want to make the money, who do you want to surround yourself with.
In most cases when we set goals it's actually a specific feeling, emotion or lifestyle we are chasing as opposed to the the actual goal.
So a lot of people end up achieving their goal of making $1 Million a year from a corporate job or even a business but then they're working 60 hours a week, hardly get to see their family, their health is taking a toll as a result, and they end up hating the life they have created for themselves!
That's the problem, because what they fail to realise is that it's not the things they were chasing it was the feelings they thought they would feel when they had those things they were chasing.
Doing the Perfect Day exercise allows you to see what your deep-rooted values are and what it is exactly that you want from your life. It's a goal-setting exercise that introduces balance and allows you to outline what you want from every aspect of your life. Be it health, wealth or relationships.
That way when you start ticking off the goals in your perfect day exercise you are in full alignment with how you want to live your life. So it's a holistic approach to goal setting, and I love it.
So how does the exercise work?
So the perfect day exercise is based around 1 (but important) question, and that is...
If you had no limitations or consequences... What would your ideal average day look like?
It's important that you let go completely, have no fear, and silence that critical, negative voice you have in your brain for just a little while and answer this question. Now there are a lot of sub-questions you can ask, but this is the main one.
The next step is to get a pen and paper take out at least an hour of your day and start writing.
Initially, you'll write all the superficial things, but as you do this process and mull over your answer you will refine this more and more. Eventually, you will end up with your true desires, your true North Star.
The more time you spend on this exercise the more clarity you will get, when I first did mine I spend a couple of hours just exploring different things and adding and deleting various things until I had a perfect day that I resonated with and that excited me!
Make sure you write it all out in as much detail as you can, use all your senses, describe the smells, the sounds you hear, or even how things taste, involve all your senses.
Don't just write out something slightly different to your current circumstances, expand your mind.
Let your self free, imagine you had a genie in front of you who was ready to give you your ideal life and the perfect ideal average day. What would it look like?
Bear in mind this is not just 1 day in your life, this is what your ideal days would be if you were living your perfect life.
So it's not just a 1-time event, it's your average ideal day if you were living your perfect life.
Here are some prompts to get you started...
- Where would you live?
- What would your house look like?
- What would you do in the morning?
- What would you have for breakfast?
- What is your morning routine?
- What would you be thinking about?
- Where would you spend the first half of the day?
- What would you have for lunch?
- Whom would you eat with?
- What would your friends be like?
- What would you do for personal fulfilment?
- What is your life purpose?
- What is your vision?
- What would your job look like?
- What would your business look like?
- What are your clients like?
- What hours would you work?
- What time do you start work?
- What would you actually do at work?
- What title would you have at work?
- Who do you want to collaborate with or work with?
- What does your relationship look like?
- Are you married? Do you have a girlfriend/boyfriend?
- Do you have children?
- What does family time look like?
- What do you do at night/in the evening?
- How do you feel about your day?
- What are you grateful for?
- Do you have a night routine?
- What thoughts would you have falling asleep?
- How do you make your money?
- What experiences do you have daily (your personal chef cooks breakfast for you, you work out daily in your home gym, you have a masseuse come to your house daily)
- What is your health like?
- What is your body like?
- What foods do you eat?
- How do you stay fit and healthy?
- What hobbies do you pursue?
- How do you feel, what emotions do you encounter throughout the day?
Once you have this written down, work out the next step you need to take to move a step closer to living that perfect day. This will be dictated by the perfect day you have written down.
For example If you want to quit your job and travel the world making money from the road then the next step might be to research side hustle ideas you can make money from.
If you want to lose weight, live a healthier life and do more sports then maybe the next step is to empty the kitchen cupboards from junk food.
The Perfect Day you have written will largely determine what next step you need to take, go take that step, right now.
Do 1 thing that moves you closer immediately and then make a conscious effort to do at least 1 thing per day that moves you towards living your perfect day.
That's the beauty of this exercise, outlining your perfect day, gives you extreme clarity on what the next step is that you need to take to start living that perfect day.
Read your perfect day daily to keep reminding yourself of the life you are looking to create, this will keep you focussed and the next steps will keep revealing themselves to you.
There was a study done at the Dominican University in California that people who set their goals and review them daily are 42% more likely to achieve them than people who don't. So this step is important.
I have my perfect day written out in a word document and every year I make minor tweaks if required and then print it out and stick it to the back of my journal so that I can review it daily.
Your brain will be primed to look out for the opportunities that will move you closer to creating that perfect day a reality.
All you have to do is keep taking the next step.