Do you ever think about what your Perfect Day would look like? What would you be doing, or not doing anymore? How would you be feeling?
For many people the idea of having a Perfect Day might sound completely farfetched. Just having an okay day, or a not completely disastrous day would be a vast improvement!
But, I am guessing that as you’re here reading this blog post, you might not fall in that category? Maybe instead you are open to the idea that you can have a “perfect day” or at least one that is as close to perfect as possible?
A few years ago on a business trip I learnt about the “Perfect Day” exercise. I don’t know who created it or where it originally came from, but it was a game changer for me. I’d been trying to decide which direction to take my two businesses (my legal work and my coaching/training) and I was completely stuck. This simple exercise clarified for me that I would do both. Sometimes one in the morning and the other in the afternoon! It has been this way ever since.
The Perfect Day I saw in that exercise didn’t come about immediately. Although I’d seen snippets of it along the way. In the new year (the first day back to school) I experienced the perfect morning I’d seen in that exercise. I had breakfast with the children, we were calm and not rushed. We listened to the Greatest Showman and we sang! I didn’t have to shout as we left for school!
And a few months ago I had the perfect working day I’d seen in that exercise. In the morning I was with my legal colleagues discussing transactions and marketing, and in the afternoon I led a workshop at another law firm. So although I can’t say I’ve had the Perfect Day in one go yet, I’ve had serious snippets of it and it’s very much a reality I’m working on.
I had the opportunity to speak to a group of lawyers for a brief 10-15 minutes recently and thought hard about how to show them what I’m about and why my training is different, in such a short space of time, when I usually train for 2-4 hours! At the last moment I decided to take them through the Perfect Day exercise.
The feedback I received afterwards was that this was their favourite bit and a really useful exercise. I have an audio recording of the exercise if you’d like to try it, just drop me an email to Hannah@authenticallyspeaking.co.uk and I will send this to you.
I’ve taken perhaps 50-60 people through the exercise and similar things usually come out of it for the majority of people.
First, their day is never really vastly different to what it is now. There are just a few tweaks. These might be things like taking more time in the morning, not rushing about. If they have children they are calmer with them and perhaps go into work a little later than the usual 7-8am so they can have breakfast together and do the school drop off if they don’t usually do it. Maybe they take an early morning yoga class or walk into work.
Secondly, they notice the way they feel. This is an important part of the exercise. How we want to “feel” is much more powerful than just mentally deciding we want something. A feeling creates a emotional reaction to that “thing we want” and makes us far more likely to go after it than just setting our self an arbitrary goal. (Yes you can use that in your planning and goal setting too). Participants report feeling calmer, more peaceful and less “hurried” on their perfect day.
What never fails to strike me with this exercise is how “do-able” all these things are. If you assume that your perfect day is around 12 months from now, all of these subtle changes are possible.
Based very much on the idea of creating your perfect or Limitless Life, is my free 5 day training beginning on 10 June. We will go through the Perfect Day exercise on day 3 of this training plus other powerful exercises and tools to help you to create your Limitless Life. By the end of the 5 days, you’ll have a set of tools you can use to start making small (or big) changes in your life to bring you more confidence, and happiness and to start defining success on your own terms.
For more details on the FREE 5 Day Limitless Life Challenge, click here, I’d love to see you there.
I’d love to see you in our FREE 5 Day Limitless Life Challenge.
“When I joined the challenge I wanted more work life balance and to be more present with my kids. Your practical tools were quick and easy to implement. I got clarity around where I was in my life and the possibilities for my future.”
Hannah x
