Willy Wonka: But Charlie, don’t forget what happened to the man that suddenly got everything he ever wanted.
Charlie Bucket: What happened?
Willy Wonka: He lived happily ever after.
Do this… project your mind ahead a few years. You’re sitting out on the deck of some luxurious vacation home, sipping your preferred beverage, and taking in the view…
It’s at that moment that you suddenly realize you now have everything that you ever wanted. All your goals have been reached. You have new ones of course, but your dreams from the early days have all come true.
So now what?
I love doing this exercise with folks. Much like “when will you be wealthy,” this exercise helps stretch the mind. Like mindset yoga, it helps move your mind into various healthy, but sometimes difficult positions.
How about kicking off the weekend with a little mind-stretching? By taking time to imagine what life will be like when your dreams are fulfilled, you begin to make it a reality. Not anything supernatural or magical, but just getting your mind to accept the fact that you can hit your goals. Then stretch a little further. What comes after you reach those goals?
Envisioning what comes next is a great way to stretch your imagination. Feel what it’s like to have everything you wanted, then imagine what comes next. If you’re taking the steps to get there, you’ll be there before you know it.
Won’t it be nice to be prepared for the next phase?
I’m doing this for real. I mean literally. I have been thinking a lot lately how my life is so much better than just 2 years ago…how what I wanted then has came to be. Call it positive thinking, Law of Attraction, good luck, hard work, whatever. I’ve reached those goals. And yes, I have new ones now, because my life is still far from perfect. However, I have much to be thankful for, and I think that optimism and appreciation is what is important.
That’s awesome Diane, and beautifully put. Reflecting on what we’ve accomplished is a great way to motivate us to move our goals to the next level.
Tony, I try to see my sister living more than the one week she’s been given by her cancer doctors. Don’t know what I’d do besides thank God for eternity if that happened.
I wrote her this poem:
“““““““““
“SIS”
I simply refuse to believe
That whatever created life, Earth, you, and me
Doesn’t have plans for souls, as it does for bodies.
I believe both parts of us will last until eternity
Made so by the birth of each new baby
And the bestowed tears we borrow, then wipe away.
Oh sister, what a wonderful time you’ve been.
I love you, and will miss you, with all my heart, Lynne.
But, I’ll see you again. I’ll see you again. I’ll see you again.
““““““““““““““
Fun sites like your make it easier for me to cope. I’ll still read yours when I’m in that luxurious vacation home.
Thanks Tony.
Shane
damn, that last line of the poem should have been on it’s own line.
Shane – That is an amazing poem. Thanks so much for sharing it, and you couldn’t have given a nicer compliment. I’m honored.
Oh, and I fixed the line break for you 😉
Tony,
This is an excellent exercise. I do it several time a week for about 30 minutes. I call it time travel. I sit motionless and upright like I’m meditating and I imagine the future. I try to focus until details become clear. To some people this might sound like daydreaming. Maybe it is, but since I began doing it I am much happier and far more productive.
Thanks for the great post.
Steve – “Time travel,” I like that. To me, what makes it different than daydreaming is picturing specific things you are working to archive, and focusing on the details. Flights of fancy, and visualizing what it will be like when you reach your goals, are two very different things. Believe me, I speak from experience 🙂
Excellent inspirational post there. Reminds me much of a post I published recently on “widening your context“. Mind exercise is one of the most efficent ones, and it costs nothing!
Cheers,
Allen.H
Tony,
My husband has recently been teaching me about the power of seeing yourself in the future. He’s been doing a little shopping. Not in-the-shops type shopping, but actually going out with a real estate guy to view gorgeous $2m plus apartments on absolute beachfront.. and then sitting down with me and planning how we would furnish it, how we would put a dumb-waiter in to get things up to the roof-top balcony, etc.
We keep talking about ‘when’ not ‘if’ or ‘one-day’…
He says, if we never expand our horizons past what we can currently afford, we’ll never get past where we are now.
Then there was the catamaran worth a cool A$1m…
Allen – That’s a great article. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Karen – Awesome! Sounds like something I’d do (or actually have done is more accurate 🙂 )
This exercise can have unexpected consequences. For instance, you may learn that you can get to what you want even more directly than you imagined. One catch? If you take this too far, you risk becoming a nihilist – “what next? I’m dead, that’s what. So why care about any of it?”
Great blog – great visuals. I’m envious.
Hey Tony,
I couldn’t even imagine a life where I have everything I ever wanted. Like you said, the more goals you complete, the more new ideas open up for you.
It’s similar to “the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know”.
You have to be satisfied with where you are, while striving to be something more. As opposed to letting your dissatisfaction with yourself or you current situation be the fuel that powers you personal growth.