Goal-setting exercise: What would your perfect day look like?
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Posted: Tue 11th Jun 2024
Have you ever considered what a perfect day would look and feel like? Maybe today is the day to ponder that.
We all write down our goals from time to time but how many of us write down 'why' those goals are goals?
Here's an exercise to get a bit clearer about why you're doing what you're doing – what's it all for?
The perfect day exercise
I know, you're thinking: "What's this got to do with growing a business?"
Well, most of us started a business because we were good at something or we could manage other people to be good at something or if we were really lucky, we were passionate about something.
Not many of us really understood why we were going to start a business – this exercise will help you understand that.
So, get a pad or notebook, maybe a cup of coffee and a relaxing place to sit and write out your perfect day.
Imagine you are living the life you would totally love – think BIG.
You have all the money you want, you live where you want, in the kind of house you want. You are doing the things with your family, friends etc that you love. You feel completely stable and in full control of your emotions.
You are also doing what you love as a job (or business) in this imagining. Even if you are imagining a weekend, mention somewhere what you're job (or business) is and how, as much as you're enjoying this relaxing time, you can't wait to get back to doing the work you love to do – you feel like yourself again doing this work.
Be as detailed as possible and try to include as many of the things you would love, the people you love.
Start with how you feel and what you see as you wake up, what you eat for breakfast, what you talk about as you eat and who you talk with.
Be as descriptive about the whole day right up to what you feel and think as you fall asleep in the evening.
Hour by hour. Detail by detail
It's important to connect to how you're feeling throughout this exercise and describe it.
Life feels amazing on this perfect day – your kids (if you have any) are there and are enjoying their time with you, playing, laughing and showing you how proud they are of the family they belong to.
You're not going to be sharing this with anyone so really be as open and carefree as you want – project it 10 years into the future if you want – but make it FANTASTIC.
You'll need about an hour of uninterrupted time to do the first draft.
Questions that might help you with this exercise:
What’s most important to you, what do you believe?
How do you evaluate what things mean at the moment?
What do you need right now?
What do you really want right now?
What is your biggest struggle at the moment?
What do you find the most difficult about your situation?
What are you interested in?
What brings you enjoyment?
Who do you look up to?
What are you most proud of?
Where do you see yourself in six to 12 months?
What do you hope to get from this exercise?
You can refer back to this perfect day periodically and you'll discover that you want to alter it here and there from time to time. You can also use it to monitor how you're getting on if you do it every six to 12 months and compare it with this first one.
Once you have finished this first draft and you're pretty happy with it move on to step #2.
Step #2: Important questions – being and doing
Being and doing are two questions to help you understand your future. Ask these two questions – the answers to which will help you realise what it will take to reach your brighter future and experience your perfect day.
Who do I need to be?
What do I need to do?
Each of these questions actually leads to these questions:
For Q.1 - Who do I WANT to be?
For Q.2 - What do I WANT to do?
The answers to these questions will help you hone that perfect day exercise. This leads to the final step #3.
Step #3: Commitment
We’ve already established that your perfect day describes the desired outcome you are after.
Following on from your perfect day exercise, add something on the end that will become integral to you achieving it.
Re-read your perfect day one more time – tweek it, add to it or leave it as is. Then add this at the bottom of the page:
Write
My perfect day makes me feel_________. (use as few words as possible – but capture the emotion)
Then write
I am committed to doing everything in my power to make this perfect day, my desired outcome, a reality.
Date_________________ Signed________________________________
Note: Here's the thing – there are many variations of anyone's perfect day – this is supposed to be just one of them.
Enjoy.
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