You only live once.
This phrase has been swirling around in my brain for the last year and a half. The pandemic has caused all of us to look and think about life differently. I’ve reevaluated my priorities and have given a lot of thought to how I’m living my life. Let’s just say, work wise, writing wise, it hasn’t been my best.
I tell my kids to follow your passion, to lead with your heart, but check yourself with your brain. My dream for them is to spend their days doing what they love and what they’re passionate about.
But how can I tell them to live a life doing what they love when I’m barely giving it my best effort?
I spent some time really thinking about my passion (writing and teaching creative writing of course!) and how I can use my passion to live my best life. As a result, I’m actively taking steps to make that happen. Now, I want you to think about your passions too. What does your best life look like?
Today, for our prompt, I want you to write for ten minutes, don’t stop. I want you to do a free write on how you envision your best life. What does your day to day look like? Have you turned your wood whittling passion into a career? Have you turned your love for drawing into a career as an illustrator? However you envision your best life, I want you to put it on paper.
Next, I want you to write about the steps you took to get there. Did you take a business class so you could learn to work for yourself doing what you love? Did you submit a portfolio of work to a company you’ve dreamed of working for?
Whatever comes to mind, write it all down. Make the life you want to live come alive on the page and write down the steps it took you to get there. Visualizing our lives is the first step to living them how we want. This is no guarantee that things will turn out as we plan. Sometimes the universe has different ideas, but we can control where we put our energy.
Here’s to living your best life, whatever that looks like to you!
As always, happy writing!
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash