Be sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for a PDF version and other notes.
If you’re new to Daily Prompts, you may want to start at the beginning of the series here.
Year______ Month_______Day______Consecutive Practice Days_____Missed Days______
Day 10
Gratitude: (The downloadable PDF below has lined entries)
Unless your dream is to become a hermit living a life of solitude, you’ll have people as part of your vision for the future.
As I alluded to earlier, this can be a bit unsettling if you find yourself dreaming of a future, then suddenly realize that certain people just never seem to show up in your perfect day. If that’s the case, I encourage you to move on from any guilt or shame about that. The truth is that to change your life, you have to change. And if you are changing, then your relationships must change. Your relationships, as they exist, might improve. Or, the other person involved may not be receptive to your changes.
Sometimes we get so caught up in wearing masks that we are unrecognizable, even to ourselves. Masks called; duty, expectations, responsibilities, or guilt can trap us into being a really “good” but dishonest person. I say dishonest, because if you act in ways that are counter to your talents, preferences, and authentic motivations, then you are lying. You’re lying to those who see the masks as “who you are” and you’re lying to yourself. Interestingly, many of us don’t even realize we’ve been wearing these masks until we begin to shed them. When we begin to see ourselves for who we really are, we may not find ourselves a good fit for where we’ve been- or who we’ve been with.
Families, friends, spouses, and children, what I call your “inner circle” are all subject to being affected by your authentic progress. I hope you find yourself surrounded by loving and uplifting people. But this cannot be a prerequisite for progress. Self-knowledge demands honesty at all costs.
I don’t know your situation, I just know that your life is about to change.
Today I want you to briefly reflect on your “Perfect Day” practice from a few pages back. Who were you with? How was your relationship with that person on your perfect day? What’s different from your perfect version of your relationships versus the reality of those relationships today?
The answers to these questions might vary wildly. Maybe you’re lonely. Maybe you and your spouse already have an amazing relationship. Perhaps you have a friendship that you have come to realize has run its course. Maybe you forgot to include other people in your perfect day altogether! (There’s nothing wrong with the desire for solitude.)
The important thing to remember in this exercise is that we’re beginning to create a vision for the life you want. This is not an opportunity to spend your morning writing about all the things that are wrong or that you’d like to see changed. Instead, focus on the things you do want. Envision the relationships that you desire.
What does a great relationship feel like to you? What activities and exchanges would you look forward to? How does the other person treat you?
Write about these amazing relationships in as much detail as your time and energy allow.
Vision: (The downloadable PDF below has lined entries)
Daily: (The pdf version below contains three lined pages for your daily journal)
NOTE:
The above is an excerpt from the upcoming The Lyceum Course Journal. We will be releasing it here for free as a Daily Prompt blog post. If you would like a physical copy, we will link to it here once it is released.
Suggested Use:
I realize a daily journal prompt on a blog is a little weird. This is how I would suggest using it: Open your favorite note-taking software such as Evernote, copy and paste this post into it, and write your daily entries there.
OR
Download a PDF version of this post here. Feel free to print it out, or access it through a PDF editor where you can type in your daily entry.
Collaborate With Me!
This post series is a first draft of the future book. If you have suggestions, comments, or see errors, please reach out so that I can make the final product more valuable for you and the rest of the community. Your feedback is greatly appreciated!
