Today’s journal prompt requires patience. With me. Be patient with me. I’m going to set this up.
Few things are as infuriating as a person in a social media video telling you how to finally achieve your own happiness by reverse engineering the process.
It’s infuriating because once you’ve heard someone spell out the process, it’s so simple you can’t imagine that option having been available to you this whole time and you never did it. So better to be insulted by a simpleton and discredit them than to own up to the possibility that you’ve been suffering disappointment unnecessarily.
But we’re here to be true to ourselves. We are truth tellers. And we discover what is true by asking ourselves hard questions and by refusing to look away when the light shining on us is too bright.
Let’s dive in.
Your Journal Prompt
We’re going to break this down into simple steps. Don’t back out on me. Even if you aren’t used to writing from prompts. I think you’ll find this one is worth doing after it’s over.
Step One: Imagine the Setting
Imagine we haven’t seen each other for three years, and then we bump into each other at an event. I tell you it’s really good to see you, and I ask how your life has been over the past three years.
You tell me that it’s been the best three years of your life.
Excitedly, I ask what has happened to make this period of time so profoundly impactful.
Step Two: Write Your Response
What do you say to me in response? In order for it to have been the best three years of your life, what would have happened to you during that time?
What has happened to your health? Your children? Your marriage? Your career? Your life’s purpose?
Give yourself permission to imagine and just share what made it the best three years ever.
I’ll wait here while you go do that. Meet back here when you’re finished with that step.
[elevator music plays]
Step Three: What was the last thing you did immediately before you achieved that?
Write what comes to mind.
Step Four: What was the thing you did immediately before that step?
Write what comes to mind.
Step Five: Be patient with me.
Answer the same question again. What was the thing you did before you did that last thing?
Step Six: Yep. You guessed it. Rinse and repeat.
See how many levels backward in time you can imagine. Stay present in the imagination.
If you follow the path backwards, eventually you’ll get to where you are. Now reverse the order you have written down, and you have a path and a plan to move forward.
