Midlife Paradise: Are You Already There Without Knowing It?

The following words by Voltaire came to mind as I was recently taking a group of people through a retirement/follow your dream workshop:  Paradise is where I am.

At one point in the workshop participants rate nine various areas of their life, on a scale of 0 (totally miserable) to 10 (whoopee, it’s my ideal).  The next portion involves each person listing 15 “must haves” that would make their life ideal. Lists are then swapped with partners, who take each other through the process of coming up with their top five. From here participants are asked to define what success would look like if they were able to live the five “must haves” at a “10” level.

Most people usually have all sorts of ideas of what would make their life ideal but one individual was having difficulty. Each time she thought about what was ideal, she discovered that she, for the most part, was already living her ideal life. 
She had come into the workshop looking for “paradise” only to discover it was where she was.  She had to go through the process and see it in written form to grasp the concept. What an eye-opener!

Are you living in paradise without even knowing it?

Action Steps

1. Take 15 minutes and define what paradise might look like for you.  Really get into the feeling of it.
2. Once you’ve defined it, identify three things you can do within the next week to move you closer to your definition of paradise.

None of us lives in paradise all the time but the more clarity you have as to what it looks and feels like, the greater will be your motivation to spend more time there.