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The other day while I was out running with my dog,  a song by the artist Jem came on my iPod.  “And so I pray,” she sang.  “I wish that all these things would go away.  To disappear if only for a day.  Know I can’t go but I don’t want to stay.”  I sighed as I thought of all the things on my calendar and growing task list that I feel like I have to get done in order to do what really matters to me.

Later that day I talked with a client who was frustrated about having to go to this meeting and that and be involved in projects and committees he didn’t see the point of.  His thought was that if he didn’t have to do these things, perhaps he could do something really significant and meaningful.  In many of my meetings with clients, someone is bemoaning having to deal with a person they find difficult to work with (or be around) who tends to throw wet blankets on their greatest ideas or roadblocks in the way of their progress.  Of course, I can relate to all of this.  I think we all can.  And yet, I have to believe that these little things that have a way of driving us crazy sometimes must serve some vital purpose in our lives.

Repeatedly, I encourage my clients (and myself) to envision that which they believe would be the ultimate for them.  For some it is becoming a C-level leader, a best-selling author, an accomplished musician, a sought-after professional.  For others, it is better leveraging their talents in a way that they can get paid to do what they do best and most enjoy.  Perhaps it is simply learning to maintain a healthy work-life balance so that their success doesn’t come at the price of their happiness.

Do you have some secret dream of becoming more than you currently are?  Of tapping into the vast field of potential that lies waiting for you to discover it?

See if you can envision what it would be like to have already achieved that dream.  Can you see through the eyes of someone who has already arrived?  Get into it.  Play with it.  Become it – if only in your mind.  Now, with that state of mind – what would you do differently in the face of all your current challenges?

Would you find ways to minimize the time you spend on trivial things so that you could pour more of yourself into what really matters?

Would you show up differently in those meetings, projects and tasks?

Would you get started on that project/venture/creation that has been quietly and persistently beckoning to you?

Would you bring more of yourself to what you are doing?

Connect more deeply with others?

Be more present?

Could you find a way to transform your conflicts into opportunities for collaboration?

Albert Einstein once said “Problems cannot be solved from the same level of thinking from which they were created.”  We can elevate our thinking to break out of patterns that keep us from getting where we most want to go.  We can see through the eyes of someone who has already fulfilled their greatest potential, and experience our current tasks and challenges as though we were reliving the memory of the days before we achieved it.  Perhaps the very things we wish we didn’t have to do today are exactly what we need to prepare ourselves for where we most want to go.

Whether I like it or not, my kids are video game fanatics.  They know that to get to level 10 of their favorite adventures, they must successfully complete levels 1 through 9.  When they are able to progress through those lower levels with the skills and mindsets of the master, they will achieve their goal.  And then they’ll be ready for newer, more difficult and increasingly exciting video games.  Perhaps the same is true for each of us in the bigger game of work and life.

What will you do today to play more fully?

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.  Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land.  There is no other land, there is no other life but this.”  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Photo Credit: papaija2008