This is Day 2 of the 21-Day Journaling Challenge held in Nov 2011. The challenge is now over but you can do the tasks in your own time. Visit the overview page for all the challenge tasks.
Hi everyone – Welcome to Day 2 of 21DJC! :)
Yesterday’s question was an age-old question – “What would you do if you have one million dollars?” Many of you had interesting responses. Some of you wanted to buy a nice, large house. Some of you wanted to use it to invest and grow more money. Some of you wanted to renovate your current home. Some of you wanted to start up a charity / NGO / organization that supports a humanitarian cause of your choice. Some of you wanted to travel around the world. Some of you wanted to give a portion to your family and friends, to enable them in their goals.
Whatever it is that you wrote, know that they represent inner wishes that you’ve been wanting to fulfill, but have yet to do so. Yesterday’s question was actually to draw out these innermost desires and bring them to your awareness.
And the interesting thing is, you don’t have to till you have $1 million before you can fulfill these desires.
What do I mean?
Goals represent your inner desires. One way to satisfy these desires is to achieve the actual goals themselves. However, you can only do that when you have $1 million in your arsenal (since it takes time to manifest). By having a goal that has to be deferred (i.e. you can’t work on your $1 million goals yet because you haven’t achieved $1 million), it’ll only disempower you and prevent you from living in the now.
The more empowering way is to (a) distill to those very desires and (b) find ways to realize them this very moment.
Look at what you wrote for yesterday’s $1 million question. Ask yourself – (a) What desires do these goals represent? (b) How can I realize these desires, right away today?
For example, say one of your $1 million goals is to travel around the world. In reality, you may not be able to travel to any country that you want now because of financial reasons.
However, remember that this isn’t the point. If you look at the desire this goal represents, it possibly reflects a desire to break free and take a breather, due to a prolonged period of not resting. The answer to realizing that then, would be to start taking breaks, even short vacations or just having the weekend off (see Habit #2 of 8 Habits of Highly Effective People). It may reflect a desire to be exposed to new cultures and grow from the multitude of experiences, of which you can already start doing now by getting out there to meet people of other backgrounds.
Another example – Say one of your goals is to allocate $X to your parents, as gratitude for bringing you up. You can already realize that now by sharing $Y every month, where $Y is a smaller amount than $X, adjusted to reflect how much you can spare for this purpose. You can be more generous towards them in your daily life. You can treat them to lunch/dinner/vacations, more so than you’re already doing now. Or if money isn’t a commodity at your disposal, you can do other things like prepare meals for them, write a card, spend more time to them, as acts of gratitude.
And so on and so forth the other $1 million goals.
There’s no need to put life on hold till [X event] happens. That’ll be to put off living. Think about how you can make your desires happen now. This is what it means to live in the now.
3 Important Things To Note Before Continuing
#1. Sign Up First Before You Proceed
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#2. Post Your Entries in the Right Thread
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Let’s now move on to the question for Day 2 of 21DJC! ;)
21DJC Day 2
Day’s 2 question is one of my personal favorites:
If You Are To Do Something For Free For the Rest of Your Life, What Would It Be?
Would you sleep and do nothing? Would you pursue a certain passion? What would that passion be? Would you be pursuing a particular craft? What would that be? Would you be traveling around the world? Would you be blogging? What about? Would you want to pursue a humanitarian cause? What would it be? Would you be writing? What about?
Update: Some readers seem to have some confusion over how to interpret the question. Is the question supposed to mean what you would willingly do without receiving money for? Or is it suppose to mean what you would want to do because it does not cost anything?
My answer? The former. If I were to rephrase the question: “What would you want to do for the rest of your life if you are never paid for this work?” In other words, your life passion. Your life purpose. Hope that helps!
Your Task Today:
- Reflect and answer today’s question. There’s no word limit – whether minimum or maximum. Write as few or as many words as you want. It’s all up to what you want to express!
- Share your answer. After you are done writing, copy and paste your answer in the comments area and post it there.
- Check out other participants’ answers. Other participants will be sharing their answers too, so feel free to read and reply to their answers. This is a group course, so let’s support each other in these 21 days.
((Images: Empty book for journaling, Man with arms outstretched))
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If I had to do something for free for the rest of my life I would help others in some way. I might combine my passion for technology and help others to learn about computers or get involved in helping people in third world countries.
If I had complete freedom I would spend my life searching for that passion that would fill me with so much happiness, joy, and excitement that I would do it whether I was being paid or not. Unfortunately I have yet to find what that is, otherwise I’d easily have written down here.
It’s the not knowing that drives me crazy. “Follow your passion” seems to be the most common advice for a number of different situations and I wholeheartedly agree that following your passion is a great thing. If I knew my passion, I’d follow it in a heartbeat and be able to figure out a way to making a living out of it. How do I go about finding that passion? Or maybe I need to quit waiting to find my passion and simply be happy and live in the moment with what I have now.
There are no clear answers in life, but I wish I had the clarity and intuition to be able to find or recognize what my passion is.
I would like to just BE without having to do something else all the time. I would love to sit in rooms of people from different cultures and places and just absorb all that is happening. I would like to become part of communities and make a contribution to people’s lives. I would love to have all the time I want to sit,just enjoying the presence of everything around me. I would write and write and write as I got the urge. Books, stories, reflection essays, research articles. I’d love to sit in libraries or lectures or browse the internet and just absorb new ideas and information
This is a tough question for me. Women already commit a lot of their time doing things for free. A quick list of things I do for free and have done for free for the past 20 years:
I clean the house
I do the laundry
I cook
I am the family chauffeur
I am the postmaster
I am the dog walker
I am the vegetable garden
I am the beekeeper
I am the holiday organizer
I am the family baker
I do some of these things for others, and some for myself, I couldn’t live in a dirty house, so I would do that job even if I were alone.
However, I think you mean, what would I do for free for the rest of the my that I would enjoy dong for the rest of my life. My answer would be writing.
I already blog and do research and web content for four websites and I would continue to do that, and expand on upon my writing, with poetry, short stories and more even if no one paid me. Writing fulfills a creative need. It’s more like a calling than a job or even a passionate hobby. If I didn’t have a computer, or a paper journal I’d probably write on the walls. Kate
I *have* been doing art for free essentially as a hobby. I show at art galleries and do some free art projects. I can’t imagine not doing art though the craft might vary in medium and format.
I would pursue school even more than I have been. I love to learn.
Can we ever find what we would like to do?
There is a never ending list of things that we would like to do. Also we have a need to keep searching for what we should be doing. Sometimes searching is just what we want to be doing and hate to settle down on any one thing.
What would give us aesthetic or intellectual pleasure (or even a sense of achievement)?
We learn late what is worthy of achievement and find beauty accidentally. We need to do something sufficiently complex or all-encompassing to eventually feel fulfilled.
A lifetime pursuit?
Learning is something that will be the pursuit of a lifetime. This is also what many others here have suggested. Have you seen the film ‘Groundhog day’? – that was a good approach to learning.
I would simply be involved with young children, whether it be as a volunteer teacher or child advocate.
Young children have such an innocent view of the world that I find their frankness so refreshing and heart warming.
roand you have such great inspiration to help children or be advocate: that is a thing I cannot do so you are so gifted now with that one wish. Great post about doing it for free! ~~~Jackie
Children are our greatest resource. Investing in their development is crucial to world peace.
First, I would do photography, especially for those who cannot afford professional services or products. Not only would I be giving the gift of memories, but also would be increasing my skills and enjoying every click of my camera!
The other thing I would do is to obtain medications for patients, especially low income seniors, who cannot afford them. My experience in healthcare administration familiarized me with resources that provide free prescription drugs to qualifying patients. The problem is that medical offices do not have the time to do the required paperwork and in most cases, the general population is not capable of doing it. It is extremely gratifying to facilitate the receipt of medication at no cost that was previously cost prohibitive.
1. Giving the gift of memories is such an admirable trait in you~
2. I hear ya on the medications for patients, and low income seniors in the USA it’s really getting bad. I wish I could help them too.
3. Improving the healthcare industry is a must, great goals…or wishes,~~~Jackie
If You Are To Do Something For Free For the Rest of Your Life, What Would It Be?
1. I would sleep and read as many books as I could.
2. I would find a way to make a living reading and doing book reviews.
3. I would offer a free web site to everyone who does not have one and help them.
4. I would write, blog and teach others how to do it.
Wow Jackie, reading could be the best of anything one could even think about. Reading helps us grow in different ways….It helps in concentration, it builds vocabulary….even reading can improve writing and speaking ability.
Helping others by offering free website is also a great idea. :)
Hope your dreams comes true one day. Wish you the best. :)
I would read books , I would learn about our universe and laws that it consits of. I would play video games and have fun with the people I love. I would travel but in moderation .I would play piano . I would take pictures digital or film and develop them myself .
Go ahead start learning and reading books now.
Learn about quatum physics.
Learn about LOA the Law of attraction.
Video games will release your brain from stress
Travel if you can now.
Play the piano or learn it online.
I am not a photo girl but I know others who make a living doing just that, go for it, iLianaki94!!!
~~~Jackie
After reading some of your comments I feel so happy, sorrounded by wonderful people who would like to spend their lives helping others, getting to know other cultures, studying, etc. I love this blog, I´ve never been around so many open-minded and incredibly nice people!! Thanks!!
If I could do something for free for the rest of my live, I would do just what I´m trying to do now.
– Learning about something new everyday, studying, studying and more studying, I just love it.
– Traveling, getting to know other cultures and their views on society and life.
– Working on my dream-job, being a criminal profiler, investigating crimes and the motive that drives criminals to kill people. I would love to work in the BAU (Behavioral Analisys Unit), I would even pay to do that!
– I would dedicate time to help others, being there for people who need it.
I would do almost anything for free, I can´t think of anything I wouldn´t do if I had the opportunity.
1. Learning something new each day is one of my goals too!
2. I don’t travel but admire that you would do that.
3. Working on your dream job, I would love to be a criminal profiler, investigate cremes etc…How would I do that?
It’s crazy I was looking into online colleges last night about that…and what it all takes, with loans and grants and filing out a FASA to get the money to do it now… Now you really have me thinking if I am suppose to do this…thanks ~~~Jackie
Hi Jackie!
I see what you mean. Criminal profiling is such a hard job, trying to think like a criminal does, and all the horrible things you see in this job.
If it is your dream and you are willing to do anything for it, then go ahead. No matter how hard you have to work, how many loans you have to get, it will all be worth it in the end.
There is a quote I really like “The journey is what brings us happiness, not the destination”. Believe me, I´m studying two careers, psychology and criminology and I also have a job. It takes a lot of passion and hard work, but the nights without much sleep are totally worth it, I´m loving every second of it!! If you have passion about this job, nothing will stop you, if you don´t, maybe it´s time to look for something else.
I wish you the best of luck!
If it was free, no cares about subsidising an existence in this modern world driven by money and material posessions. I would do three things:
1. I would create ART – the most insanely beautiful things that I could possibly imagine – paintings, prints, photography, sculpture
2. I would live at the Oceans Edge – reading books, long walks, beautiful sunsets and sharing with the love of my life
3. I would give of my time to the children of Africa not just South Africa where I live but across the continent
This quesstion reminds me of something that I heard recently: Give your LIFE (Labour, Influence, Finances and Expertise) to help others – to often we think of giving as being defined by just material wealth being donated….
This quesstion reminds me of something that I heard recently: Give your LIFE (Labour, Influence, Finances and Expertise) to help others – to often we think of giving as being defined by just material wealth being donated
This reminds me of giving to receive as it is a better blessing.
It also reminds me of how you can pay it forward to bless others.
Wow, great ideas of inspiration… David Bravo~~~Jackie
Love the quote:
Give your LIFE (Labour, Influence, Finances and Expertise) to help others
I think If I was to work or offer something for free for the rest of my life, I would cook/ make breakfast in a hostel/Chalet or small hotel. This way I’d get to meet new people and I’d enjoy making food for them and as this duty would just be in the morning I would have the rest of the day to do anything else I choose.
If I have to do something for free for the rest of my life then I will definitely wish to educate the poor children of my country who can’t afford to go to school due to poverty. I will teach them for free thorughout my life.
Also I would like to make the lives of our senior citizens secure. As now a days attacks on senior citizen who lives alone increased a lot. I will make arrangements to start an NGO for the help of the old. The NGO will not only guide the Senior Citizens on how to live carefully and securly but also make it sure that no Senior Citizen would be illtreated by anyone in the society.
So, education to poor and a helping hand to old will be what I would like to do for free throughout my life. :)
What a great way to spend your time, Kamal…educating others and helping the poor. You have so many wonderful inspirational ideas you could turn into a career now. Good luck, Jackie
Thanks for your great words dear Jackie. :)
I’ll for sure remain on the first thought that crossed my mind when reading the explanations following this 2nd day question : I would dance. I would love to feel and transform in gestures my emotions. Dancing makes me free, it gives me strength and energy for climbing up mountains . For me its like another language, another way to express myself. Human beings are made to communicate, to convey their feelings one way or another and if I had to freely express myself it would be thanks to this marvelous means: by putting my body into motions through dance.
Hmmmm I love this question because to me it’s simply an add on to the first “million dollar” question. For me the first question “what would you do with a million dollars?” was implying that money had become no object and after we did or bought everything that we wanted then what next? For me it would be the same answer, I would help others to sing, dance, laugh and play for as long as I could In the form of creating Music, creating a dance, creating adventures and creating a laugh. Whether it be onstage, in a studio, or out in the wilderness I want to enhance other peoples experience through my own experiences. If I had to narrow it down to one activity I guess I would be a Musician/artist. I could definitely see performing for free for the rest of my life. Because for me that’s the whole purpose of existing is to create:)
“Music is my drug, singing and dancing is my expression, fun and laughter is my medicine, and love is my reminder that it can’t get any better:)”
I’m not completely sure how to answer this one. If I were to do something for free for the rest of my life it would have to involve continued learning, I want to be forever challenged intellectually. Something that will broaden my horizons. If it were possible, I would travel the world to the next major natural/man-made disaster and either be or help the first responders in whatever I could best help. Whether I’d be there to listen to people’s stories as they decompress or there to physically move debris or treat sick/injured people–I would do that. I’m not sure that this would fulfill me completely–it would be a good start though.
Whatever I know I would like to teach. and I’ll learn other things and again I’ll teach.
My greatest goal in life is to learn as much as possible, and I enjoy going to school and gaining new knowledge and skills because it makes me a wiser and open-minded individual. I believe with all my heart that education is the key to solving many of the global crisis that we have today, such as; poverty, national conflict, famines, hate crimes, apathy, and excessive population growth. Individuals who have attended post-secondary are more likely to have control over their emotions and impulsive behaviours, are less likely to be judgemental and show prejudice to anyone belonging to another culture or belief, and are more likely to escape poverty and starvation due to a boost in their socio-economic status. So if I was able to do something for free for the rest of my life it would be learning, accompanied by travelling so that I could get hands-on and visual learning to enhance and contribute to my knowledge. Wherever I travelled, I would advocate and promote education in the hopes of bettering the world.
This is an interesting question for me because after my wedding I was a housewife for a few months. With hubby paying all the bills, I had lots of free time and energy- in effect, I was free to do all that my heart desired! :D The first two months were fabulous- relax, read books, travel every weekend, go for long walks- in short enjoy! (and to some people, waste time!) Then the novelty wore off and I realized that in the grand scheme of things I was doing nothing! I wanted to do something constructive and MEANINGFUL… Like retirees I realized that time can hang heavy unless you have a plan and purpose- only that will give true satisfaction of time well spent.
So I decided to do stuff that I had never been able to pursue before- like cooking, baking (the way to a man’s heart is definitely through his stomach! ;-) ) , learning German, tennis (had to give up because I am terrible at it! ), yoga, my native Tamil culture (I was brought up in several cities, so never had a chance to know it fully) and upgrading my programming skills.
Now I know that if I had unlimited money I would want to use my engineering skills to humanitarian causes- create alternate sources of fuel and make villages self-sufficient. As to Celeste’s questions about goals, desire and actions- I am pursuing my masters in electrical engg to learn about the same and further this cause.
I would definitely never stop learning new skills and try out (almost) everything I can. Plus, I would travel a lot and see many different places. The skills I’m more confident in and have an extended amount of knowledge in I would share with others and teach them.
I don’t know… for free, and not get paid for it?
Hmmm…. that’s hard. That would mean I’d be earning my keep elsewhere to feed me while I’m doing this thing for free.
Well, I’d counsel, or coach. I hate to see people in a fix. And if I can help somewhat, it’d be an honor.
And I’d draw. I mean, if nobody paid me, I still draw. And I’d write. As a contribution to certain magazines that are non-profit, but which promotes health, eco-friendliness, spirituality
I don’t know what I would do. I love to read, I love to travel, I love trying new foods, I love to hang out with friends. I love fashion and all things esthetically beautiful. I love reading about personal development, success stories. Also, I love when people are good and do good deeds, but I am still at a loss as to what I REALLY want to do that could incorporate all things I love most. All I know is that I don’t want a 9-5 job. I want to be my own boss and set my own schedule. I would love to write a blog or a book but have no idea what to write about…I’m at a loss!!
I think for me the answer to this question is the same as what I have posed to myself quite often, along the lines of “Which items of your someday list are you finally going to begin”.
I certainly agree with many of the posts to date regarding travel and learning. I feel I currently learn new things day to day and will further my travel experiences as well. However the two things I would really love to pursue, are to write a novel, and begin roasting my own coffee beans.
Two things that I have been “going” to do for quite some time now, with the novel being planned for the last 20 years or so. It seems funny that these two things which really only require time rather then money, have never gotten off the ground. Let the first paragraph begin !!
Yaaaa! I like how you kept it simple and were inspired to live in the now and start writing at this moment. That’s how we make things happen! I hope you were successful with that paragraph and I wish you luck in keeping that inspiration going:) If it was easy it wouldn’t be called “inspiration!”:)
What a nice smell than roasted coffee beans… nice idea
If I were to do something for free for the rest of my life I would spent it with my friends and my family. Just today I realized the person I am when I am with my closest classmate, as well as my friend, is the real me. I can be myself around her and this makes me happy so I would gladly spend the rest of my life with friendships such as this. Currently I only have 2 close friendships like this and I treasure them as my life.
I would also write my novels, blog about varied topics, travel the world, party, dance, eat and cook. This question is a bit of a blur to me since I am still unaware of my clear life purpose but I can feel an immense passion towards something, just not sure of what yet.
I would also give advice to others, teach and be the leader of some social group.
If I were do something for free for the rest of my life, it would be a handful of things. I would continue reading voraciously to nourish and improve my writing skills. I would write and share my life experiences along with my passions. I would travel and share my adventures through my writing. I would sing Barbershop Harmony with my quartet and chorus at every opportunity bringing joy to both my audience and myself. I would continue to conjure up exquisite recipes to amaze and delight connoisseurs of fine cuisine. I would love, encourage and care for as many children as possible.
If I were to do something for free for the rest of my life I will start with teaching. I believe that educating someone is the best you can do for anyone as it will help him to grow mentally, socially and financially. I will also get involved in motivating peoples as world is full of people who are devastated mentally.
I will also try to imbibe rules like helping someone daily or doing something which make someone smile. I presume doing above thing will bring lot of satisfaction and of course happiness to me which is something more important than money so the question of doing something for free does not arise.
I will also take some acting classes to become comedian as it will help me to make whole world laugh. Hopefully i am able to do all the above stuff mentioned above.
Really thankful to personal excellence for making me think about above stuff.
Thanking you
Krishnakant
You’ve already done it;)
If I could do anything for free I would travel around country to different schools to spread awareness about abusive relationship. Once I was able to start talking about what I went through I wanted to tell more people about it so they could learn from my mistakes. I wouldn’t have to charge anyone to pay for my transportation or housing. I could just travel around and share the warning signs to teens and college students without worrying about the cost. I could focus on helping.
If I could do something for free for the rest of my life then I would, without a single doubt, follow my passion for learning new things!
I wish I could participate for free in all the activities that I wanted and could possibly get my hands on! For example take classes for a lot of languages like chinese, italian, etc… taking a 1 month course in how to be a butler (XD only I would like something like that), learn kendo, acupuncture, violin, piano (most of the instruments out there), yoga, qigong and many more that I don’t do because of the money (and time) they would require of me… But in reality this is one of my dreams =) If I ever had a lot of money it would be the greatest happiness in my life to try a little bit of everything =^.^=
In my 18 years of life I’ve already had classes of violin, piano, Vocal Technic, ballet, karate, judo, skiing, english, french, japanese, horse riding, Swimming, Dancing, Painting/Drawing, Photography and I know there are more but I can’t remember everything right now…
I know I would never become a master at any of them but for me just trying them out is what really brings me joy! It’s something I would definitely want to do for the rest of my life =D
I guess I’m a typical Jack of all trades master of none >.<
What I would do for free:
I’m a full-time librarian and part-time Computer Literacy lecturer. I really love my job, regardless of the inappropriately small pay cheque. ;-).
I would TEACH for free. I do it regularly, sometimes even at the risk of being annoying. I am a teacher to the bone.
That means I’ve to keep learning for free as well. It is a package deal: in order to be an effective teacher, you need to be a lifelong learner. Learning, for example, by reflection, how to be better at teaching is just as important.
I’m an addict.
The glitter of recognition in the eyes of a learner when new concepts are grasped, is my drug of choice. Being able to light small candles of understanding, lights up my life. The thrill of a newly acquired skill or a dazzling fact needs to be shared, or it is meaningless to society.
In order to keep up, or trying to keep up with the explosion of knowledge, I can see myself in a library, at a internet computer and travelling all the days of my life.
I really have to think about this question because after 30 years in the computer system field, I retired a few years ago and now spend my time doing almost anything I want. I spend a lot of time getting my body in it’s best possible shape (now that I’m retired, I want to live a long time to enjoy life)! This includes running, zumba, yoga, weight training and sports. Since retiring, i’ve learned how to scull, kayak, paddle-board and run races. I also make a lot of time for friends and volunteering. I volunteer with an organization as a mentor to mothers at risk, teach chair dance to seniors, run a “Dining for Women” chapter, volunteer as an usher, help organize a women’s walking group and perform many other volunteer activities where they need help and are seem interesting to me. I’m also dedicated to helping my husband and children succeed in life and I do whatever I can to help them.
I don’t do much travel since I still have one child in high school but would like to do more of that. One part of my old job was to travel around the world teaching classes in computer systems. It would be fun to travel around the world teaching something universally useful….like enjoying physical activity. I’m sad to see many women my age so out of shape. If they only knew how much better life would be if they would take the time to work on their bodies….they could do anything.
Something has been calling me to start a non-profit and as I continue to try new ways of volunteering, I hope to find the best way I can give back.
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