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
Here’s a quick shout out – We now have over 570 official participants!! *whistles and claps* :clap: That’s over 140 new participants registered in the past 24 hours!! To all new participants – Welcome on board!! :D
For those who have not signed up yet, it’s not too late – you *can* still sign up now. Simply hop over to the announcement post, complete the 3 steps to sign-up, and you’ll be added to the list in 24 hours:
Please make sure you’re signed up before you proceed. The comments area for each day’s post is designated only for those who have signed up for the challenge.
#2. Post Your Entries in the Right Thread
Some of you have been erroneously posting your journal entries in the wrong thread. For example, posting your replies to the questions for Day 1 and Day 2 in the announcement post, and so on.
Note that the announcement post is only for sign up registration, while Day 1’s post is for posting your Day 1’s journal entries; Day 2’s post is for Day 2’s journal entries, and so on. I’ll be deleting the entries that are posted in the wrong thread from now on, as it makes it confusing for other readers. Please kindly cooperate and follow the instructions for the benefit of the community – thank you!
#3. Get Your Gravatar
You may have noticed some participants have a nice profile picture displayed with their comments. Most of you have the default PE logo (maroon red with white text), because you have not created your gravatar account.
To set your custom profile picture, visit Gravatar, register your account (Important: Make sure it’s the same email as the one you use in your blog comments) and upload your profile picture. Your picture will automatically be reflected in all your blog comments where you had filled out the same email address as the one in your Gravatar account. This is a great way to spruce up the comments section and individualize yourself! :D
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 you could remove the cost from anything I love?!??! Wow… that’s tough! My first thought was – WORKOUT – I envy the folks in the fitness industry whose JOB it is to workout every day, all day! But really? If I could wave a magic wand and remove the fees from ANYTHING? I think (it just sounds TOO decadent!) it would have to be FIRST CLASS TRAVEL! IMAGINE being able to call ANY airline, and reserving your First Class seat to ANY destination at a moment’s notice??! Walking into any hotel, and checking-into your luxury suite. Deciding where you want to eat dinner each night based on what you are in the mood for, not what is within your budget. Top-of-the-line cruises, eco-adventures, safaris, you name it! I have traveled – DON’T get me wrong. I’m grateful and appreciative for my travels in the past. But WHAT a gift to be able to move-up from hostels and 1/2-star hotels, and indulge any whim! I wonder… I wonder if it would lose its fascination? Do I enjoy my trips all that much more now, that I have to limit my destinations each year to two or three? That I have to save-up? You would THINK that I would cherish each trip MORE thanks to all the scrimping and saving… but I think the budgeting adds stress – returning home, and eating Top Ramen because you splurged on that zip line tour or concert. I don’t like to hear the word “no,” so when I’m on vacation, I don’t want to have to pass on the wine tour, or eat at Denny’s to “cut costs.” I want to SPLURGE! SO yes – there’s my answer – TRAVEL! Off to fantasize about rolling out of bed, and into the deep blue Indian Sea from my floating suite in the Maldives…
If i had a piano, I would make it my companion for life~ Nothing beats the melody that comes out from it and piano is the best musical instrument I have ever come across. I’ve never got exhausted from playing the keys…
Something that I would do for life, taking care of my parents, even if just accompanying them.. Just as parents would hope their children will stay with them till old age, I would hope to be with my parents and my life partner for the rest of my life. Partly because I was away from the a large part of my life and now I miss home.
Setting up a charitable organisation of some sort…… if onlys…
Personally, (after all it is a journal) I love sitting down with people and having those deep and meaningful conversations. I do not think having an opportunity to share/bear your soul with another person and having them do the same ever gets old. However, while it does not get old it also does not happen often enough!
That’s very sweet Peter Curts! I wish I could give you a hug but the hug smiley doesn’t work on the compu I’m currently on. Thank you for sharing. :)
I would write. Journals: a nature/bird journal; a personal journal; a tarot journal. I would write poems. I would walk every day and bird watch. I would help out in a charity shop. I would study tarot more. I would read a lot and go to the library more often. I would keep on loving my husband, my daughters, my son-in-law and my friends more and more and helping them as much as possible. I would listen to the radio a lot – especially radio 4. I would practise loving myself too.
I would want to try everything. The only things that have stopped me these days are lack of time and money. Everything requires some amount of dedication and often financial commitment. If neither were a concern, there’s no end to the things I’d like to try. I love learning. Back to the liberal arts curriculum!
I would choose research, spending my days in a fancy lab solving the mysteries of mankind. Oh yeah.
“Free” is the key word here :) I would ski & ice skate any chance I could. Travel as well. I would also take classes regularly so that I could learn everything I could. I would regularly like to spend my time helping others realize their dreams and potential – helping others find out who they are & what they are truly capable of.
If I were to do something for free for the rest of my life….
I would write. Which I pretty much do for free now so no change there. I would write stories and articles and I would write about places I visit and people I meet. And I would really like to spend time making a difference to the lives of children whose lives are crap.
Glad to see somebody else with the same passion as mine :) (Writing stories and artilces) G’luck to both of us!!
yesterdays challange,
I’ll keep this short and sweet,
what i’d do for free all my life is:
1. write in journal
2. learn
3. learn to love
One silly thing is, i’d do is dance!
I am enjoying the questions, replies. This is so much better than facebook!
If I could do something for free for the rest of my life, I would pursue my passions. I am interested in so many things, I wouldn’t know which passion to focus on…
If I had to choose one dream to pursue, it would be to sing. I would practice in my room for hours (or until my voice becomes sore) if I had the time. In reality, I have to put aside some time for homework, studying, pursuing other hobbies, doing vital everyday tasks, etc. Even if I did have a lot of free time, I’m not sure that I would use all that time to practice singing.
I love almost all forms of art, whether it be drama, literature, or visual arts (which I only recently discovered I had a passion for). I also do a variety of non-competitive sports such as hiking, cycling, swimming, and water sports (Yay!). If I was in complete control of how I can spend my time for the rest of my life, my life would be filled with doing such activities.
Of course, some of these activities will cost a bit of money, but that’s not significant for me.
Singing, art, and too many passions to choose from… I know exactly how you feel! Glad to know I’m not the only one with too many interests. :)
If I am to do something for free for the rest of my life, I would probably be pursuing my passions which are reading history, travelling and journaling. I love learning new things daily to broaden my perspectives.
I honestly don’t get the question. It’s open to way too much interpretation to me.
1) If I were to do something for free for the rest of my life, “for free” as in not get paid to do something (but as a hobby, sort of), I’d be playing/performing music – especially for people who wouldn’t otherwise have the possibility or means to hear live (or possibly even recorded) music.
2) If I were to be able to do something for free for the rest of my life, “for free” as in not having to pay for it, I would have my personal chef to buy groceries and prepare meals for me and my family, according to my instructions.
3) If I could pursue a specific dream of mine, not having to worry about money (that’s another interpretation I’ve seen people make) I would probably do more volunteer work or maybe travel around the world with my loved ones.
emmm something for free it would be travelling evreywhere with my best friends and having a lot of adventures meeting new people doing evreything I want to do. I want to try almost evreything.
And also I would to love to help somebody evrey day for the rest of my life with any kind of help that will make me feel good
I can relate. I also have so many things I wish to do I can’t decide. Personally I’m just exploring new things at the moment till I fill it’s sufficient to clearly choose my passion! ;)
Travel the world. Every corner.
21DJC#2: If You Are To Do Something For The Rest of Your Life, What It Would Be?
BLOGGING!
I’m already doing it for free and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.
While pursuing blogging I’ll be writing, motivating people and developing my own consciousness… all of which I’m passionate about. (in addition to music. Perhaps I should become a singer or composer instead :p)
Also, I have an admiration for programming. I like to play with HTML, JavaScript and CSS…
If I am to make money from blogging that’s nice. But that’s not the goal of my writing.
I want to motivate people, to encourage them to take action. It’s a goal we all share here at the PE.
For me, blogging is not just a hobby, it’s a passion. It makes me connect with thousands if not millions of like-minded people I wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise.
If I were to choose something to do for the rest of my life, it’d be blogging. No fears, no regrets.
I would love to have free yoga classes, available whenever I was. I know there are videos, but they are just not the same as a class with a live teacher and real people. I work in retail and so my schedule is all over the place.For example, if I could just find a yoga class right by my house at 4:30 am for when I have to work at 6 am or for 3:30 pm when I get off work at 3, I would be one happy camper.
I would love to read all the books ever written and travel to all the places on the Earth. There is nothing that I love more than reading and traveling and learning about the history and culture of those places.
i think, it will be to fulfill my purpose on earth.
If I Was To Do Something For Free For the Rest Of My Life, What Would It Be?
I would want to do something creative. That’s pretty broad though. I have always loved drawing. I would want to improve my abilities and spend my time drawing. I have always wanted to be a comic book artist. The idea of writing my own stories, drawing them, and publishing them for others to read would be so exhilarating. I have alway wanted to do that.
I would also want to maybe learn to play an instrument.
Stand up comedy is something that has always appealed to me. Odd though considering how introverted I can be. I have always admired comedians. I think I have a good sense of humor though. I remember being very young and thinking that my very best quality is my sense of humor. I’m always so proud of myself whenever I am able to make a group of people crack up.
I guess just finding outlets to express my creativity and entertain people is what I would love to do. I think I can do that on a day to day basis by just trying to get others around me to laugh or smile.
For me, I would like to share the love of Jesus to give people hope and encouragement. For them to know the Lord personally and experience His wonderful love and grace. I would love to do this in obedience to His command to share the gospel and of course to please Him.
I would pray for everybody and will help people in need.
I’ve been already doing many things for free and such work has been so enjoyable and rewarding that I wish I could do it (if my living could stand it). While I had many different volunteer roles, the key similarity of all those roles is that I’m learning and developing myself while helping others.
I would love to help someone develop and grow. I’ve been overseeing recruitment and HR of an organization that I’m part of, and it’s amazing to see the changes people go through – from the beginning when they first joined as new members (often shy), and just few months after – they get out of their comfort zone and are not afraid of trying something new. It brings joy to me and although it’s hard to see the immediate effect, I know I am making a difference in someone’s life. And I think that’s where everything changes – whether small or big.
In that process, I learned a lot about myself and many different things. Helping others make you see things in different perspectives, make you want to learn and try new things out. Many times I had to challenge myself and that’s where all my growth came from. I’m pretty sure I would be volunteering somewhere in some capacity for the rest of my life!
1. Be a librarian. I would just be reading the whole day long in all the gaps I get from the routine duties of a librarian. Help people choose books
2. Be a counselor/coach
3. Be a dancer
4. Be a model/artiste
5. Talk, Talk Talk to people on issues/development paths, world, philosophy, cultures, generation gaps, social issues…..
6. Counsel people on careers and life; talk to them, tell story and interact with them not teach. (any age)
7. Provide an ear to people.
8. Basically read books and watch TV all the time
9. Type, Type and type anything on the word processor
10. Connect with people in informal and on social topics nothing technical about any particular craft. For ex: I may discuss how cooking is important to somebody or how it stresses somebody, or what diet plans talk about, types of foods and culture related to foods but not discuss how to cook a particular dish.
11. Keep doing some course or the other on any topic that has caught my interest. Continuously learn something like a language, next on financial planning….. basically I feel like going back to college not for college environment or earn degree/certification. Just take the different interesting courses one after another or apprentice with somebody on some topic.
I base my answer on what I already strive to do on a daily basis:
1. spend quality time with family and friends (e.g. regular contact and catch-ups, surprises, giving full attention)
2. learn and explore the world in a systemic way (e.g. reading books and articles, watch movies, study, travel)
3. contribute to the people and things around me, and help those in need (e.g. volunteering, teaching, giving)
4. find and maintain inner peace by living a life based on the values most important to me – openness, love, mindfulness, impermanence (e.g. daily meditation and reflection, appreciation, writing on what I value or wish to explore)
While I strive to achieve these goals everyday, I am not always successful. But I do think I’m getting better with age. If I were to live a long life and had time and resources to pursue anything of my choice, it would be the above four goals.
p.s. apologies for this being very vague in terms of specific actions, but it was a kind of deliberate decision. I honestly think I would be happy to do anything for free if it fit within these goals. I don’t think it would particularly matter if my job was a teacher, a sustainable engineer, a travel writer, a politician, a doctor in a third world country, an artist etc.
I would spend the rest of life travelling from country to country meeting new people, immersing myself in different cultures, trying foreign foods, taking photographs and journalizing my adventures to share with others. I would be a travel writer and I would make it duty to absorb all the information I could on different destinations. You could call me the walking guide-book because I would know all the right places and people around the world to create the trip of a lifetime.
I also would love to collect amazing art from different parts of the world and bring it back to a special boutique full of the treasure I’ve found. I’m not talking about little Eiffel Tower souvenirs here – I mean big beautiful exotic pieces of inspiring art that I feel has the energy to will draw emotion out of people and spark conversation.
It would bring me so much joy to be able to travel for the rest my life and I truly don’t see it ever getting boring – there is something new around every corner. For those of you who haven’t travelled, I want to share with you my thought on this:
If you are daring enough to explore beyond your horizons and step into the unfamiliar, you will be handed an incredible experience like no other, one that will take to on a blissful ride both internally and externally and leave you breathless, enlightened and thirsty for more. We should all make the time in our lives for a little adventure, a getaway outside our everyday normal lives. I see it as very important to our well-being.
As many others have written already, given unlimited resources, I would want to travel and learn for the rest of my life.
I believe these two activities could provide constant and changing stimulation to last a life time. And that is really the most important part. I would want to do something I love. And I would want to do something that could actually keep me interested for life. I couldn’t just write, or draw, or play video games cuz I’d eventually get bored or uninspired. There would always be somewhere new to travel and something new to learn. More than I could ever do in a single lifetime. It would keep me continually inspired.
I’m just trying to think of all the places that I would want to travel. First on the list, is Asia. Part of the reason is my Chinese descent. But I’m just so fascinated with the history, the culture, the landscape, the food, the architecture, the myths… These include China, Japan, Korea, and the various smaller countries in Southeast Asia. One dream I’ve always had was to of walking through a bamboo forest.
I also want to visit South America and Southern Africa mainly for the landscape and biological aspect; so much flora and fauna to see!! Not too sure about the climate or culture really though. Oh, and all the Meso-American countries and their ancient civilizations and ruins and histories I find completely fascinating.
I’ve never had a strong desire to travel Europe, but I’m sure that’d be a fun cultural experience.
And then there are places still in Canada and the United States that I’d want to visit.
Lastly, I’d want to go back to Australia and New Zealand. I went there….3 summers ago? And it was amaaazing! It was my first time traveling on my own. I experienced so much, and I only wish I had stayed longer. I kind of wish to end up there one day.
AAAAAAnd learning is the other thing I would want to do. There is just so much to learn. There is a never ending supply of things to learn. And that is just awesome! I want to learn about biology, ecology, zoology, animal behaviour, evolution, plants, animals, cooking, food, spices, history of China, history of Mesoamerica, Greek and Roman history, wine, beer, geology, geography, dinosaurs, art, drawing, painting, glass blowing, pottery, music, violin, guitar, DJing, electronics, game design, psychology, philosophy, composing, singing, anatomy, and that’s all I care to think of right now. And I’m tired and want to go to sleep :P
a. Work for under-privileged people in India for their betterment and mine
b. Travel places around the world enriching my knowledge
c. Buying lots of self improvement books and incorporating them into my life and impacting lives around
Good question. Hmm. If I was to do something for free for the rest of my life, it would probably be to travel and help the less fortunate, and to travel and take pictures. I would love to elarn about other cultures, discover different places, learning new things, and meeting people from different backgrounds and pretty much opening my mind to what is out there. If I could do that for free, that would be ideal. I would also love to make people feel better about themselves and be content and love whatever they have and make the most.
I would definitely travel around the world, bringing in teams of people where they would be most effective. I love being a producer for videos. I work one on one with the director to create the most efficient and positive team. When someone asks for the most random things; a grenade, high heels, a baby doll… I somehow always get it or a close equivalent for them. I love that thrill, and that sense of accomplishment when I make this happen. So ideally, I would love to take this skill and use it to help the people of the world. Take a video crew to a remote poverty-stricken village and let them tell their stories through us. This means of course, that I would get to hug lots and lot of children. :)
I suppose I like producing so much because your job is always changing. There is always a challenge to conquer and you have to work with people. Oh, and you also have to be phenomenal with networking. MMmmm love it. I can be a beast networker when I need to be. But the key is to remember the skills of the people you meet. One time I needed a truck to help move film equipment to the other side of town. You best believe I called up four different people, and would have called more if the fourth one hadn’t been available. The first three said they would have loved to do it, but scheduling got in the way. You just roll with the punches and go. If I never left my town but got to do producing (music videos, commercials, films) as my job I would be forever happy. But mix my love of people with this love of producing, and something good is bound to happen. That would be something I would do for free for the rest of my life. Taking away logistics of course…
I’d sing and dance!! Perform on stage. Yay! Although I’m no singing sensation.
Plus pursue photograph, baking and making decorating interiors.
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