Living An Outrageously Radical Life

Have you ever taken a moment to consider how your life would be different today if you had, at one point in your life, made a different choice than the one that you did?  Do you think you might be in a different place today  if you'd made that choice?  Or even be a different version of you than you are today?

Just for a moment, consider what your life would be like if you chose, now, to start this very minute, to live the most outrageously radical version of your life that you have ever dreamt up.  If you're human, you've had dreams all your life ... little fantasies, or big visualizations ... that pop into your mind and tug at your heart and say, "That could be you."  Don't deny it.  We can't stop ourselves.  It's just part of being human.

What do you suppose would happen if right now, this very minute, you chose to walk away from the life you have been living and now live one of your fantasy lives?  Seriously!  If money were no issue, if family were no issue, if obligations were no issue, what is the most outrageously radical version of these fantasies that you would choose to walk into and claim as your new life?

Really stretch yourself here.  If you have not allowed yourself the delicious luxury of exploring these fantasies before, allow yourself NOW.  Take 10 minutes and meditate or doodle into cohesive form at least one super-duper outrageously radical life for yourself.

Did you do it?  Did you really do it?  If not, I command you, for your future peace of mind, take this time now and explore your wildest dreams!  You can thank me later, but right now just thank yourself for doing this very good and important discovery ground work.

Now that you've stretched yourself to the farthest reaches of your imagination to find the most outrageously radical life you could ever imagine living, I want you to come back to the  present moment of your life as it is ... now.

Yea, sorry, I know it can be a real bubble-burster of an experience, but come back anyway.  As you come back, pause for a moment just there at the border where you can still feel the outrageously radical version and the current version both, and from this observer's stance see ... and feel ... the difference between where you were in your outrageously radical life ... and where you are in your current reality.  If you did this exercise correctly, fully, and with all your heart .... and if you are human ... then you will feel a huge gap between the fullness and completeness of the life you could be living and the one you are living.

Immediately now, everyone, please promptly forgive yourself for any perceived fallacies, affronts, or broken promises you have ever made to yourself and not kept, or the short-sightedness that you now see has kept you living your life small, or only partially.  This too is all a part of our human nature, so get over it and just pay attention to the fact that there is a gap.  A big one.

So, with this new knowledge, what are you now going to do about this gap?  Are you going to stay where you are, living the smallish version of your not-totally-fulfilling life?  Or are you going to do something to start to transform your life into a closer version of your outrageously radical and totally fulfilling life version?

Remember to be kind to yourself.  You may never be able to come close to your outrageously radical version ... it is, after all, an ideal.  But do not despair.  If you did a good job of this exercise then the outrageously radical version is really a stretch from where you are ... something for you to strive toward.  

Strive does not equal achieve.  Don't get the purpose of this whole thing confused now.  Soothe yourself by remembering that every great journey began with a single step.  What will your single step be?  For therein lies your greatness.  The JOY is in the JOurneY, my friend, and it is those who take the journey, no matter where they land on the road to their dreams, who look back on their lives and say, "Well done!  It's been good."

And one more thing ...

Allow yourself to be grateful for the smaller version of the life that you have created to this point.  It has served you well and is now at this very moment serving you by partnering with you in this exercise to show you what it is still yearning to become.  How will you now contribute to this partnership?

Just thought I'd ask.  But I've gotta get back to creating my own outrageously radical life and I'll leave you to that answer of yours.

Ciao for now!

CJ