Fantasy Life

​It is time for my Happiness Project update for the Abundance Cubed Program.  I had many goals and I have achieved several of them.  I didn’t have goals set up for October through December so I have been thinking a lot about what they should be. 
 
This time of year for me is when serious burn out starts to set in.  I am tired of a long harvest season and harvesting our salad greens is starting, so loads of work on hands and knees that will continue until April.  The weather is turning colder and although the leaves are beautiful, Fall means Winter is coming, and the dreary grey skies of Michigan just bring me down.  I’ll be getting my “Happy Light” out soon so I can sit in front of it for 20 minutes to get my dose of sunshine.  Even if it is fake sunshine, it helps my mood during the winter.
 
I’ve been working with my coach Noam and he challenged me to define my fantasy job.  He suggested I write down what my fantasy job would look each day for a couple weeks, and then see if there are any trends or patterns.  He said when he does this exercise he likes to put these thoughts on Post It notes, and then put them on a wall so they can be moved around and sorted.  I spent some time doing this yesterday and found out there are lots of patterns.
 
My birthday was yesterday and I turned 55.  I thought about how I would like to spend the next 10 working years before I retire and I thought about what I wanted to do when I retire.  My fantasy journal had a huge list of what I wanted to do, so why focus on waiting until I retire to do all the things on my list?  I asked myself, why should I focus on a fantasy job, why not a fantasy career, and then took it one step further, why not a fantasy life?  And why not start living it NOW!
 
Here are some of the patterns I found looking at my Post It note wall.

• I NEED sunshine in winter.
• I want more time for my husband, my kids, my family, and my friends.
• I want to own a lake house and walk on the beach, hear the waves, watch the storms, go swimming, kayaking, etc.
• I want to see the world, have adventures, and travel, travel, travel.
• I want to have every weekend off, lots of vacation time, and truly turn off my work brain, when I am not at work.
• I want to work with amazing folks and share the responsibilities with them, so I can leave and relax and not be responsible 365 days a year.
• I want to eat amazing food and grow amazing food.
• I want to master the art of farming.  I enjoy having my hands in the dirt, but I want to help figure out benchmarking and profitability goals for small farms so we can all be successful.  I want farmers to make white collar wages and have benefits and I want to help figure out how to make that happen.
• I want to write a book and do a TED Talk.
• I want a maid.
• I want financial freedom.

 
Noam also recommended we watch a video by Seth Godin – “Quieting the Lizard Brain”, where he talks about setting up “shipping dates” to finish projects, rather than continually perfecting them, and never getting them done. 

I have decided to set up a shipping date of November 15th to start my fantasy life.  I will outline what I can accomplish first and will establish shipping dates for the other goals.  I am tired of talking, scheming, and wishing.  I am ready for doing.