Tell me what you want... what you really, really, want

I am one month from my 40th birthday and started to think about what I have accomplished in life and what I really want to accomplish in life.  I find myself saying, I always wanted to... and then what I say next is so simple and so easy, that the natural response is, well, why don't you just go do that?  In my facebook group, Adventures with Amina, the theme for the month of October is "Bucket List".  My dear friend, Candice Carlton was talking to me about her new project and commented, that most of the things on people's bucket list are *easy* to do... so why don't we do them?

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As a coach, the first thing I always ask my client (as soon as I have determined their love language), is what do you want?  In most cases, this leads to a conversation about everything that is not working in their life, i.e., everything they do not want.  I say to them, I see what you do not want, but what do you want?  The idea of clarity on what we want in life seems so obvious, but for so many of us, myself included, it can be mysterious and confusing.  I believe that most of us, at some point, knew exactly what we wanted, but then external forces pushed us to re-think, re-consider, or just plain, give up what we really wanted.  And, for us Type A folks, there is added pressure of am I sure I am going to want this forever? 

This month, I am encouraging all my readers to sit with the question, what do I want? And see what comes up.  This is especially meaningful today on September 11th.  I have a friend who lost a loved one on 9/11.  He said something to me that I will never forget.  He told a story about something she really wanted and she did prior to that day and said, "life is short, if you want to get something (or do something), you shouldn't wait."  Yet, so many of us are waiting.  And, it is nebulous what we are waiting for... time, more money, better health, kids to grow up, etc.  There will always be something - we all know that.  We have to make the time to live right now. 

Here is your Amina's 40th Birthday exercise:
1. Pull out your bucket list or Create your bucket list.
2.  Evaluate what you have on there and see if they still fit.  Remove anything that doesn't get you excited anymore.  It is ok to take it off... I give you permission to change your mind :)
3.  Re-create your bucket list in the following format:
 -  column 1:  #
 -  column 2:  Item you want to do
 -  column 3:  Is it easy, medium or hard to achieve
 - column 4:  does it require money (i.e., more than a "normal or within budget amount".  For example if one item is visiting your family and you normally have money for travel each year, this would be blank.  If an item is a Mediterranean cruise that you need to save up for, then put a "$" to indicate you would need to plan for extra funds).
 - column 5:  is it something you can do by yourself or do you need to enroll others to support you / go with you / etc
 - column 6:  If you had to, could you do it today (i.e., could you make a plan and begin execution today).  For example, one of my bucket list items is to go to a Notre Dame football game in South Bend. I could buy tickets, make hotel arrangements, etc for that right now, so I would put a "Y" in that column.

Once your bucket list is updated and ready to plan, join us at Adventures with Amina where the entire month of October we are going to be encouraging one another to start doing our bucket list activities.  And, since it is my birthday month, there are going to be all kinds of other fun things going on over there (you all know how I roll...)

In closing, I want to remind you all on the power of deciding what you want.  Clarity is magical by itself.  Once you know what you want, every one of your brain cells lines up to make it possible.  You have a huge force that is either managed and working for you or spinning in circles - your brain.  Once you get clear on what you want, your conscious and sub-conscious and well, super-conscious parts of your brain line up to show you opportunities that have already existed but you have not seen before.  Your entire army (I.e., your brain) will be out there finding ways to make the list a possibility and I know with my heart, we are going to have some miracles this month.  My definition of a miracle - that which is beyond your ability to believe is possible.  I invite you to join me in getting clear on what you want and allowing the miracles to unfold!