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Author: Nick Gaswirth

We’re so careful.

We carefully plan our days, scheduling meetings and appointments to maximize our energy and time. We plan our evenings, scheduling outings and time at home in an attempt to balance work and play. Yet what if this careful planning is actually getting in our way? What if we’re creating a series of insulated experiences and limiting ourselves from true magic?

It seems (too often!) that moments of inspiration—those flashes of brilliance when you just get it, “Aha! I need to write this down!”—happen when we least expect them. The memories we cherish and the stories our friends eagerly clasp are often the result of something unexpected, unplanned, maybe even a “mistake.”

What if we are limiting ourselves and our own potential by limiting our exposure to the unpredictable? When we travel, we easily relinquish control and let ourselves live, experience, explore, and get lost.

What would happen if we released control in our day-to-day?

Life’s a set up.

We all know the crime scene where the good guy is framed by the bad guy. “It’s not fair,” we say. “He was framed!”

We set ourselves up every day.

Happiness, good friends, a rewarding career, an organized household — they’re the result of choices. The places we go and the people we surround ourselves with result in particular outcomes.

The choices aren’t always easy, but that’s why not everyone is successful.

Set yourself up to prosper.

Schedule vacation time

When you visit a foreign place, you are stripped of your template for daily living. Your routine is broken, and it’s up to you to make sense of it all. “Home” becomes a reference marker as you begin to assign meanings to new experiences.

Now that each day is fresh, you are free to discover new places and new things and new people. Amazing what you remember! Forgotten parts inside of you are triggered.

Creativity basks in freedom of acceptance and permission. Changing your environment provides different backdrops for ideas to form.

Maybe you can’t hop on a plane. Maybe you’ve used all of your vacation days. What new environment can you place yourself in? Get uncomfortable, create a canvas for your dreams, and allow the possibility of “what might be.” Reward yourself.

Write your own fairytale or have a really grand adventure

Happily-ever-afters. Great escapes. Exotic adventures. Fairytales. You’ve read them, you’ve dreamed of them, you listen enviously as your friends tell them. “They can’t be real,” you skeptically reason.

STOP.

This isn’t stuff reserved for children’s tales. It isn’t luck. You can live one, too.

But it won’t happen magically. You’ll have to do some work. Here are some tips to help you on your way:

1. Get honest. 

Find a place with no distractions. Create time in your schedule to be there without needing to answer emails or rush off to meetings. If you must send yourself an invite, do it.

List things you’re really good at on a piece of paper (or a cocktail napkin). This list doesn’t necessarily need to be things you like or enjoy. You’re writing down your skills and key areas of competency — things you know you can rock out in your sleep.

Use another sheet of paper to list things that bring you joy. You don’t need to “be good” at these; you just need to love doing them. If you have a really, really, really shitty day, where do you turn to lift your spirits?

 2. Dream big. 

Don’t sell yourself short with this. Ask yourself: If you could do ANYTHING, ANYWHERE, what would it be?

Quiet the voice that laughs or says, “Impossible.”

Are you a professional writer living out of your Cape Cod beach home with a golden retriever and an adoring partner?

Have fun with this. And be specific.

 3. Start small. 

Rome wasn’t built in one day; yours won’t be either. Looking at the big picture can be overwhelming. Small, tiny steps will do just fine.

Maybe it starts with a stroll through your local bookstore to see which sections excite you. Maybe it’s taking a day off work to shadow someone at a local agency or maybe you visit a museum.

Before you begin to obsess about writing business plans, finding part-time work, or quitting your job, move in manageable bursts.

 4. You will get frustrated. 

Read that again.

It will happen. You will want to give up. You’ll be pissed at yourself for trying; the obstacles will become insurmountable. You won’t feel like you’re making any progress. IT IS OK. Accept this, acknowledge your frustration, and move on.

Sometimes, functioning is fine.

Take yourself to a movie that inspires you. Regain your strength. The important thing is not to lose momentum.

 5. Orient yourself. 

As long as you’re moving, you’re golden. It’s being stuck that will raise red flags (or white). For now, it doesn’t matter the direction. Just move.

6. You need someone. 

Have one person in your corner. There will be times you don’t believe in yourself. Know someone who does, someone who is OK with seeing you at your worst.

 7. Self-care. 

Make a list of ten things that bring you comfort. They can be small — something like listening to music or lighting a candle — or big — booking a massage or buying a plane ticket. Commit to two each day.

Let me know how it goes.

Are you just as intentional offline?

Social media platforms are ideal networking resources, places to find like-minded individuals and spark creative rainstorms. Brands and customers and clients and students and businesses can deepen experiences.

  1. Customers can voice the impact products have in their lives.
  2. Contests engage audiences.
  3. Features demonstrate the breadth and reach of services.
  4. Employee knowledge can be showcased.
  5. Range of expertise is amplified.
  6. Employee investment propels company value, as people care more and are held accountable for their words.
  7. Really good community organizers act as matchmakers, connecting environments and individuals.

Our interconnectedness has made it that much easier to collaborate with other key players and start dialogue with those who might otherwise be out of reach. The opportunities are seemingly endless, accessible, immediate—yours for the taking.

But it doesn’t stop online.

Don’t forget about what’s waiting for you once the laptop closes and you power your device down.