INSPIRING LIFE SCHOOL PODCAST
EPISODE 27
THE PERFECT DAY
INSPIRING LIFE SCHOOL PODCAST
EPISODE 27
TRANSCRIPT: THE PERFECT DAY
WELCOME TO THIS EPISODE WHICH IS ALL ABOUT WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE IMPATIENT AND WANT THINGS RIGHT NOW
Welcome to this episode which is all about THE PERFECT DAY.
Now I should say before we begin that this was an idea that I thought would be fun to explore on this podcast.
Many of us go through the motions of each day without really setting the intention to make this day more special than any others.
And so I wondered what would it be like if we did? If we woke up and lived that day as if it was magical and perfect and exactly the way it was meant to be.
So bear with me as I give you an alternative way at how you could spend your days, even when it is tough, even when it is challenging.
Even though I like to say that there is no such thing as perfect, that everything is perfect imperfect, I’ll be painting a picture where the day feels nonetheless perfect and right no matter what takes place during the day simply because it is.
So imagine this…you wake up in the morning and even before you get up you start to count the blessings you have in your life.
Most of us seriously don’t realise how lucky we are.
This is something we can all do in just a few minutes and I really think it’s one of those little activities that actually mean a lot.
So in this perfect day scenario we start the day by thinking about at least 10 things we can give thanks to.
And we do this exercise, even if it’s a crazy busy day ahead, even if it’s the weekend, even if we feel sick, even if another family member is sick, we do it because showing gratitude and acknowledging all the good in our life makes us feel full of love and abundance.
Maybe you are grateful for the warm bed you were lucky enough to sleep in.
Maybe it’s the fact you have electricity and were able to charge your phone or set an alarm to wake you up.
Maybe it’s your eyes that can see, your ears that can hear, your lungs that can breathe, your heart that can beat, your legs that can walk, your hands that can write, your family or friends who make your life feel worthwhile, even when they drive you crazy.
We can all find something little or big to feel grateful for.
I say 10 things and not 2 or 5 because I want to challenge you to think, think, think about your blessings and if you can’t see them at first I want you to dig deep until you find them.
So in this perfect day scenario I’m living in Sydney Australia which is exactly where I am right now and here the sun rises at 5:46am and the sun sets at 7:32pm today.
If these things take place a lot earlier or later than in Sydney please feel free to adjust but for me, in this hypothetical scenario I am lucky enough to wake up in time for the sunrise.
You do remember that this takes place every morning without fail, right?
Whether you are there to witness it or not, it happens and has actually happened every single day of your life so far and yet most of us can count on our fingers how many times we have given it our full attention.
So on this perfect day – which really could be any day for you, maybe even tomorrow, we take a peek outside our window or maybe we even step outside and just take a moment to appreciate the beauty of a sunrise.
It’s pretty gorgeous right?
Most of the time we sleep through it or are distracted by other things so we sort of miss how magical the sky looks when it’s splashed with pink and orange hues and the globe is slowly ascending to take its place in the sky.
But on this day we notice it, we pay attention and give it our respect..
And as we move through the motions of this imaginary perfect day, no matter how busy or slow it is, we pay attention to all the finer details surrounding us in the same way we paid attention to that sunrise.
Every little thing we do – we choose to see it as a wonder.
We take a shower and think “wow how lucky I am to have this warm water washing over me.”
We brush our teeth and think “Yep that is so cool that I’m lucky enough to be able to take care of our teeth in this way.”
And I’m so lucky to have all these other amazing things in my home like running water, a flushing toilet, a fridge to stop my food from spoiling, a vacuum to clean up any mess with minimal fuss, clothes to wear, a washing machine to keep those clothes clean, washing liquid to clean the dishes, a phone to call my loved ones and stay connected to other people in this world.
And so on and so on and so on we go, before we even leave the house, we appreciate however little or much we are blessed to have.
If you have a family or partner, this perfect day would involve you stopping to actually appreciate the people you have in your life.
So many of us take everything, especially our families for granted and we only miss them or realise their worth once they are gone.
But on the day, we are smart and wiser and realise we don’t need or want to lose something to appreciate its worth.
We already know the hole it would leave in our heart if it was gone.
So when we speak to our loved ones, we look them in the eyes.
We don’t vaguely talk to them while getting distracted by our phone.
We listen and we hear what they have to say.
Even if they are behaving in a less than ideal manner, we stop and say “I love you” anyway.
We show them compassion, we shower them with love, because even when they are behaving in a way that we think is annoying or frustrating, they are our annoying and frustrating special people and we wouldn’t change that fact for anything.
We love them just the way they are and accept their flaws and weaknesses because that is what unconditional love is all about.
And as we proceed through our day we think the same thing about our work, whether we are a business owner, or stay at home mom, or office worker or student.
We think “I am exactly where I need to be today because it is giving me the skills and strengths I need for my future.”
We feel like our contribution has value.
We feel like it has a purpose, even if we don’t always like it, even if we have outgrown it, even if it has stressful moments, or we feel undervalued.
We don’t need other people to value us, though of course it’s always nice when they do, because we love and value ourselves.
When we work, we act as if it matters because we matter.
The way we interact with others leaves a lasting impression because we do things in a cheerful manner.
We don’t see the purpose of complaining, we would prefer to take action and make changes if any changes need to be made.
We are solution seekers and problem solvers and even if challenges come our way we face them with courage and we do the brave thing.
We let go of grudges, we let go of the past, we let go of petty complaints, we let go of all the BS stuff that makes us feel crap and weighs us down and we choose instead to open our eyes and be awake and grateful in this world.
And when it comes to food and fuelling our bodies, we consciously choose things that nourish us that make us feel good.
We drink lots of water.
We don’t eat crap just because it is sitting there in front of us.
We value our bodies enough to give it the nutrients it needs.
We respect our body because it deserves our respect.
We don’t overstuff ourselves with unnecessary calories – instead we listen to our bodies and give it the fuel it needs.
Now let’s just imagine that things don’t go according to plan on this perfect day as things are apt to happen.
Challenges and hard stuff come up but we realise that it’s okay.
Sometimes we can’t plan for the unexpected but the circumstances are also neutral and it’s what we THINK about situations that determines the way we feel about them.
So because our thoughts are the primary factor that influences the feelings we feel, the actions we take and the results we get, during even our not so perfect days we use this information to our advantage.
We decide to take a deep breath and tell ourselves EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY.
We have got it, we are strong and capable and can handle everything that comes our way, even when it is hard, even when it makes us feel like we are drowning but we now know that those feelings come from our thoughts so we shift the way we view our circumstances.
We decide everything that happens in our life is there to serve us.
It’s like we are sometimes sitting in a video game with levels that are challenging us but we can do it, we can survive by adapting our moves and we will make it to the next level.
The people who enter our life have something to teach us, even if we don’t particularly like those lessons we need to learn.
We think “what am I supposed to be learning here?”
How can this help me grow and become a better person?
What am I avoiding when I think I want things to be different?
Why do I want things to be different?
Why can’t everything be okay and playing out the way it is supposed to play even though I would much prefer to not have to deal with the hard stuff?
Maybe the hard stuff is more valuable to me than the easy stuff and I can do the hard stuff.
And so our perfect day continues with us managing our brains as opposed to our brains running like an out-of-control toddler, thinking and doing things that don’t really serve us.
We remember who is the boss, we are, we get to choose, we get to decide how to deal with any situation that comes our way and we can choose to deal with all situations with love, compassion, understanding and appreciation because this is our life.
There is no pause or rewind button that we can press.
This day and each day happens and we get to decide how we want to spend it and why not spend it in a way that makes us feel good?
Why not spend it living in the here and now and appreciating everything we are so blessed to have?
Why not spend it looking for the good in people rather than always noticing the bad?
Why not spend it being productive and useful and helpful rather than wishing things were always different.
This is it – our life right now.
On this perfect day we wear clothes we love, that make us feel good about ourselves.
We pull out the stuff we usually like to save for special occasions and decide TODAY is that special occasion because we are alive.
We eat on our good china, we spend a few minutes doing our hair and makeup rather than shoving into another messy bun just because we can and we want to because it makes us feel good.
We spray on our favorite perfume, we listen to our favorite music and sing along out loud, we sit down and rest when we need a break, we do everything we can in a cheerful manner because we feel so blessed just to be alive.
And we end the day watching the sun set into the horizon, we take a moment just to appreciate how absolutely beautiful our world is and when we stare at the starry wish we make a wish and hope that everyone else who sleeps beneath this same sky is also doing the best they can and being kind to themselves.
Because we are all connected to each day.
We all just want to be happy and the coolest thing is we get to decide what happiness means to us and because we are responsible for that happiness, we get to make it happen.
Now as you can see this description of a perfect day in my mind may sound cheesy when you are hearing it for the first time but I encourage you to relisten to this podcast episode again later because I didn’t mention anything that wasn’t possible for you to do.
Whether tomorrow is a busy day or slower day, there is no reason why we can’t embrace this same attitude of total gratitude for our life.
We also have the choice of living more intentionally.
We also have the choice of being kinder to ourselves and others, EVEN WHEN they are not being so kind to us.
We need to remember it doesn’t really matter what people think of us or how they treat us, it really doesn’t.
What matters most is how you treat yourself and hopefully it is with lots of love and compassion and appreciation.
Because we are all unique and amazing and have so much to offer this world.
So I encourage you to think about how you too can make an imperfect day feel more perfect. Like today what could you do differently?
How could you treat people differently?
How could you be kinder to yourself?
What actions could you take that would make your heart feel totally blissful?
A little while back I created a checklist for myself on 15 things I could do everyday that would make that day feel fabulous.
This checklist is available as a download on my website inspiringlifedreams but I thought I would share it here with you here just because it was fun to give this some thought.
So here goes: my 15 things to do every day checklist
1 – Get 8 hours of sleep
2 – Prepare a healthy breakfast
3 – Prepare a healthy lunch
4 – Prepare a healthy dinner
5 – Consume only healthy snacks
6 – Drink 2 liters of water
7 – Dress in something that makes me feel special
8 – Work productively
9 – Exercise 30 minutes
10 – Cleanse & moisturize skin in AM/PM
11 – Listen to favorite music
12 – Spend INTENTIONAL time with loved ones
13 – Speed clean / tidy home for 15 ,minutes
14 – Wind down by reading a book
15 – Journal or write in gratitude journal
I also included a bonus 15 feel-good activities which were:
16 – Write my gratitude list
17 – Meditate and chill for 5 minutes
18 – Stretch
19 – Make the bed
20 – Drink herbal tea
21 – Blow-dry hair
22 – Have a home manicure/pedicure
23 – Floss teeth
24 – Tell someone you love them
25 – Cuddle my family
26 – Shave my legs
27 – Have a good laugh
28 – Do a random act of kindness
29- Listen to an educational podcast
30- Write my goals or intentions for tomorrow
I know, I know there’s a good chance some of these things wouldn’t make it onto your wishlist but that’s okay.
You get to do YOU and work out what makes YOU feel great in this world.
I recorded this podcast with the hope that I could stretch your imagination to see that every day you have on this Earth could be a fabulous day, simply because you DECIDE it is so.
You get to decide that you want to live with more love, compassion and forgiveness, you get to decide to live more intentionally, you get to decide how you want to show up in this world and to others, you simply get to decide how you want to live each day.
So I do hope this podcast episode has been useful to you.
As always I love and appreciate you all, thank you so much for being here and I can’t wait to catch you in the next episode.
Before You Go…
- Grab your free gift: How To Stop Self-Sabotaging Yourself Guide (4 steps to finally get out of your own way) CLICK HERE
- Decide which course will suit you best CLICK HERE
- Listen to my Inspiring Mom Life podcast on Spotify or via Apple Podcasts.
With a degree in psychology, Frances Vidakovic is a certified life coach, course creator and host of the Inspiring Life Podcast. Her superpower is transforming dreamers into doers with simple, kick-up-the-butt strategies.
