Fire Up Your Midlife Creative Juices And Get Clear On What You Want With This Fun, Simple Exercise

(00:07):
Welcome to the Easy Aging Show. I am so excited about today's episode because I wanted to give you a creativity exercise to get your creative juices flowing. This will help you get clear and focused on what you want so you can figure out what's next for you In midlife.

(00:55):
Midlife is a time when we go through a lot of transitions, good and bad. From the excitement of retirement to the bittersweet moment of becoming an empty nester to the grief of going through a divorce or experiencing the passing of a loved one...

(01:11):
These transitions can throw you for a loop and make your purpose in life a little bit blurry. It kind of pulls the rug out from under you. That's why it's so important to have some tools and strategies available to help you get out of your head and start getting new perspective on things.

(01:28):
This little exercise I'm about to give you is simple, but it could prompt you to go a little bit deeper while having some fun. Now, there are a couple of different types of these floating around out there.

(01:39):
One of them is called the Six-Word Story. Basically, this is an entire story in six words. One of the most famous examples of a six-word story is by Ernest Hemingway's.

(01:50):
His story is "For Sale" baby shoes, never worn." Well, break my heart in six words, why don't you? That is an entire story right there, isn't it?

(02:03):
This is a fantastic idea, but I wanted to find out more about myself, about my daily life, about how I'm feeling right now so I can get clarity about what's next for me. I found a site called SixWordMemoirs.com.

(02:25):
Let me give you a couple of examples. These can be as light or as deep as you want them to be. Daisy Sieben says, "I self-medicate with soft drinks." Shell DeFelice says, "I'd rather hold memories than grudges."

(02:38):
Arcaneonion says, "College? Mentally, I'm in middle school." Favepeep says, "I get winded changing my mind."

(03:01):
I decided to give it a shot myself so here are a couple that I came up with about what is going on in my life at this moment in time. My first one is, "Good coffee, good wine, good sleep." And then I thought, "Oh my gosh, that's my idea of the perfect day!"

(03:22):
My next one is "Craving fun after a long day." The next one I came up with is, "You refresh me, bring me joy." I was thinking about a friend of mine who I have great conversations with.

(03:34):
And my last one was after I had a talk with my bestie Hilary: "Deep conversations make me sigh contentedly." I love deep conversations. I love when we just get down to the heart of the issue, open our hearts up to each other and have these amazing conversations.

(03:51):
Those are just a few of what I came up with and once I got going, it became a little easier to think of new ones. I started keeping a list of ideas and then writing things in my head as I was waiting in line at the grocery store or sitting around between meetings.

(04:15):
I wanted to give you some ideas so you could start doing your own. Once you get going, you're going to have a lot of fun with it and hopefully get some significant insight.

(04:24):
So grab a pen and paper and write down some of these questions. 

1. Describe your personality and unique characteristics.
2. What makes you happy or unhappy?
3. What do you like best about being in midlife?
4. What makes you smile? What makes you laugh?
5. What frustrates or annoys you?
6. What accomplishment are you proudest of?
7. What's your biggest failure?
8. What are you most embarrassed about?
9. What does your perfect day look like?
10. What legacy do you want to leave?

(05:24):
First, go through and answer the questions as quickly as you can. First thoughts, best thoughts. Go back and refine them later. We're trying to get you an initial bank of ideas to start with.

(05:37):
Once you've answered as many questions as you want, take a couple of these ideas and set the timer for two minutes. Then all you do is play. Just play with different ideas. See what you can create with the six words. Try out different perspectives, try out different structures. Use statements or questions, long sentences or short sentences.

(06:01):
For example, arcane onion used a question earlier, "College? Mentally, I'm in middle school." Mine was just three short sentences. "Good coffee, good wine, good sleep." There are two little things I want you to remember as you're going through this:

(06:20):
Number one, this is just for you. You don't have to show these to anyone unless you feel like it. So be free with your thoughts, be as honest as you like, and don't limit yourself. And the second thing is, if you're feeling some resistance to this exercise, that's a sign that you probably need to do this.

(06:41):
Resistance can mean different things but a big one in all of us is an underlying fear that becoming aware of something means you're going to have to change it. So keeping it under the surface feels safer than bringing it up, having to deal with it and having to take action on it. That's a very normal response.

(07:01):
If you're serious about getting some midlife clarity on what's next for you, you're going to need to push through that icky feeling and just start poking around with this exercise, okay?

(07:12):
Quick recap: Go through the questions to get your ideas on paper and then set the timer for two minutes. When the two minutes start, play. That's all you're going to do is simply play with different words and sentence structures to express yourself.

(07:22):
These six little words are for your eyes only, unless you want to share them with other people. And if you're feeling resistance to doing the exercise itself, that's probably a sign that you should do the exercise.

(07:36):
The most important thing of all of this is, have fun. Be creative. Let your mind roam, get your creative juices flowing, so you can start getting some new perspective about where you are in midlife.

(07:55):
I'll see you in the next episode and until then, peace, love and blessings to you and yours. Take care. Bye-bye!

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