Naiman Labs newsletter #28. Four exercises to build the life you love

Hi Friends, welcome to another issue of the Naiman Labs newsletter!

The topic of this issue is new for me. We have never talked about this before, but I find it very interesting and helpful for everyone who is on their journey of personal growth.

Remember the Favorite problems concept I shared with you couple of weeks ago?

A significant portion of my favorite problems revolves around personal motivation and how to inspire people to take action or feel certain emotions. This has led me to focus on areas such as motivation, coaching, and effective communication. The more I learn about motivation, the more I realize the importance of setting clear directions for ourselves.

Recently, I've come across various videos, articles, and books on the topic of building a life you love. It's about identifying what truly matters to you, understanding your values, and setting meaningful goals.

I believe that identifying your values and life goals is as important for personal growth as goals, strategies, and vision are for a company's performance. They are the necessary starting point. Without them, you may find yourself moving in the wrong direction or not even knowing if you're heading in the right one.

To help you identify your values and life goals, let's explore a few exercises together.

Exercise 0. Pre-work.

Start by making a list of the areas in your life that you want to consider. You can start with the three major areas: Work, Health, and Relationships.

If you want to go into more detail, you can consider additional areas such as

• Career

• Finance

• Self-Image

• Spirituality

• Health

• Family

• Creativity

• Personal Development

However for the first time I recommend starting with three major areas:

👔 Work (your finance, your career, your professional development and learning),

🧘 Health (your body and mind)

❤️ Relationships (your family, friends, social image, social activities).

Now, rate your level of happiness in each of these areas on a scale of 1 to 10. Be honest with yourself and assess how happy you currently feel in each area.

Exercise 1. Anti-vision 🙈

Imagine yourself in five years, living an absolutely unhappy life. Imagine you have made all the decisions you could made.

Take a piece of paper and describe in detail what that life would look like. You can write a story, you can draw it, you can just jot down the bullet points.

It is not about external events that could happen to you. It is what could you personally do to make your life unhappy. What would happy if you made all the bad decisions leading you to unhappy life - what this life could be? Focus on the personal decisions that would lead to this unhappy life.

This exercise will help you identify the bottom line—the things you absolutely don't want in your life.

Exercise 2. Odyssey plan ⛵

Imagine your life five years from now and answer the following questions:

1. What does your life look like if you continue on your current path?

2. What does your life look like if you take a different path?

3. What does your life look like if you didn't have to worry about money or social expectations?

If the 1st exercise was about the picture in time, this one is more about the journey. The main question here is where my current life is leading me? What will be my destination?

Exercise 3. Perfect day ☀️

Imagine yourself several years from now, living your ideal day.

Write down the details of your perfect day, including:

• Where do you live? How does your home look like?

• Who’s near you?

• What’s your morning routine?

• How do you look like? What do you see in the mirror?

• What are you working on?

• Where do you work?

• What’s the interior of your house?

• What are your habits?

Feel free to draw or sketch if that helps you visualize it better.

Exercise 4. Fast-forward test ⏩

Take a moment to reflect on your typical day.

Now, imagine you have a magic fast-forward button that allows you to skip any activity without experiencing it. May be it is a certain meetings at work. May be it is certain tasks that you have to. May be it’s commute to the office. May be it’s that 3 episodes of new Netflix series.

Make a list of the activities you would choose to skip and the activities you wouldn't skip because you genuinely want to experience them.

This exercise will clearly show what are the activities in your life that you want to remove, or do as less as you can.

After completing these exercises, you'll gain a better understanding of the things in your life that bring you joy and energy. You'll start to recognize patterns and identify what aligns with your values and what inspires you.

🚧 Caution: I know and I have experienced this myself many times, it’s hard to do these exercises. It requires a certain inspiration and readiness. They force us to think outside the comfort zone and be ready that you might feel uncomfortable when you start thinking about this. So don’t overwhelm yourself, take one step at a time.

That's it for today! Stay tuned for more tips and insights in the coming weeks.

Wishing you a productive and joyful week ahead!