Multipotentialite Toolkit: Your Perfect Day
Including a ChatGPT prompt to get you flowing.
Hello from Liverpool, England!
I am on my way up to Scotland for a couple of weeks, with a brief stopover to see my father’s family here. It was actually a gorgeously sunny day today, so to be the cliché: I guess we brought the weather with us!
I am most looking forward to simply sleeping horizontally again, but I am also excited to see Hadrian’s Wall as we drive up north – a few of you have told me how much you’re enjoying The Ancients podcast I recommended last week, so I’d encourage you to check out the Hadrian’s Wall episode!
Today’s newsletter is really tactical – it’s an activity I refresh for myself every few months, and it was everyone’s favourite in my course, Build The Right Business.
The crux of it is this:
I want you to monumentally raise the standards of your average day.
This exercise is designed to help you articulate the answer to a very big question: what would your life be like if it were exactly the way that you want it to be today?
Your brain may be screaming “but I don’t knowwwwwww!” I don’t know what my perfect day is. I don’t even know what work I want to be doing! That’s why I’m reading this bloody newsletter!
But I insist: there’s plenty you know about your perfect day. And that’s because projects, businesses, money, hobbies – these are all just vehicles that will get you to your extraordinary life.
So let’s get started.
Activity #1: List 20 Things You’d Love To Include
You may have a few different types of workdays. Maybe you have a day each week of totally uninterrupted work time, and maybe you have other days where you just have the morning.
That’s fine – we start from the same place, which is to list 20 things you’d love to do, have or feel in a regular day.
For example:
Go for a swim
Cook a healthy lunch
Contribute excellent work (even if I don’t know what that is yet)
Not sit at a desk for eight hours
Go for dinner with friends
Look well-groomed
Don’t stop until you have at least 20 things written down – you may not use them all, they may seem “impractical”, but pop them down anyway.
Activity #2: Write It Down
Now we’re going to pull that list apart and write a few paragraphs describing your perfect day, from the moment you wake up, to the moment you fall asleep.
Just pick one sort of day. Maybe the one you feel you have the most control over. You can then repeat this exercise for your other days if you want to, but for now, just focus on one type of perfect day.
Include as much insanely specific detail as you can. That’s where the richness comes into this exercise. If you need a prompt to get you started, jump into ChatGPT and write this:
Design Your Perfect Day – ChatGPT Prompt:
I am trying to write 500 words on my perfect workday. I want my day to include as many of these elements as possible:
[Copy and paste your 20 things here.]
Please create a series of paragraphs that detail my perfect day, breaking it down into three parts:
Before Work: Include morning routines, activities, or habits that set me up for success.
Work Time: Describe how I would spend my work hours, including tasks, interactions, and accomplishments.
After Work: Highlight what I do to wind down, recharge, and enjoy my evening.
Make the tone positive and motivating.
Activity #3: Add Richness to Your Perfect Day
As I say, don’t leave out the details. They’re essential. If ChatGPT isn’t adding them, edit the prompt to add them in yourself.
There’s a big different between “I get up at 7am” and “I wake up in my peaceful apartment around 7am with no alarm, feeling well rested”.
The one detail though that I don’t want you to get hung up on is what work you’re doing – if you’re not 100% certain of your direction, don’t let it stop you.
Let’s use an example, and notice how there’s nothing specific about work in here. You can do this exercise even if you’re unsure of what work you want to be doing.
A Perfect Day Example to Inspire You:
I wake up in my peaceful apartment around 7.00am with no alarm. I open the curtains, and the apartment is filled with natural light, as well as beautiful art on the walls, which I’ve collected at student exhibitions. (It’s important for me to support the local arts industry.)
I’m well rested and already feel excited for the day ahead.
I make myself a French press coffee, then do my Gratitude Journal, and go for a jog along the river while listening to an interesting podcast – not work-related! Back home, I shower and get changed into something from my wardrobe, which is full of understated yet elevated options. I feel comfortable but polished.
Today I have a Zoom call with colleagues around the world to talk about the project we are working on together. I feel inspired and energised talking to them, and I am able to come up with great, creative solutions to the challenges. My work feels fulfilling and fun with enough of a stretch to keep me interested.
At midday I stop for a Pilates class in a beautiful, light-filled studio around the corner from home, followed by lunch with my husband. We discuss goals and travel plans. Our relationship is interesting, fun and optimistic. On the way home for a couple more hours of work, I find an amazing vase at the local antiques shop, which I buy without looking at the price. I know I can afford it.
In the afternoon, I have no meetings so I can do my deepest work. This is when I put on some energising music and really get stuck into my most creative flow. I end the work day feeling productive and accomplished. I light a candle, then do a 10 minute stretch to recover from sitting for a few hours.
At night, I enjoy a glass of great wine at a friend's art exhibition opening before some friends come back to my place for dinner. We cook, and talk about our businesses, as well as travel plans and new ideas.
Life feels easy, inspiring and meaningful.
Don’t you just feel energised and light thinking about this being the standard of your regular day? It’s not even mine, and I already feel inspired!
I want you to pay attention to a few things in the above example:
“I wake up … with no alarm. I’m well rested and already feel excited for the day ahead.”
How do you want to feel each day? Excited? Calm? Inspired? Connected? What helps you get into flow and feel creative? I think this is really interesting to articulate, because so many of us are waking up, already stressed or exhausted or worried or uninspired.
“Today I have a Zoom call with colleagues around the world.”
Who are you connecting with on a regular basis? Is it a team of international freelance creatives you’re collaborating with? Is it local clients over coffee? Is it other freelancers in your coworking studio? Is it a team you run, or a big corporation full of interesting colleagues?
“My work feels fulfilling and fun with enough of a stretch to keep me interested.”
Again, how do you want your work to feel? Fun? Exciting? Challenging? Again, so many of us are working on things that are draining us, so it’s important to think about how you’d actually like your work to make you feel.
“I have no meetings so I can do my deepest work. This is when I put on some energising music and really get stuck into my most creative flow.”
Is there another mode of working you want or need? Maybe you have photoshoots or research time or coaching calls or writing time or time to disconnect from work and find inspiration elsewhere?
“Some friends come back to my place for dinner. We cook, and talk about our businesses, as well as travel plans and new ideas.”
What sort of people are you spending time with outside of work? Who and what is enriching your life beyond your career?
Your Perfect Day will change. As with everything we’re writing and thinking about, we need to give ourselves space and grace to change things. But we also absolutely need to get started and build momentum. We need a foundation from which to build upon.
Remember, the more detail the better. It might sound silly, but it will get your creative juices flowing.
Activity #4: Ask Yourself Some Questions
Once you have a Perfect Day articulated with all the richness that makes you feel incredible just reading it, ask yourself these questions:
Question 1: What elements of my perfect day do I already have?
You may have elements already. Maybe you just want more of something. Note down what is already available to you, whether it's the time and space to go to a pilates class or maybe you already live in a lovely home. This is partly about being grateful for what you have, but also about recognising the control you already have.
Question 2: What elements are missing?
Don’t worry if this list is longer than the first one! What specifically do you not already have from your Perfect Day? Maybe you aren’t working on the sort of work you love, or maybe you have far too much work on to be able to take a lunch break.
Question 3: What are three things I can start to do tomorrow?
What do you already have access to? Maybe it’s friends who also run their own business. Invite them around for dinner! Maybe you want to start getting dressed each day instead of working in your pyjamas. Maybe you are going to start planning proper lunch breaks. List three things that you can absolutely start building into your life from tomorrow.
Question 4: What are three things I need to stop doing today?
What are three things you can just get rid of in your normal days? Things you know aren’t leading to your Perfect Day. Eating at your desk, or being available for meetings in the afternoon while you need focused time. List three things you can eliminate immediately to start building your Perfect Day.
Question 5: What goal, if accomplished, would fast track my perfect day?
This last question is important, because in this course, we’re taking action. So this last question prompts you to think: what goal is the most impactful here? For example, if I could build a really healthy morning routine, it would change my entire day (and life). Or if I could find projects where I got to work with other people, that would really change things.
In next week’s edition, I want to introduce you to a tool I’ve been developing – a series of multipassionate archetypes that I hope you’ll find really useful – and perhaps share some feedback!
As always, if you’d like to share anything from this week’s prompts, I’d love to hear them, answer questions, and generally discuss!
This Week’s Life Curriculum
Bring in your extraordinary life, inch by inch, day by day.
DO | Perhaps inspired by the sheer amount of travel I’ve been doing recently, this week I want to encourage you to visit a nearby town or village that you’ve never been to before. Visit the weird, highly niche museum. Stop by the local café and taste their specialty cake. Read the inscription on the statue in the centre of town. Too often we drive past these places that are so full of life and history and small businesses.
MAKE | Alison Roman’s Almond Cake with Figs. I make this most weeks, it’s so delicious. Figs are not currently in season, but it is just as delicious with two chopped pears, or about 350g frozen raspberries. If using raspberries, know that it will be slightly wetter (still delicious!) and I’d encourage you to serve with cream instead of yoghurt, as it's too tart otherwise.
LISTEN | On my drive back from Sydney last week, I listened to the full Death of an Artist podcast series about Lee Krasner and her relationship with Jackson Pollock. I saw the host Katy Hessel speak at the Brisbane Writer’s Festival earlier this year, and have been trying to be more mindful of seeking out art by women ever since. I studied art history at uni, and I am more and more aware of the massive gaps in what artists are studied.
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This is so I'm powerful. I do something similar I learnt through inner work coaching called 'Best Day Ever'. It's so powerful and very inspiring to look back on when you realize you're living your Best Day Ever' ✨