Ideas for How to Make the Life You Want HAPPEN

Just before heading to Las Vegas recently, Coming of Age Assistant Director Mady Prowler and I led an abbreviated version of the initiative’s “Explore Your Future” program for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers Health and Welfare Conference.

Forty-five teachers and other school personnel crowded into a room to talk about where they have been (in the last 50+ years!) and where they were going.

Seize the Day

Biggest Takeaway: The powerful ideas we heard for doing what you always dreamed of doing. There was an incredible energy in the room that resulted from hearing from people who had done just that and who egged the others on to “Seize the Day.”

One woman had always dreamed of staging a fashion show. For years she had found any number of reasons not to do it. Then she bit the bullet (or whatever the fashion show equivalent of that might be), created a runway in her backyard, asked family and friends to model, and invited the neighborhood.

And everybody came!

It was a huge success—from every perspective—but most importantly because she experienced the feeling of a dream come true—not wasting energy on dwelling what might have been.

And the experience taught her she could do what she wanted; it energized her; and now she’s scouting for ways not only to make use of her talent for fashion but to be more engaged in her community.

Another participant talked about following her dream to live in Florida. She said, “I knew Philly wasn’t going anywhere. I could always come back.” And that’s just what she did; moved to Florida, found a job; enjoyed the sunshine and her new environment, and then came back to her (better-paying!) job in Philly.

Again, her energy, her sense of engagement, was palpable… and contagious.

Okay, not everyone could do what she did—she happened to have easily transportable skills. But she made the point: I found a way to follow my dream.

Deep-sixing your watch

Another woman talked about using her vacations to test the waters of what a more relaxed life might be like. She did this by taking off her watch and living life to her internal clock. The group found the idea scary … and wonderful (I for one can’t wait to try it, come summer!).

We all left the session feeling that lots of things—even in this god-awful economy—are still possible, empowered by the stories and ideas we had heard, and excited about what my colleague David Oldfield calls, “The Adventure of Aging.”

Next stop: Vegas. And what happens there… I’ll gladly share (well, some of it).