Yesterday you wrote backwards. Today you write forwards, and you do it twice.
Both letters are dated a year from now. Both are from you. One of them is the leading lady. The other one went back to playing the supporting character in a life she is not in charge of.
THE QUESTION
A year from today, which one of those women are you?
THE QUEST
Write the first one as the leading lady. Not transformed, nothing dramatic. She kept some of this. Not all of it, she is not a saint. The three pages most mornings. The ten minutes before her phone. The ten minutes before bed, which is the one she thought she would drop first and did not.
She went and found the things she loves and put them back in the week. She knows what she wants now, and she answers out of that instead of out of habit. Yes to this. No to that. No explanation on the end of either one.
Write her ordinary Tuesday. What time does she get up and what does she do first. What is in her calendar that belongs to her and nobody else. Who is she seeing on Thursday. What is she learning badly and loving anyway. What did she stop doing, and who was disappointed, and how she is still standing.
Then write the second one as the supporting character. Same date, same kitchen, same chair, same mug. Her life is not bad. That is not the problem.
She is still doing the thing where she checks what everyone else needs before she answers. Still saying yes on a Wednesday to something she resented by Friday. Still saying she will get to it. Still opening her laptop at ten at night to look at the class, the trip, the choir, the same one she was looking at a year ago, in this exact chair, on this exact night.
Write her Tuesday too. It will look a great deal like a Tuesday from a month ago, before any of this started. That is the part that should get you.
Then read them back and find the first real difference between the two of them. Write that one down on its own.
Now date both letters with today's date and put them somewhere you will find them again. An envelope in a drawer, a folder on a shelf, a box on top of the wardrobe.
Then open the calendar on your phone and put a note on this day next year. Read the letters. You will not remember doing this. That is exactly why you are setting the reminder.
A year from now you find out which one you wrote your way into.
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A VISIONING EXERCISE
One more thing, and it is optional.
Some of you will read the leading lady letter, want her life, and already know you will not keep this going past Sunday. Something stops you every time. You have watched yourself do it before.
If that is you, try this.
Read her letter every morning. Then close your eyes for two minutes and be in her Tuesday. Not thinking about it. In it. What is the light like in that kitchen. What are you wearing. What is on the calendar and how does it feel to look at it. Where are you going on Thursday and who is waiting for you when you get there.
Two minutes. Every morning.
We drift toward whatever we keep looking at, and most of us have not looked at anything on purpose in years.
· · ·
THE RHYTHM
🌅 Ten minutes of quiet before your phone
📓 Three pages of whatever falls out
🚶♀️ Ten minutes of moving, outside if you can
🌙 Ten minutes of quiet before bed
📵 Less news, less scrolling
In love, light and laughter,
Karen
P.S. Tag me in your quests with #LeadingLady21 so we can all find each other.