“What does your ideal day look like?”
Every day of my life I am striving to create my ideal day. Since this is a prompt I will assume that I am not working on this ideal day, but I will still wake up early to accomplish all of my goals – and to get more of the solitary actions out of the way before the wife and baby wake up.
I would start my ideal day how I start all days, with writing my Morning Pages (paid link). This act does take some time, between 30-60 minutes depending on how motivated I feel or how long I write. I have now completed this task 745 days straight and do not plan on stopping. While I wondered if it was worth it at times, I think that it has paid dividends in my life because it gives me time to think and to wrap my mind around things happening in life; or gives me time to manifest that which I want to happen.
After that I would lift at my brother’s gym, the Lifte Lab – a home gym of his dreams that he finally built after moving closer to home and converting his garage into his training dojo. No matter how much stronger he is than me, we always have a great lifting session where we push each other, but there is also just a whole other level on concentration and fun that goes into it because we are on the same wavelength when it comes to training.
My plan would be to execute on morning activities early enough to get home and cook a giant breakfast with Kyla & Zander. Once we were thoroughly fed, we would sit around talking as we always do, but my ideal day would be summer, so next up would be a walk in our favorite park in our hometown – or maybe we would find a new place to explore and hike somewhere in the woods. Lunch at a low-key restaurant that we have never eaten at would be a good next stop if we were even hungry after that big breakfast. It’s funny because I didn’t think we would miss going out to eat, but it is nice to get away at times, to explore the world, and to not have to clean the dishes afterwards. The pandemic and having a baby have put a slight damper on that activity, but that is okay because we are homebodies and love the company of each other, being with our baby and our dogs.
I think the next stop would be home to check on the garden and do some work in there. By the time summer rolls around, Zander will be walking & talking and then I will get to teach him all about how to garden and care for plants. This is a moment that I have been patiently waiting for and I am so excited to have a little helper who will follow me around and be my garden buddy. I can already foresee some plants getting ripped out of the raised beds, or maybe getting run over by Tonka trucks, but that is okay, it is all part of the learning phase of life and he will only turn 1 this summer. My guess is that he won’t be doing too much damage, but if his wiggling and rolling now is any indication of what is to come, he will be a wild little animal that will be hard to keep a handle on.
Our lives have changed so much in the past coupe of years that it is difficult to think what we would do next – or where we may end up. I do not want to drive all day on this ideal day, but I would love to have a bonfire on our land that we recently purchased and where will eventually build a home and the farm of our dreams. We will make it happen one day, but it will all happen according to a plan that is currently in the works, one that will fall from the sky and we will act surprised, but always had the faith that it would work out somehow, someway.
There is nothing quite like a fire under the stars with your friends and family. Some primal sense of wonder seems to awaken within you and deep questions of life, philosophy, and a search for ‘why are we here’ and ‘how did this all work out so perfectly’ spawn in your minds. Phones & technology have no place around a fire. You need only the crackle of the fire, the light of it, and to accustom your eyes to the darkness of the night and the ambient light from the stars and moon.
The perfect day would end with laying my head on my pillow next to my wife, a calm sleepy baby, and the dogs at the foot of the bed as we drifted into dreams that can’t be as perfect as the one we are living in.