This is Barbara’s story about how the Sunday Challenge, issued by Margie, informed additions to her wish list and the transformative thinking that ensued. (See our post “Creating Your Wish List - Step 5”)
At the beginning of 2021, Margie issued a "Sunday Challenge" where she suggested each participant should write five joys and three wants every Sunday of the year. I read her email and thought, "What fun!"
Then I dove in.
I'm a little amazed to tell you that I have completed a perfect challenge, writing my joys and wants for the past 52 Sundays in the year. I'm amazed because I'm not very good at the persistence part. I'm very good at starting things but carrying them out to completion has not been my superpower.
There was something about this challenge, though, that kept me going. It was the “wish” component in the Sunday Challenge. I pretty quickly realized that the three wants I was writing every week were actually wishes, so I started to copy them over to my list of 150 wishes for the year. Of course, I wound up with a lot more than 150 wishes and that's just fine!
Something that wish work has given me is peace and patience around having my wishes come true. Somehow, I'm not obsessed with having them all come true. It's a different way of looking at life than I've had in the past. When I didn't have my wish practice, a lot of things didn't happen and that made me sad, frustrated, angry, anxious – nothing good. Now, with a healthy wish practice in hand, I can look at all of the things that I don't yet have in my life with serenity, strength, wisdom, courage, patience, gratitude, and joy for all that I do have. How cool is that?
So you might want to try this Sunday Challenge at the beginning of the new year. All you have to do is remind yourself every Sunday to write down five joys and three wants. If you write down your wants in the form of wishes and keep doing that week after week, you'll have something like a revolving list of 156 wishes by the end of the year. That is certainly one way you can create your wish list.
A final thought – and an important one – that came in the course of this past year. Considering my heart's desires tends to generate the happiest of feelings. That in turn tends to create even more awareness of deeper and broader heart’s desires. Put another way, writing three wants every week often inspires the discovery of broader and deeper heart’s desires. Imagine that! Every week of your next year, you will be putting your attention on all the joyful things in your life and all of your heart's desires.
Sounds like a pretty good year to me!
Peace and All Good,
Margie and Barbara
The Wish Mavens
Photo Credit
The photo featured in this post was taken by (and is copyrighted by) Margaret A. Herrick.