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You will enjoy today’s exercise! Today, for once, life is a wish concert, because, on this day, you can wish for anything!

Imagine a fairy godmother grants you three wishes. Anything is possible, however irrational it may be (except more wishes, of course). This may have to do with your professional life or with entirely different things.

Your first task for today:

Think about your chosen three wishes and write them in your notebook. Please formulate the wishes as short text, not just as a keyword. Be spontaneous and don’t think about it too much; just write them down.

Second part of the task:

When you are finished, take a closer look at the wishes and think about what they stand for. For example:

  • More time? What would you like more time for? What would you do with your free time?
  • Or more financial freedom? How would you use this?
  • A fulfilling profession? What would make a profession fulfilling for you? What would the working day look like? Where and how long do you work?

What are the needs behind your wishes? For each of the three wishes, write down what comes to your mind, what they mean to you, and which areas of your life are addressed by them (family, job, partnership, time for yourself, hobbies, community, etc.)

If you’ve understood and completed your three wishes quite well, then take a short break, get yourself a tea, a coffee, or a small snack, for example. You can also just get up for a short time, stretch and stretch with pleasure before continuing.

Third part of the task:

Now you are allowed to wish for five different lives, in addition to the one you are already leading today. Imagine that you could be whatever you want: a movie star, a monk, a gardener, a space traveler, a billionaire, the world’s best teacher, a heart surgeon, etc. What would that be?

We are not here to deny or denigrate your real life. It’s about letting your imagination run wild: Which five lives would you choose? Write these five in your notebook.

This exercise is designed to help you look beyond your current thinking and think “out of the box.” That is important for finding creative ideas for your future occupation. To be creative, you must think far beyond the norm, preferably to the extremes. In the end, the result will be somewhere in the middle between the status quo and the extremes.

Fourth part of the task:

Now choose the life you find most attractive, regardless of all the secondary conditions (income, family, place of residence, your body, etc.), no matter how crazy it sounds! Mark this life with a “1.” Which one would be the next best? Write a “2” there, etc. until you’ve put them all in the order of your personal preference.

Please read on only after the list has been numbered.

The last part of the task:

The life you put first contains what you are missing most today. Even if that sounds impossible or even threatening at first – don’t worry! You should not throw away your old life right now.

It is more a matter of (re)integrating the aspect you are currently missing in your life more intensely and, in return, gradually letting go of things that you are still doing but which don’t really satisfy you.

So, if you’re a banker or baker at the moment but would actually prefer to be a rock star, then first find something where you can stand on stage, maybe in a band or a theatre group. If you are a father of three and would like to explore the history of the world as an archaeologist, plan your next holiday with your family so that you can go on a search for clues. If you start to follow your motivation, new and unexpected possibilities will gradually emerge.