What was the happiest day you can remember from your childhood?  Was it the perfect summer day riding your bike?  Was it sledding down a hillside with the other kids on a cold snow day, when you got a reprieve from going to school?  Shuffling through leaves on a crisp autumn afternoon under a purple sky?  Was there a day when you felt you were in the exact right place at the exact right time, doing exactly what you wanted to be doing?  How far away does that day seem to you at this point in your life?
 

Henry David Thoreau said, "Our truest life is when we are in our dreams awake."  (Notice he said dreams, not nightmares.)

 

If it feels like it's been a while since you felt that way,  maybe it's time to take a moment to seek those days in your life now.  Such days stand out to us like a blessing, for that is what they are.  Having more of them is not necessarily the product of living a different life, but rather the result of opening your eyes and your heart to the life you already have. 

 

Many people long for a future they see as an improvement over their present daily existence.  But how many of those people are prepared to take the steps today that will shape their lives into that joyful vision?  

 

The beginning of blessing is gratitude.  Take time this evening to take stock of the blessings you experience today. 

Your Joyful Future Begins Now, by Phoebe Fox

In our year-long journey on the quest toward living an authentic life, we have only eleven months left.  Can you believe it?  One twelfth of the journey is behind us now.  How far have you come on your path?  (This is the point at which journaling can be helpful in recording your progress so you can see the evidence for yourself.) 

You say your life looks pretty much the same as it did a month ago?  Don't beat yourself up about it.  Just think about a couple of things you would like to be doing differently, or maybe try for the first time, and make them a priority in the month to come. 

I know it sounds easy to say this, but it really is true.  We begin living our future not tomorrow morning, or some day next week, but right now -- this minute.  "Some people complain about what they don't like, and some people get up and change things into what they do like,"  my father says.   

You don't have to do it all at once.  Follow these four easy steps to begin the process:

1) Take an objective look at your situation;

2) Identify one or two small changes you can make right now;

3) Write weekly reminders in your calendar about keeping up those changes;

4) Make an appointment with yourself to check your progress a month from today.

Notice that these steps don't require you to go out and spend any money to complete this process, unless you need to buy a calendar of some kind.  And if you can't remember any progress you've made in the last month, maybe it's time to start.  Any inexpensive calendar will do as long as you will use it. 

Do you feel as though it is easier to contemplate change than to carry it out?  Take a number and get in line, the same is true for most of us.  "I wanna be good, but you won't let me," says my friend's son.  He knows what he needs to do, but wants someone else to be responsible for his not doing it. 

Remember that the true measure of your success will come only at year's end, when you can look back over your progress at where you are then compared to where you were today.  So don't worry about how you will get there. 

Focus on what you are doing right now, this minute, to take just one step along your journey toward your joyful, authentic life.