The Best Decision-Making Tool Ever

It’s the third and final phase of our dream list creation process, and for this phase we need the best decision-making tool ever – The Body Compass, developed by my teacher, Martha Beck. Watch the video below to learn it, then scroll down for steps on how to apply to your dream list.

What I’d like you to do is to take the dream list you’ve created over the last several weeks (see Phase #1 and Phase #2 if you missed them) and rate each one using the following method:

1. Learn how your body says “No” and “Yes” (watch the video above and use the downloadable guide.)
2. For each item on your list, get your Body Compass reading for both the item (Phase #1) and the emotion that you think it would bring (Phase #2). A note: your Body Compass reading might surprise you – often our thoughts about what we ‘should’ want are radically different than what we do want. That’s the whole reason for bringing in The Body Compass – you only want the things that will really delight you on your final list!
3. Decide on your cutoff point for the dream list – maybe you are shooting for experiences that range within +3 to +10. Maybe you want your cutoff to be higher or lower – it’s up to you.
4. Select items and feeling states that rate in your preferred range on your body compass to create your final list.
5. Write the list in order from most positive to least positive. (If you need a place to record them, you can download a blank list for each here.) Your ending list might look something like this:

Dream Experiences                                    
Have a child             +10
See the Northern Lights +9
Kiss on top of the Eiffel Tower +9
Go to Bumbershoot +8
Visit Bali     +8          

Dream Feeling States
Feel awe     +10
Feel love     +10
Experience peace +9

Congratulations! You now have an Authentic Dream List!

Many of your dream experiences will likely take a whole lot of effort to make them happen (that’s why it’s a dream list, after all) – and we will be spending the next couple of months playing with ways to make these dreams come true. Many of the feeling states, however, can be experienced today.

So your challenge for this week – pick one of your top five dream feeling states and look for ways to experience it as much as possible this week. If you want to experience peace, maybe try meditating, getting enough sleep, cancelling plans with negative people, listening to soothing music, etc.

If you want to feel awe, investigate what has produced awe for you in the past. (I routinely feel awe scrolling through Pinterest, for example. There’s something about pictures of space that just captivates me.) Then add things that might help you to feel awe this week – visiting the ocean or mountains or forests, reading Rumi, learning about space – whatever it is for you.

What feeling state are you going to experience today? Leave a comment and commit to creating it in your life this week.