Did your BEST teacher ever tell you all the answers upfront in class or did he or she:

• ask you and your classmates an open-ended question,
• let you do some thinking then engage you in a great class conversation about the topic,
• welcome everyone’s diverse perspectives and feedback,
• share relevant and thought-provoking examples to refocus the discussion or inspire more contemplation,
• maybe even have you do a writing assignment or act our a skit to expand your connection to the topic… THEN confirm the answer?

Something tells me he or she didn’t just give you the answer.   The Belief Energy conversation is facilitated for thousands of people that have joined it in the same way.   The more I approach the topic of optimal living (Belief Energy) like your BEST teacher would have, the more people are inspired to contemplate, discuss, connect with and eventually experience optimal living.

This conversation based movement is meant to inspire internal and external conversations about optimal living for everyone.

This first assignment is quick and easy and will bring you fully into the Belief Energy conversation.

Assignment:

Optimal Living Moments:

• Write down your best life moments ( brief moments you’ll always remember.  The 5 second periods in life you felt most alive).
• Write a detailed description of how that moment felt (inside and out), looked, smelled, sounded, etc.
• Make a list of reasons they were so special.
• Make a 2nd  list of  all the things that got you to those moments.
• Draw a picture of those moments.

Optimal Living Chapters:

• Write down your best life chapters (periods in your life that represented the best living you’ve ever done).
• Write a detailed description of how that chapters felt (inside and out).
• Make a list of reasons they were so special.
• Make a 2nd list of all the things that got you to those moments.
• Draw a picture of them.

Giving Optimal Living a Name & Form:

• If you could give your overall optimal living moments or chapters a nickname, what would it be?
• What color would it be?
• What form or shape would it assume?
• What temperature is it?
• Draw a picture of it.

Bridging Past Optimal Living into the Present and Path Ahead:

Other assignments in this site will help your start to explore important things associated with your newly nicknamed and defined version of Belief Energy (values, barriers, path or integrity, to name a few).

Before moving to them, however, create a list off things that brought you into your moments or chapters of optimal living in the past that could be brought forward, back into your present life or the path ahead of you.

For example, when I did this exercise during a sub optimal career period, I listed that being on stage in front of large groups teaching and motivating people for a living had fulfilled me.  Being mindful of that helped me make hard decisions to bring that facet of optimal living back into my work life.  My Belief Energy soars every time I get on a stage in front of LinkedIn peers or our customers.

Conversation to start and spread :

• Host a long discussion about your optimal life moments and chapters with someone you love.
• Share with them what you wrote and drew.
• Suggest that they do the above exercise too.
• Discuss it with them.
• Start bringing others into the discussion.

Before you know it, people will start working together to help one another go beyond a conversation about optimal and really start living it.

Other exercises here at Belief Energy will help you define, apply, expand and/or sustain lots of things related to the optimal living

Below is what the output of this exercise looked like when I did it in March on my bus trip to Reno.  It was based on an optimal living chapter I had experienced in 2006 & 2007 when I was:

• Enjoying my role as new father of my daughter born in late 2005 living in the first and only home I’ve owned.
• Traveling the world motivating and teaching sales teams in my 6th year at my salesforce.com “9-5”.
• Helping launch a hiking and meditation retreat that would open in 2007 in Marin County, CA.

I knew if I defined what enabled my Belief Energy zone in 2006/2007 that I could break myself away from the plateau I was on and soar again (more sustainable this time) in 2011 and beyond.  That’s exactly what has unfolded.  Dig into this site and you’ll see for yourself.