Here's a great creativity exercise. Live life for one day — or for an entire week — as if.
As if what?
Right.
You first need to figure out as if what. You get to choose.
Here are some suggestions used by my creativity students and me over the years (and a couple suggestions I just made up):
- Live life as if your dominant arm is broken. Use a sling if you want.
- Live life as if you have lost your voice. Smile when others tease you.
- Live life as if your PDA is broken. Enjoy the lack of distraction.
- Live life as if you don't own a television. Turn off TV. Turn on life.
- Live life as if you are seeing everyone (even your most constant companions) for the first time. You won't continue to overlook beauty.
- Live life as if breaking any law will earn you the death penalty. First jaywalking and speeding. Then add laws of etiquette and religion. Then add laws of other nations and religions. Quit when this makes you too nervous.
- Live life as if you can't hear anyone's voice without direct eye contact. You might hear more.
And here is a weird environmental option:
- Live life as if you must carry throughout the day all the trash you create. (Please, don't carry your "day stream" or "night soil.") We often think that our trash problems are resolved when our trashcans are emptied. For the earth and our landfills, that's when the problem is just starting. (Want to reduce what you have to carry? Reconsider this.)
The goal isn't necessarily to live as if forever. Rather, living life as if is just a way of not taking everything for granted. A way of seeing everything in a new way.
How will you live life for a day? As if what?