An ordinary Tuesday, in your browser.

Warm-up

Moments that felt good

Think of one or two moments from the last few years when you felt content, engaged or proud. Choose at least one from an ordinary day. Where were you? What were you doing? Who was with you? What made it possible?

The exercise

A normal day in the life you want

Now you turn those ingredients into a day. We use an ordinary day because most of your life will be ordinary. It can feel less exciting than imagining a big change, but it gives you a useful question: would I enjoy the everyday life that comes with it?

An ordinary day also gives you something to test. You can visit a place, or change one day of your week where you live, and try living a normal Tuesday. It is much harder to test a word like "happiness".

Is a whole day too much for now? Start with one moment in your week you would like to change.

How much detail? Enough that someone else could film it. Look at the difference:

The detail in the right-hand column gives you something you can check against a real house, job or town.

Now you

Describe this day from morning to evening. Include an ordinary detail you would not put in a holiday brochure: housework, rain, or an hour when nothing much happens. Use these questions to help you:

• Where do you wake up? What do you see from your window?
• What do you do in the morning? And in the afternoon?
• What is your work, or how do you spend your time?
• Who is with you? How does the day end?

The need behind the picture

Olive trees might mean calm, nature, or space. What two or three needs does your ordinary day meet? Could you meet the same needs another way, perhaps closer to home?

Go deeper (optional)

Make your description more specific

Read your description again and look for concrete details: coffee, terrace, olive trees, clients, sister. If there are only a few, add enough detail for someone else to picture the day as clearly as you do.

Then add the less enjoyable parts: housework, paid work, a day when you feel tired, a rainy winter week, time alone. Does the picture still feel good? Could you meet the same needs another way, including closer to home?

Make it visible. Collect five to eight photos of ordinary scenes that fit your day: a kitchen table, a path, a workshop, a market. Use your own photos where you can. Under each one, write the need it represents. These pictures will help you compare real places with the daily life you want.

From picture to step

From this picture to one small step

A test can also show that you should stay, try something else, or wait for now.

What is a small test? A test does not have to be a trip, a cost, or a big decision. It can be a conversation, looking up one reliable source, or a small trial of a few days.

If no workable step fits your life right now, waiting is also fine. Write down what would need to change and pick a date to look again. That date does not mean the problem will be gone by then.