In my first year of university, my friends and I would always talk about “The Ideal Woman”. We’d think about how The Ideal Woman would have both sparkling and still water to offer her guests, and she’d always look her best and hand in assignments before the due date. When we were out, and we’d spot someone who looked like The Ideal Woman, we’d call each other to describe why she was so ideal.

Obviously, our idea of The Ideal Woman is just a joke, and I certainly don’t subscribe to the idea that women (or anyone) should be a certain way. However, The Ideal Woman represents a wonderful idea I’ve thought about since I was old enough to conceive of a better, future version of me: Aspiring to become your ideal self. Ideal meaning YOUR ideal – not societies ideal.

What would your ideal self do? This question is possibly one of the most important questions you can ask to move forward in life – or more accurately, “Now that I am the ideal version of myself, what do I do?”

I love this question because it so simply helps us work through problems from the perspective of having solved them. The beauty of it is that you remove yourself from the struggle and the fog that comes with not knowing what to do, and you put yourself in the position where you know exactly what you need to do.

Here’s a list of the problems it can help with:

1. Everything.

Here’s a list of the times you can ask it:

1. Any time

It doesn’t necessarily mean every problem is solved on the spot, but it does mean you’ve got a direction to go in, and sometimes that’s the game-changer.

I’m off to do some more journaling on it now. “Now that I am the ideal version of me, what do I do?”