Who Could You Become?

An exercise in possibility.


We all have these stories programmed into our minds, of who we are, where we are going, and how we are going to get there. We didn’t choose them, they just happened.

Sometimes the greatest breakthroughs lie in pushing through these stories and into the uncharted realm of pure possibility. It’s hard though, because we are literally thinking outside of the box that contains everything we have ever known. As existentialist as it may be, we really don’t know what it’s like to not have our lives, minds and stories. They are unique to us, and they are our prison.

I’ve never been a big fan of prison. I don’t want to physically go there and I don’t want to mentally remain there. So I embrace the unknown and uncharted. I want to open my mind up to all the ways my life could be, instead of focusing on the ways my life is or isn’t.

I am borrowing this exercise from my friend Matt Miller. He published a blog post recently here.

The exercise is simple, write a list of possibilities. Things I could be, instead of things I am. The key is to do this without censoring myself, or trying to stick to what’s “realistic.” Just to go with whatever thought happens to jump into my head and allow my creativity to flow.

Some of these would require a great deal of practice, others could be realized by a simple choice.

Let’s do this.

  1. I could be a doctor.
  2. I could be fat.
  3. I could become a woman through surgery.
  4. I could get my chinese citizenship.
  5. I could die a horrible death.
  6. I could be a musician.
  7. I could paint buildings blue.
  8. I could paint sidewalk portraits of celebrities.
  9. I could paint faces.
  10. I could become completely tattooed everywhere.
  11. I could hate people.
  12. I could hate jews.
  13. I could hate black people.
  14. I could love black people.
  15. I could love jews.
  16. I could love all people unconditionally.
  17. I could not give a shit.
  18. I could be funnier.
  19. I could be more somber.
  20. I could be the president of a company.
  21. I could be a janitor.
  22. I could be a professional burrito tester.
  23. I could swim in a pool filled with jello.
  24. I could have to clean up a pool filled with jello.
  25. I could be a professional hole digger.
  26. I could be a billionaire.
  27. I could evolve past owning a physical body, just existing as pure consciousness uploaded onto a drive that is launched deep into space, only to return to anything intelligent after millions and millions of years.
  28. I could be overstating the possibility of technology…
  29. I could be a famous app developer.
  30. I could become a fitness guru.
  31. I could become an author.
  32. I could have 10 kids.
  33. I could be a failure.
  34. I could be successful beyond my wildest dreams.
  35. I could be the cause of more problems than I solve.
  36. I could be the cause of world war three.
  37. I could be the antichrist.
  38. I could be inconsequential in history.
  39. I could be legendary.
  40. I could be a warrior.
  41. I could be a ninja.
  42. I could become a master samurai.
  43. I could be a soldier.
  44. I could be a marine.
  45. I could be skinny.
  46. I could be a nutrition expert.
  47. I could be a bear wrestler.
  48. I could be a time traveller, travel back to the days of the dinosaurs and your mom.
  49. I could write beautiful poetry.
  50. I could read more fiction.
  51. I could read more poetry.
  52. I could be 100% honest all the time.
  53. I could be authentic.
  54. I could be fake.
  55. I could be trusting.
  56. I could be a slimy son of a bitch.
  57. I could be greasy.
  58. I could be clean.
  59. I could be bald.
  60. I could have my nipples surgically replaced with little bells.
  61. I could have my hair died blue.
  62. I could get my eyebrow pierced.
  63. I could get my eyeballs tattooed.
  64. I could get contacts that make my eyes look like cats eyes.
  65. I could never find out the answer to the meaning of life.
  66. I could be a wise old man.
  67. I could be a dead old man.
  68. I could be an undertaker.
  69. I could be a cemetery groundskeeper.
  70. I could not ever find a woman.
  71. I could have 3 wives.
  72. I could have 3 wives at the same time.
  73. I could have 1 wonderful strong boy.
  74. I could be infertile.
  75. I could be a victim of a hit and run.
  76. I could be a gang member.
  77. I could run a drug cartel.
  78. I could be a tiger tamer.
  79. I could be a famous actor.
  80. I could be a not so famous actor.
  81. I could have an amazing memory well into my old age.
  82. I could develop parkinsons and alzheimers in my 20s.
  83. I could become a great man.
  84. I could change the world
  85. I could help millions of children realize their potential and help them pursue their dreams.
  86. I could inspire thousands of people to understand themselves and the world more.
  87. I could be a pastor.
  88. I could read the bible and convince myself to believe it.
  89. I could not do that.
  90. I could read thousands of books in my lifetime.
  91. I could watch all the documentaries on Netflix.
  92. I could travel to mumbai.
  93. I could ride a camel up to the whitehouse and bitchslap Obama.
  94. I could urinate off the new world trade center building.
  95. I could take a shit on the hope diamond.
  96. I could create a worldwide network of people taking shits on famous landmarks then snapchatting it to Oprah.
  97. I could have sex with Oprah.
  98. I could have sex with Johnny Depp.
  99. I could change the world for the better.
  100. I could barely change the world at all.

Well that was revealing. Wow there was some stuff in my mind that I had never thought would be there.

Definitely got outside of my comfort zone on some of those. Replacing my nipples with tiny bells? Wtf? That’s sort of awesome.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed that and at least smiled at one or two of them.

I invite you to try it out for yourself, shoot me an email at jon.e.bowes@gmail.com and let me know how it works out.

www.jonbowes.com






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