17.
Think About Your Ideal
Neighborhood
One of the things I have done along my quest for self-knowledge is to make a
list of all the people I wished lived next door to me. These are men and women
from both the past and present who I would love to be able to drop in on for a
quick cup of tea every once in a while and share a laugh with from time to time.
The very act of listing your “ideal neighbors” will connect you to many of the
values and traits you respect the most in people and, in doing so, help you to
discover more about yourself as a person. It is also a fun way to spend 30
minutes of your life. Here are some of the people on my list:
Norman Vincent Peale, the famed author of The Power of Positive Thinking
Henry David Thoreau, the great American philosopher and the author of
Walden, one of my favorite books
Baltasar Gracian, the Jesuit scholar who became one of Spain’s greatest
writers
Billie Holiday, the great jazz singer
Nelson Mandela, the freedom fighter
Og Mandino, self-help author of such classics as A Better Way to Live and
University of Success
Mother Teresa, the respected humanitarian
Richard Branson, the British tycoon and adventurer
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, the colorful Canadian prime minister
Miles Davis, the legendary trumpeter
Muhammad Ali, the world champion boxer
Benjamin Franklin, the renowned statesman
Take a moment right now to jot down some of the people whom you
wished lived on your street. Then think about the qualities that make these men
and women so admirable and how you might foster such qualities in your own
life. The first step to realizing your life vision is defining it. And the first step to
becoming the person you want to be is identifying the traits of the person you
want to be.
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