Five Wishes by Gay Hendricks is a short book (the audiobook is about 2 hours long) that I see as essentially a visualization guide for what we want to get out of life.
The first 20 minutes of the audiobook (narrated by the author) is, I think, the most important and valuable section. The author tells about meeting a well-known spiritual teacher at a cocktail party when he was in his 30’s, and getting swept up into a deep conversation in which he visualized what would have to happen for him to feel that his life was a complete success (and also a failure) when he was on his deathbed. He was also asked by the teacher why each goal/wish was important to him. The author’s five wishes included having a loving and enduring relationship with a woman, not withholding important truths (“incompletions”) from people, documenting the wisdom he discovers during his life, and others. The remainder of the book goes into some detail about how he brought into reality each of his five wishes.
The author made this worksheet to accompany the book:
https://foundationforconsciousliving.org/wp-content/uploads/FIVE-WISHES-worksheet.pdf
I found that the worksheet deviated from the visualization process described in the book, so I made this table so illustrate and simplify the process:
| My life was NOT a complete success because… (“anti-vision” past tense from view from death bed) | My life IS a complete success because I… (vision present tense from some time in the future) | Why this is important to me |
There are many visualization exercises that are similar. The exercise in Five Wishes is just one example that might help if you feel that you lack concrete direction in your life for what to aim for, and wish to get more clarity on your values and create more goals worth pursuing.
Our odds of creating something are far better if we first visualize it, design it, and imagine it. Imagine going on journey without choosing a destination first or frequently checking our map, or building a house without making a blueprint and consulting it often. The results are going to be unintentional and unpredictable. That principal also applies to living life.
While spontaneous exploration in life is important and fun, I think it is ideally balanced with intentional design and planning, and visualization exercises like the one in Five Wishes are one way of intentionally creating the life we want.
Link to the audiobook:
Kindle version: