The Miracle Question

Jackie is a 44 year old woman who has worked as a paralegal in a large, downtown firm for over 20 years. She has two teenaged children and a supportive spouse. For a couple of years she’s been batting around the idea of doing something different in her career. It’s not that she dislikes her job. She still enjoys the satisfaction she gains from helping clients negotiate the legal system and she loves the camaraderie and support she finds with her co-workers.

Jackie places a high value in feeling challenged in her work, and yet, for years now, she's felt like she's been able to do her job with one hand tied behind her back. She is feeling stale and bored, and with no possibility of further upward movement inside the company, she is faced with twenty more years of the same routine, day in and day out. 

Jackie knows she is ready to make a radical change but just can’t seem to get her head around what that change might look like? What could she do? How would it work? How might it impact her husband and kids?  Could she afford the time and money required to go back to school? Etc. etc. etc.

When you know that you are ready to make a change but are overwhelmed by endless questions rolling around inside your head and you can't quite picture what your new reality might look like, try this helpful strategy brought to you by the late Insoo Kim Berg, a pioneer of Brief Solution-Focused Therapy.

The Miracle Question

Read the following questions and answer them as completely as you can, including as many specific details as possible. 

1)      Imagine that sometime during the night while you are sleeping, a miracle happens. All your problems are solved and all of your questions have been answered. When you wake up, you have made the change you want and your “Miracle Day” begins. Describe this Miracle Day with as much specific detail as you can.

2)      Who will be the first person to notice something different about you? What will they notice? What will you be doing different? Saying different? How will you be acting different in any way? What differences will the other important people in your life notice about you?

3)      What will you notice different about yourself? How will you be feeling? What will you be thinking about?

When Jackie woke upon  'Miracle' Monday the first thing she noticed was how energized and excited she felt. She was 2 months into her new job as a vet technician and couldn't wait to get into work. When she got up, instead of putting on her office attire, she threw on a comfortable pair of jeans and a sweater. Because she was no longer faced with a one hour commute into the city, she was able to prepare breakfast for her two children and chat about the presentation her youngest had planned for his science class. As she ate her own good breakfast, she had fun thinking about the surgery that she was going to assist with later that morning. She was a little nervous that she would remember to do everything correctly but was happy to experience that sensation of butterflies in her stomach as it meant she was being challenged.

This is just a taste of the detail you might include in your own example. In fact, the more detail you include the more your dream will begin to coalesce from a vague longing into a world of practical possibilities. Your brain is a most powerful tool - take the time to imagine the life that, deep down in your heart of hearts, has been calling to you for so long. You never know what might happen!