The Miracle Question: Get Clarity on Your Goals

Most of us have something we would like to improve in our life.  When people come to counseling, creating change is usually their goal.  When you want change in your life it is important to get a really clear picture of what change you want.  It is important to get an understanding of how you will know when things have changed.  A cool way to get this information is the Miracle Question.  The Miracle Question asks, “Suppose that tonight a miracle happened when you were sleeping.  When you awake tomorrow the challenge that you are here to work through is gone.  Describe your day from the moment you wake up.  What do you notice?  What is different?”

The great thing about the Miracle Question is it gives us permission to truly visualize our lives without the things that drain us.  It clarifies what our true goals are.  It also gives us insight as to how we will know when we have met our goals.  Often times, we are empowered by our answers to the Miracle Question.  To illustrate what I am talking about, let me give an example.

Try This Exercise

Perhaps you are tired of feeling stressed.  You would like for the amount of stress you feel in your life to decrease.  Now image that your stress is gone.  Close your eyes and run a movie of your day through your head.  In the movie you are not stressed, but relaxed.  Notice all the subtle changes in your day.  These are the changes that, if they happened, would let you know you reached your goal.  For example, when you wake up in the morning, what do you notice?  What is different?  As you get ready for your day how do you feel?  What things in your relationships or environment are different?  What things are the same?

When you finish this activity reflect on what you learned.  Often times an activity such as this can give us clarity on the change we want to create.  When we get clarity, we are then able to create our change.  Sometimes although we get clarity we still feel stuck on figuring out HOW to make the changes we want.  If you feel stuck, you can reach out to a counselor for support in creating change.  Call our office at 720-583-9332 to set up an appointment.

Written by Dr. Steffanie Stecker