How to Live The Life of Your Dreams Part 3

A course that takes you through designing and implementing the life of your dreams...

Part 3: Considering the Reality of What You Want

As you start to uncover the true nature of what drives you, it can still be tricky to make a firm choice and decide on just one path of action.

One way to help in this situation is to consider what your ideas would look like if you put them into reality. We have been looking at potential suitable careers (although, personally I would stay away from anything that involves a boss that is not you), but it is a good way of explaining what I mean here...

It could be that the career path that you think will bring your ideal objective, satisfaction and accomplishment may not actually make you happy.

What are you trying to say, Helen?

Consider this...

What if you became a high flying executive or top lawyer in your field and it meant phone calls at all hours, interrupting your home life, working all hours and dealing with stressed out clients?

Yes, this kind of lifestyle would appeal to a certain type of person. Ask yourself is this certain type of person you?

This is your life, don't consider expectations of anyone, here whether that be parental, societal or family at this stage. We only have one shot at life.

This where lifestyle design comes into play, we will talk more on this in future posts, but the idea is to choose a job (or work) that suits your chosen lifestyle, rather than letting your job or work determine your lifestyle,

I.e if you want to work fewer hours, don't become a CEO!

If you can't shake the idea of being a CEO, then let's go back a step and think about what it is that appeals about becoming a CEO and see if there are ways it could fit into your lifestyle choice.

Maybe its the thought of being suited and booted, or feeling important that appeals, in which case there is a myriad of ways you could incorporate that into your lifestyle, that doesn't involve that time commitment.

There is a lot of planning and thinking to do, as we want to make sure we make the right choices, so we need to think about the reality of your findings and whether they will make you happy in the day to day capacity.

So think about what it is that appeals to you and how that equates on a day to day basis and whether and how it will bring you happiness.

It might be that a certain amount of time sacrifice will be necessary to set you off in the right direction and that most definitely should not put you off.

Thinking About Lifestyle Choices

If you are having trouble defining the type of lifestyle you would like and the things that make you happy, then think about your most recent memory of being happy or really great, as this kind help you pinpoint the kind of situations and lifestyles that would suit you.

As well as looking back, consider looking forward too. Think about what you want to achieve or want the world to remember you for. A surprising way to get clarity on this is to attempt to write your own eulogy!

As morbid as that seems, it can help you see what you feel is most important in life and what your priorities are in black and white.

You write it, as if it was written by someone else, but think of it as an alternate universe where your life had gone exactly as you planned, what would it say, what would people say about you? How or what do you want to be remembered for?

Some people might like recognition for being a good family man/woman, others for the great and thoughtful advice they imparted, for helping people, a genius invention etc.

What's in your speech? What truly matters to you?

Next Time

We look at how to prioritize the changes that you'd like to make, as we can't do them all at once, as that would be like running, before we can crawl

Previous Parts of How to Live The Life of Your Dreams

Part 1
Part 2