In order to live the life of your dreams, you must have a clear vision of what that dream life is. The first step towards your journey to the ideal life is seeing the bigger picture and understanding how to get there. To start off, imagine your dream life and ask yourself:
How often are you traveling?
What hobbies do you have?
What brings you joy in life?
What's on your bucket list?
Do you love who you are spending time with?
Do you feel like you get to live your life's purpose?
This isn’t about perfectionism or comparing yourself to others. It’s about not missing opportunities, doing things we want to do, creating, giving, sharing, spending time with loved ones, and most importantly – doing what makes you happy.
As the wise quote from the late Heath Ledger goes, “Everyone you meet always asks if you have a career, are married or own a house as if life was some kind of grocery list. But no one asks if you are happy.”
Knock the social norms, forge your own path, and build a life filled with purpose, happiness, and fulfillment.
Remember, no matter where you live, how old you are, or what you do, living the life of your dreams is attainable, but it comes down to your actions and beliefs. To live your best life, you must confront the challenges along the way and learn how to overcome them. Here are six common barriers to pursuing your dreams and how to conquer them:
Our comfort zones are convenient. We know how everything works, what we feel like, and how to play to our strengths. As creatures of habit, it’s no wonder why we strive to stay in our comfort zone. The problem is that feelings of safety and coziness can stall progress and hold you back.
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”- Neale Donald Walsch
The solve: You may not know exactly how you’ll get from Point A to Point Z, and that’s okay. To leave your comfort zone, all you have to do is take one small step and build upon that momentum. Taking a series of little steps, one at a time, will eventually lead you to your destination.
“I’m not ready”, “I don’t have enough experience”, “I’m not good enough", are all examples of self-limiting beliefs that prevent us from achieving the next level of success and happiness in our personal and professional lives.
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
The solve: Face your negative beliefs head-on. Define, describe and name the beliefs, write them down, and rebuild a positive belief system. Shifting from imposter syndrome to a growth mindset filled with positive beliefs will take time, but it will slowly become your new default belief. The Empowerment Dynamic helps you shift away from a problem-focused, anxiety-based, and reactive approach to more resourceful and effective ways of thinking, relating, and taking action.
A lack of clarity produces a lack of results. The number one reason why people fail to achieve their goals is an unclear vision of the life they want to live. People spend time on where they want to vacation, the next series on Netflix to watch, and what their wardrobe looks like, but fail to dedicate time to develop a clear vision for their future.
"Clarity is power. The more clear you are about what you want, the more likely you are to achieve it". -Billy Cox
The solve: Set a time on your calendar to create clarity and alignment around your dreams, goals, your values, and your priorities, and write them down!
It’s important to have clear dreams and goals, but if you don’t create a plan to make it happen, then it’s not going to happen. Although it may need to be adjusted a hundred times along the way, pivoting becomes much easier with a strategic plan and clear end goal.
“An hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing.” - Dale Carnegie
The solve: Break your big goals into smaller, digestible, and tangible steps. Use a planning tool, app, or roadmap to track your progress and hold yourself accountable.
Are you the type of person who needs to have it all figured out before you act? For many people, we get stuck waiting for the perfect time, the perfect idea, and the perfect plan to begin, and spend too much time researching and not enough time doing.
“Perfectionism is a delusion that can rob one of a very successful, enriching life if not careful.” – April Bryan
The solve: Realize that knowing 80% is good enough. In life, there will always be uncertainty, and we must act regardless of having all the information. And if we fail along the way – view it as an opportunity to learn, fix your mistakes, and grow.
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I hope you’ve gained some insight into building self-awareness and the power of the intentional pursuit of your ideal life.
Similar to the African proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child”, it also takes a strong support system along with the right tools to achieve your dreams.
