Whatever age you are, you have within you a desire to do something that will make your heart sing. Something that will nourish you and challenge you to grow beyond what’s safe and comfortable, beyond what others expect of you or even what you expect of yourself.
Do you know what that is? Do you have a burning desire to fulfil and you haven’t let yourself begin that journey?
What do you dream of and would love to create in your life? Is it something completely different from what you’re doing right now, or something you’d like to add in?
Or do you not know what you’d love to do, but you have a strong sense that “there must be more to life than this….?”
I’ve worked with clients who have good jobs and lovely relationships and homes, but they feel something is missing. They feel they shouldn’t be unsettled or looking for something else because it might mean they’re not grateful for what they have. They do appreciate their lives, but they want something more.
Do you want something more in your life?
We often disconnect from or distance ourselves from what we’d love to do because of the expectations we think we need to meet.
A common regret that palliative care nurses hear from the dying is that they wished they’d lived a life that was true to themselves and not what others expected of them. A wish that they’d followed their dreams more.
Those who follow their dreams know that it’s not easy. Doing what you love isn’t the comfortable option, it’s challenging. There are new things to learn and apply. Mistakes to be made and corrected.
A big challenge is getting beyond what you think is possible, or what you think is possible for you.
But when you have formed a clear picture of what you would love to create, what you’d love to do, the path becomes clearer.
So if you know what it is you’d love to do, think about how you’d like your life to look when you have or do that thing.
Imagine yourself doing or having that thing. Really connect with how it will feel when you have that in your life.
You know the feeling when you wake from a dream and think – wow – that was so vivid, so real! You want to get that feeling from your vision coming into reality.
Notice if thoughts pop in that question the possibility of this vision coming to life. Don’t get caught up in them – managing those is the next step. Just let them come and go. The main thing is to connect to the feeling of the vision because emotions drive behaviour. Its the feelings that will make you want to stake the next steps beyond the challenges you perceive into bringing this creation to life.
Really allow that daydream to unfold as if you’re watching a movie. Connect with your senses. How does it feel physically, what does it look like? Is there a smell attached to it? Are there sounds occurring when this vision becomes a reality?
See yourself opening the box of books sent from the publisher. How do the books smell, how does the book feel in your hand…..
Or what is the view like from the top of that mountain? How do your legs feel, what’s the air like as it comes into your lungs……
It doesn’t matter how big or small your goal is, this is the first key component – really connecting to exactly what it is that you’d love and how it will appear when it comes into being. Connect to that vision and those feelings every day.
Next, we’ll look at how to manage the challenges and the objections to getting there – because they will come!