What is stopping you from living your dream life? Most likely the biggest obstacle you are facing is YOU. I know because I was there. Today I will walk you through the first 5 steps to get you started. These are the steps that I have taken myself and they have jump started my journey towards my dream life.
Figure Out What You Want! What is Your Dream Life?
The very first thing that you need to do is to figure out what you want your life to look like. If you can picture your dream life – that’s awesome. But if you do not, this is where you need to start. You need to have a clear vision of the expectations that you have for your dream life.
This is exactly where I started about a year ago. At that time I was already happily married, we had two kids, and I had a great career. I thought that was it! I mean, what other dreams would I have? LIttle did I know I had a lot more dreams for my life.
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For me it all started with Rachel Hollis and her book Girl Wash Your Face. She made me realize that yes, I can have dreams outside of having a family. And yes, they can be big and bold. So if you haven’t read her book yet, I highly recommend it.
If you are not sure what your dreams are or where to even start, I highly suggest one of Gabe Cox’s workshops called 3 Simple Steps to Developing Your Dreams. This is a free live event that you can also view in a recorded version if you register. And I will be co-hosting with her on August 26th so I hope to see you there.
Another tool that has helped me have a clear vision on what my dream life is, was creating a vision board.
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Write Down the Reasons Why You Can’t Live Your Dream Life
Now that you know what your dream life is, I want to take a piece of paper (or do it on your computer if you prefer) and write down all the reasons why you cannot live your dream life – either now or in the future. Write down everything that comes to mind.
You will quickly notice that your reasons can easily be divided into two categories. The first category will be the challenges and obstacles that you are facing. For example, if your dream live would include becoming an author, your obstacles might include things like not understanding what the publishing process involves or having difficulty concentrating while writing. The second category of reasons you have listed is… excuses.
The most common excuse that we say is our reason for not doing something is of course our favorite saying ‘I don’t have time’. I can almost guarantee that everyone would put it down as one of their reasons.
I did not even realize that some of the things that I have seen as roadblocks were actually just excuses that I was using for not going after what I want. This is also where Rachel Hollis came to the rescue with her book Girl Stop Apologizing, where she lists all those excuses we give ourselves and how to overcome them.
Address Each of the Challenges that You Have Listed
Once you have listed all the reasons why you cannot live your dream life it’s time to respond to them.
Take some time and address each obstacle that you have listed. Write down next to each challenge what you can do to overcome it. Let’s go back to the example of becoming a published author. If one of the reasons you have listed was not understanding the publishing process, you can list things like: I will find resources about book publishing, I will start following an author who has recently published his/her book and is sharing the lessons learned, or I will find an online training course on book publishing.
Next, address all the excuses you have listed. This is where some tough love will come into place. If you have listed ‘I don’t have time’ you need to write next to it ‘I will find time’. Because not having time is a total excuse. If we really want something, we make it a priority, and find time for it.
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What is the point of this exercise?
The main point of going through this it for you to prove to yourself that you are the biggest obstacle in living your dream life.
Once you decide what you want your dream life to look and address all the obstacles and excuses you have listed you will clearly see that there is nothing stopping you from living the life that you want. It will be clearly written in black and white – every obstacle can be addressed if you are willing to work for it.
Surround Yourself with Like-Minded People
Those are going to be people who are goal oriented, people who believe in personal growth, people who chase after similar dream life, and people who are already living their dream life.
For example, if your dream is to be a published author, seek out people who have already published a book and follow them on social media or sign-up to be part of their community if they have one. You can join different groups on social media that are designed for aspiring authors. Or find a grouping a local community.
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Surrounding yourself with like-minded people will keep you inspired, motivated, and help you decide what steps you should next in your journey. Because there are so many people that already walked in your shoes who are willing to share the lessons they have learned, that there is no reason for you to start from scratch. Take advantage of all the knowledge (most of which is free and readily available) and start your journey to the life that you want.
Create a Plan of Action for Your Dream Life
The plan of action requires you to define and set your goals in order to achieve your dream life. Create goals for yourself and go after it. I made a whole post on goal setting – how to plan and track your goals. And you can also download the free Goal Planner and Tracker that will make this step much easier for you.
Or create your own. The most important things is that you get started on making your dream life a reality.
Your Turn
Are you ready to live the life of your dreams? What do you think is the biggest challenge that you need to overcome?
I think my biggest challenge isn’t my own time but my husband’s due to his erratic work schedule! This usually means roping in help from grandparents. I definitely have a few things I’d like to achieve such as getting back to doing more musical activity.
That is definitely a challenge! I’m glad you have an option of getting some support from grandparents.
Great post. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people is key. I’ve found the blogging community so supportive, and they’ve helped me learn and gain confidence so quickly, which will be key in me striving for my next goal. And tough love with the “I don’t have time” excuse is so true!!
I also found the blogging community and entrepreneur community very supportive! Beyond my expectations!
I love the idea of separating challenges and excuses and you’re so right that not having time is definitely an excuse!
I have said that phrase ‘I don’t have time’ so many times in the past. But what it really means is, I have time – I just choose to use it differently.
This is super helpful! I think personally, fear is what holds me back in pretty much everything which is something I’m working on overcoming. I try now to live by a quote I once read – F.E.A.R – forget everything and run OR face everything and rise.
I love that accronym! And yes, fear is definitely something that can hold us back. And it’s usually fear of what other people will think of us when we do x,y,z…
Fab ideas. I also think it helps to make a vision board on Pinterest. It hardly takes any time and can really help you focus on how you want your life to look and to motivate you to make it happen. You can keep the board secret if you like! XX
Yes! I love vision boards. I have a physical one by my office desk, so I look at it every day. But I also love your idea of a vision board on Pinterest!
Surrounding yourself with likeminded people is definitely key! This was very enlightening, I hope I’ll be able to take this on board x
Yes! I have noticed a huge difference when I started being intentional about who is in my circle!