What Kind of Life Do You Want?
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A Question For All Times
We grow up dreaming of our future ... of slaying dragons, rescuing princes from bandits or fair maidens in distress. And in our dreams, we are handsomely rewarded with fame, riches, wisdom and all the treasures and pleasures of the world.
But somewhere along the way .. things change. We put our dreams in a drawer, tuck away the ideas of who we want to become ...
Until we wake up one day, look around us ... and realize that our life is no where near what we imagined, hoped for or dreamed of.
A Beautiful Mess
For many of us, our life has become a beautiful mess. Full of the odds and ends we have picked up along the way ... friends who aren't really friends at all ... pieces of furniture we used to like ... racks of CDs and DVDs that used to delight us but now remind of of who we have become instead of who we wanted to be like.
Maybe things aren't so bad, we think to ourselves ... we are paying the bills, we sleep tucked up warm at night ... we can splurge on the weekends a bit.
But the nagging questions remain ...
How did our life become this thing we don't recognize?
Isn't there more to life and it is worth changing everything to go chasing a dream that may not exist?
... and if you surface enough between fixing the washer and taking the kids to after school practice ... they can keep creeping in.
Have I become someone I don't recognize?
Is it me or my life that no longer fits?
Frog Ponds & Mental Pictures
The only way to answer that .. is to think of a frog in a pond. If you have outgrown your life ... your pond, then you will feel the need for more space, more air, more life and passion to come flooding into your life. Life needs to get juicy again ...
If you feel like you are a pale imitation of your former self ... you may have settled, paid too much for the whistle, as Ben Franklin would say.
But if your life seems unrecognizable .. if you feel lost within it ... or feel like you are becoming invisible ... it is time to take a quick mental picture. Look around at your life during a quiet moment, a sunny afternoon when nothing special is going on. No peaks and valleys of emotion here ... but a reality check of a mental snapshot of your life as it really is. Now mentally place that snapshot in front of yourself when you were growing up.
What is your reaction?
Happiness or regret? Delight or dismay?
In The Store of Life
Now think about walking through the Store of Life, and seeing on the shelf boxes with pictures of lives. Put your snapshot on the front of one of those boxes. Would you have picked it up now and say ....
Wow!! Yeap! That's the life I want!
If the answer is "no!", "Heck Noh!" or anything similar ... you might want to rethink your life and re-evaluate the life goal you have chosen.
Life often turns out differently than we planned ... but the twists and turns are supposed to make sense in hindsight and help us learn the life lessons we need on our way to fulfilling our life calling and purpose. Life is supposed to be better, not worse than we imagined.
It shouldn't take a mid- life crisis, a mental meltdown or a life spent living for the weekends to make us wake up to a life that needs changing. And that is when the real question begins with ...
What kind of life do I want?
This is a question you need to keep asking until you have an very clear idea of a life in which ....
- you feel powerful and happy, even when things fall apart
- you feel totally comfortable in your own skin
- it feels wonderful to be around people and you can see the best part in them ... even when they can't see it themselves
- you know who you are (most of the time)
- you can laugh at yourself when mistakes happen and easily move on or fix the problem
- it feels like your life is moving in the right direction
- problems have turned into opportunities to grow or show what you have learned from life
- it feels like you have enough time to do the important things in life -- there is not rush and no hurry
- you instinctively take excellent care of yourself
- you wake up excited to start the day
- you feel like you are exactly where you need to be in life
- you feel full of love ... and want to share it with the world
- you feel like you are on the right path, doing exactly what you were meant to do
- you feel full of energy
- you are excited about the future and looking forward to what it will bring
- you don't even notice the small things that used to bother you don't seem to matter anymore
- life lessons have a sense of purpose and rightness to them
- you know you are working on creating a great future
- you feel like you are swimming with the tide of the world instead of against it
- the world just looks great, even on cloudy days
- you are grateful for the life you are living and want to share it with others
- your life feels like it has a purpose
- you feel like you are following your life calling
So, do you want to get started on creating a life you will totally love? If so, begin to start living your dreams with ...
More Tools For Creating The Life You Want
If you want more ideas and strategies, these are the resources I recommend (many of which may be in your local library).
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Your Heart's Desire: Instructions for Creating the Life You Really Want This book guides you through exploring the nine steps to finding out what your heart's desire is. Well worth reading and working through. |
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This book is a great resource for helping you unleash your creativity and focus on creating the life you want based on your dreams and sources of inspiration. |
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Living the Life You Were Meant to Live This inspiring book is a practical approach to turning your dreams into a life plan you can follow by gaining a new perspective on where you have been and where you need to go. |
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Creative Awakenings: Envisioning the Life of Your Dreams Through Art Get inspired by seeing how 12 artists turned their ideas about their dream life into art that seeded their intention out into the world. |
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Work Less, Make More: Stop Working So Hard and Create the Life You Really Want! If you are stuck in a rut and need to refocus on creating the life your really want instead of what has become a habit, this is the book for you. |
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Soul Vision: Living an Inspired Life Take a good look not only at what you want, but why you want to manifest it -- sage advice on how to take what you envision to a new and more soulful level. |
The Next Step ...
If you want to find an answer, it starts with ...
Inspiring Quotes: Love Your Life
Inspiring Movies: Living Your Dreams
