But then I did an exercise to discover "my dream life" by describing it in a narrative. My "dream life narrative" seemed rather lofty until I made a LIST of these things from my narrative and then for each item on the list I asked myself "WHY do I want this item?". I discovered that if I looked at what I was doing NOW in my life and answered the "BIG WHY" question, I was actually "living my dream life" but on a smaller scale. The important thing was that I was living the "WHY" question NOW.
Let me explain. My dream life consisted of, in part: 1) Taking a family vacation every year with kids and grandkids and we pay ( I wrote about this in a separate post ) WHY? In order to have fun together and make family memories 2) Be living in a house surrounded by woods and nature WHY? To experience nature every day 3) Be involved in a business that I enjoy. WHY? To have fun doing something I enjoy and at the same time, make a little extra money. When I looked at my "current" life I was doing things that answered the "WHY"s but on a bit smaller scale than what I had envisioned in my narrative. Nevertheless, I was actually "living my dream life". I was making memories with family by taking less expensive vacations, I was already living near some woods and enjoying nature, and I was involved in a "hobby" that I had not considered a business yet I enjoyed it and made money at it! I was eventually able to reach the envisioned goals that I had in mind when writing my dream life narrative!
Try this exercise for yourself! Writing out your "dream life" does not have to be a materialistic exercise. Your dream life should reflect your values and thus could involve more "experience" and "relationship" goals. But it's good once in a while to see if where you want to be in life is where you're actually going. And it's also nice to discover that you may, in fact, be actually living your "dream life"!
great blog mom ;) love seeing you live your dreams!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elissa! ;)
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