You may be used to hearing, “build the life of your dreams,” or, “design your dream life!” Yes, that’s what we’re here to talk about, but we’re putting a little spin on this idea. We are going to dive into how to build your dream lifestyle.
What’s the difference between creating your dream life and lifestyle? It’s not what you think. We’re not talking about fancy cars, big houses, and yachts. Today, we’re diving deep into our heart’s desire. Because lifestyle is not about what you have but about how you feel. So how do you go about achieving your goals? Here are four steps to making your vision a reality.
Be clear on your core values.
We don’t want to get to the end of the road and realize we’ve veered off-course. Staying aligned with our values is the most important part of this whole journey because WHO you are in the end is more important than WHERE you are. So, let’s be sure we’re clear on what those values are.
If you haven’t already defined your core values, check out this list compiled by Psychology Today. We’ll put a few of our favorites here if you’d like a quick glance for inspiration:
- Authenticity
- Adventure
- Compassion
- Family
- Freedom
- Friendships
- Generosity
- Health
- Love
- Loyalty
- Spirituality
- Wisdom
To summarize, step 1 in creating your dream lifestyle is defining your core life values. Write them down and keep them close. We suggest even creating a life mission statement that includes at least your top three values.
Decide how you want to feel.
As mentioned, your dream lifestyle is not so much about what you have; it’s about how you feel. When you base your goals solely on things—like the amount of money in your bank account, the vacations you take, the car your drive, etc.—we can still find ourselves unhappy. We can be so zoned in on reaching those materialistic goals that we miss the point of it all.
This doesn’t mean that attaining these tangible milestones isn’t important, or that they’re wrong in any way. But before setting those goals, ask yourself, “how will this make me feel?” Another question you might ask is, “why do I want this for me (or my family)?”
For example, if going on carefree, and even extravagant, vacations is a big goal for you and your family, instead of leaving it at that, dig a little deeper. Maybe this is a goal because “family” is an important value of yours. Going on vacations with family can build deep connections and core memories for your children. Vacationing can relieve stress and leave you feeling free and adventurous.
Aligning your core values with your goals + aligning your vision with how you want to feel = a magical dream life.
Write your dream lifestyle down.
Now that we know what our essential values are and how we want our future self to feel, here’s a quick exercise for you. Write your dream life down on paper! This step is oftentimes missed, but this Forbes™ article (and neuroscience) explains why you need to write down your goals if you want to achieve them.
This might feel overwhelming, so here is one way to do this to get started. Get your journal and begin writing down what a day in your dream life looks like. Be as detailed as you possibly can. Start with how you wake up, where you are, who you’re with, what you do, and finally, HOW YOU FEEL! Describe a full day from waking up in the morning to going to sleep at night.
There’s something about putting pen to paper that takes it from visualization to reality.
Get to work!
Step four is putting these goals and dreams into motion. We can visualize all we want, but if we don’t do the work, we won’t get to where we want to go. But how do we get started? Here’s a quick guide for you broken down in three simple steps:
1. Set your goals and get organized.
We talked about what we want our dream life to look like, so now it’s time to break those up into bite-sized goals. It’s important to start with the end in mind and create action steps based on those goals.
For example, it’s not enough to say, “I want to make ___ amount of monthly income,” as a financial goal. Whatever that number is for you must be broken down into actionable steps.
Not all goals are attached to finances though. You can recreate these same steps with other areas of life like getting and staying healthy, investing in your relationships, etc.
The key is to be clear on the action you need to take daily and keep those goals organized in a daily planner.
2. Act with integrity and authenticity.
The keyword here is “act.” Now that you know what your day-to-day action steps look like you can move forward with confidence that you’re getting closer to your goals. However, in order to feel good about where you’re going, acting with integrity as yourself is crucial.
This is a simple step, but it’s important. Continue to check-in with how your goals align with your values and stay on track.
3. Stay disciplined and don’t quit.
You have your goals. You’ve written them down. Now, it’s time to stick with them. Don’t let up, because the difference between those who make it and those who don’t is persistence. When you know why you’re putting in this effort, you’re more likely to finish what you started.
That’s why starting at step one will get you where you’re going.
Your dream lifestyle is within your reach!
It really is! We hope we’ve been able to take this vague idea of building your dream life and given it substance. And we hope you take it and run with it!
There are times when we are striving to reach our goals, that we start to be too inward focused. If you find yourself overwhelmed along this journey, try focusing outward. Here is one of our favorite blogs on “The Power of Empowering Others.” We think it will help!
