Obstacles are those frightful things you see when
you take your eyes off your goal.
You can be anything you want to be; not everything, but anything. Take a moment for yourself. Sit back, relax and allow yourself to dream for a bit about whom you’d really like to be and what you would really like to be doing with your life. If you could simply paint an image of who you want to be, what would that look like? Free-association like this can be incredibly helpful in realizing your goals.
Spend some productive time meditating on your dreams with these strategies:
1. Find a quiet time and place. This will be somewhere where you can reflect without being interrupted. You might take a walk in the park or go on a bike ride. Maybe you’ll choose to lie out on a blanket under a big shade tree in your own backyard.
2. Encourage your mind to pursue any positive thoughts. Think about what you wanted to be when you were ten, fifteen and twenty. Was it the same occupation or way of life at each stage of development? Or were you always coming up with something new?
3. Now, think about your deepest desires. Do you want to have a lot of money or travel the world? Or do you want to settle down and have a family? Perhaps you picture yourself surrounded by many close friends with whom you spend a lot of your time. Maybe your preferred way of life is an independent, quiet lifestyle alone with your books and hobbies.
4. Next, visualize your living space. Where you live greatly influences the kind of life you have. Living in a warm southern climate means you can be more physically active year round. If you live in an apartment in the middle of a big city, you might live a life filled with wall to wall people, different ethnic foods and cultural experiences. There is rarely any quiet and you’re incredibly active, soaking in all that city life has to offer. A rural setting on the other hand provides a different sense of stability. You can enjoy nature frequently. The sights, sounds and smells of plants, animals and the four seasons surround you as you walk or work outdoors. Stress levels also tend to be lower.
5. Make a wish. I know you think that making a wish is just for kids. But for the sake of this exercise, if you could have just one wish for your life, what would it be? To be a mother or father? To travel to a few exotic countries? To be an accountant or small business owner? Your wish will reveal a lot about you and what you desire.
6. Dream about your career. Continuing to paint the picture of who you would choose to be, and where would you be working? What kind of environment feels ideal to you? What kind of job credentials would you hold? What would you be like in that situation? Because work is almost one-third of your life, your career choice is profoundly integral to your overall happiness.
7. Start engaging in a little planning. Now that you’ve reflected on your life and who you’d like to become, how close is your real life situation to your desires? What can you do to help yourself become who and what you really want to be?
You deserve to live the life you choose. Reflect on who and what you want to be. Let your mind go for a bit. Then ask yourself, what do you want for yourself. Think about where you’d prefer to live. Think about the career you’d have if you could do everything all over.
8. Finally, ask yourself what you will specifically need to do to get to the place of your dreams physically, emotionally and career-wise. Then, start doing it!
You can be anything you want to be. Make some effort now to find out who that really is. Then do it!
Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. ~Arnold H. Glasow
Thoughts?
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