Hey everyone!
Welcome back to Lavendaire.
It's Aileen.
Today is another video in our Dream Life Series.
We're going to talk about clarifying what you want with your life.
So if you've missed the previous videos in this series,
I'll link everything down below, as well as info on how to sign up for the series.
Today we're focusing on how to decide what you want out of life,
and I think this is the most fun and exciting part personally,
because I love all the different exercises that you can do to really dig into this.
Today I'm just gonna mention a few exercises,
and yes, I've shared these before in other videos which I'll also link below,
but I thought it'd be nice to put this in the series because it's really important.
So the first exercise is called the Vivid Vision exercise.
What you do is: You lean forward three years and you envision
what your ideal life looks like in three years.
The reason why it's three years is because it's long enough to give you time to make changes,
but not too far ahead that it's like, "What's the point of planning that far ahead?"
Three years is about a good time.
And what you do is: You kind of look in your life in all the different areas.
How's your health?
How are your relationships?
How's your career, personal growth, spirituality, creativity?
And you decide what areas matter to you.
Spend more time in those areas.
And take some time to brainstorm and dream.
Where are you living?
What are you doing with your life?
What people are around you in your life?
How do you spend your time?
What do your days and your weekends look like?
What are your habits?
How much money do you make?
What hobbies do you engage in?
Really take the time to paint that picture of what your ideal life looks like in three years.
You have to think about June 2021.
I know it sounds really far off,
but you can start planning for what you want that life to look like.
Also don't forget, in your Vivid Vision, to include how you want to feel in your life in three years.
So don't focus on just material things and what your life looks like on the outside.
Also include how you want to feel on the inside, because that's just as important, if not more.
Do you want to feel happy?
Do you want to feel loved?
Do you want to feel carefree?
Really just paint that picture and write it all out.
So if you signed up for the email series,
you'll get a copy of my Vivid Vision that I wrote in 2015.
So it was 2015 and I wrote it for what my life would look like in 2018.
And it's kind of scary to look at what came true
and what didn't come true, what I'm still working on.
But I just thought it'd be fun to share that,
so if you're part of the email series, you'll get a copy of that whole essay that I wrote.
After you're done writing your Vivid Vision, copy that and paste it in your phone,
somewhere in your notes or on a Google Doc,
somewhere where you can read it every single day
because you want to really remind yourself what you want, where you're going in your life.
The more you read it, the more it's going to be ingrained in you,
and that's how you subconsciously will make choices in your life
that bring you closer to that vision you have.
By the way, if you are still not sure what you want out of your life,
you don't really know what your goals or your dreams are, that's totally okay too.
If you're in that place of uncertainty, then my advice to you is to just follow your curiosity.
Take your time to explore those different areas and eventually you might get inspired
and then you'll have a clearer idea of what you want out of your life.
But it does take time.
It doesn't come to everyone naturally and immediately.
You do have to go out there, search around, and find it.
There's a really amazing talk on this topic by Elizabeth Gilbert.
It's called Flight of the Hummingbird.
So If you're in that uncertain, lost stage,
then definitely watch that talk and you'll feel so much better.
I'll link it down below.
I also have some videos and podcasts that will help you
if you're still in the stage of figuring out what you want to do with your life,
so check those links down below.
The next exercise that I want to share is one that I've done every single year since 2012.
It's called Current Me vs. Future Me.
If you've followed me for a while, then you already know what this is.
It's in my Artist of Life Workbook.
What you do is: You open up two pages of a notebook.
On one side, you draw your current self and you write speech bubbles or thought bubbles around it
kind of painting the picture of how you feel and what your life looks like right now.
And then on the other side of the notebook, you draw your ideal future self
and then you fill it up with what you want that ideal self to look like, to feel,
to be thinking, and what that life looks like.
So it's a really nice way to visualize where you are now and where you want to be.
And I've been doing this every single year and it's really cool
because if I look back at previous years, I was in a dark place when I started.
I was really depressed and lost, that 2012 year when I first did this exercise.
And the Future Me that I drew back then pretty much looks like the Current Me that I am now.
So it's really fun to see your growth and see how every year,
you become more and more of that person that you want to become.
And it's really motivating to see that, so that's something that I encourage everyone to do.
You don't even need to be part of the email series to do it.
You can do it in your own notebook.
But if you do sign up for the series, I will have the worksheets
and everything to go along with all the exercises from today.
I'll also share some extra exercises that I won't talk about in this video.
I just don't want this video to be too long.
So in the email, I'll talk about creating a Vision Board and also defining your Ideal Day.
Lastly, in clarifying what you want in your life,
it's really important to be setting clear and specific goals.
You can set yearly goals, but you can also break it down to quarterly goals and monthly goals.
I personally like to set goals in different areas of my life,
so having health goals, career goals, personal growth goals, relationship goals.
And I do that all in my Artist of Life Workbook.
I get pretty detailed here with the goal setting,
and not only goal setting but consistently reviewing how you did towards your goals.
The reason why I don't like just setting yearly goals and leaving it at that is
because it takes so long to review how you did and you just forget about them, right?
So if you break down your goals into quarterly or monthly goals,
1) they're easier to tackle because you're kind of filtering out
what you want to focus on for this quarter or this month,
and 2) it's easier to review how you did on your goals.
Maybe you set goals for this month and by the end you do a little review like
"How did I do? What did I learn?"
I feel like that's very beneficial for constantly steering your life in the direction that you want,
rather than waiting a whole year to reflect and do that thing.
By the way: Since it's June, I do get a lot of questions on
whether it's worth it to get the Artist of Life Workbook because this is an annual workbook.
It is, because 1) it's so important to start now on your goals.
I mean, you still have half of the year left, so you don't want to waste that half year.
2) Another way you can actually use the workbook is:
There's a "Goodbye, 2017" section where you reflect on last year.
And what you can do is: Instead of reflecting on 2017,
you can use that section to reflect on the first half of 2018.
And then for the rest of the workbook, you can use that to set your goals for the rest of 2018.
So there's definitely a way to make this workbook work for you
and start now on planning out your goals and clarifying what you want.
So if you want to find out more about the workbook,
I'll link it down below so you can check out more info.
Alright, now that I've shared more exercises on how to clarify
what you want with your dream life, it's time for you to do your homework.
So if you're in the series, check your email inboxes for your homework.
There's a few exercises in there and also examples of my exercises.
I know there's quite a few exercises in today's email,
so don't feel obligated to do all of them at once.
Just take it at your own pace.
Do it one at a time.
It really is up to you.
But now you have the tools, and it's up to you to use it.
If you're not signed up for the email series yet, there's a link down below
to sign up so you can get all the bonus worksheets and content.
And FYI: You'll get an intro email with a section that says "Catch Up".
Just follow the instructions there to catch up
and see previous emails and previous homework and worksheets,
including the one for this video, because the way it works is:
Once the video is posted, the email gets sent out about the same time,
so if you're watching this video after it's posted, that email has already been sent.
So the only way to access the homework is to go in that Catch Up section.
Alright, that's it for today.
Love you guys so much.
And now, let's check out some of my favorite posts from the #DreamLifeSeries hashtag.