Live Your dream life – I know that it is a bit of an ambiguous term, and a dream life is going to be open to your own interpretation, but there are many qualities and ways of thinking that many people have in common when it comes to living the dream. 

“When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.” ~ Leo Burnett.

People tell you to follow your dreams, to go on and become something, to achieve something. The world is full of possibilities in all directions, for those who face their fear, leave their comfort zone, grab the opportunities and create their own story. There comes a time in your life, when you know that you have to take that leap – to realise a dream that you may have had for a very long time.

Throughout the years, I have worked on a few dreams of my own including running my own business and being autonomous with it, choosing to live at the seaside, competing in sporting events, and making new academic discoveries. I had to research people who had done similar things and explore how those dreams were achieved and found some commonalities that I wanted to share today.

There are many familiar feelings we all experience when we choose to take that path and make it our aim to live the dream. When you make that decision, it can feel as if nothing scares you anymore, every problem seems to become an opportunity, personal growth almost becomes your obsession, you start to find the right people to surround yourself with and be amongst, you may get bouts of self-doubt, the uncommon becomes the new common and you naturally become more accountable and responsible.

In many aspects of the modern world, achievement is sometimes fueled and created according to goals others have placed for you. It is sometimes tough to have genuine passion if a goal is not truly in your heart and mind one way to live your dreams is to have a sense of purpose and a passion for what you do. To love what you do is often to live your dream.

Most people get the impression that your dream will come screaming in your face. That is, that they are obvious and we are very aware of them. Yet some of your dreams often sneak up on you, and whisper in your ear. Tuning into oneself and listening to such whispers can change your life.

Here are a number of ways to help yourself pursue the dreams you have for yourself and live the life of your dreams…..

Create profound and powerful habits that develop character:

Habits, the way of creating your own reality. There are people that have the ability to follow the habits towards their goals, no matter what. But remember being constantly buzzy does not mean that you will be successful. Take your time to observe your surroundings, and work smart not just hard. Think about and research the kind of daily habits that will drive you towards your goals – AND that will develop a particular type of character that will lead you to your dreams.

A small bush grows into a three, but this does not happen overnight, it’s the result of habits of smart work over a long period of time towards a conscious goal.

In a study between two schools (Riverdale Country school and KIPP Public Charter School; both is the US but at opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum) aimed at creating an approach to character development, positive psychology experts including a hero of mine Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson created a list of character strengths they believed essential to success. Their list included grit, self-control, zest, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.” ~ Steve Jobs

If reaching your goals includes developing a certain skill set, create habits towards that goal and ones that will require you to develop such skills. And again… remember things may take time. So do ensure such habits are enjoyable to develop (you get to enjoy the journey that way, not just be fixed on the outcome, you want to live the dream life while working towards it!).

Nothing is done within a day. Identify the dreams and create goals and develop smart habits that will propel you towards accomplishing that specific goal in the process.

Don’t rush the process, enjoy the process while it lasts. Don’t let your enjoyment of life only be achieved when you reach the destination of the dream.  

Find your optimum environment:

What matters most is this moment? See the now, take responsibility and move forward. Finding your environment is essential. I’d probably advance the commercial aspects of my business if I lived in London and took up more of the invites I receive to work overseas much more – yet I choose the environment where my family are, where the sea is, where my environment nourishes and sustains me wonderfully and in such a satisfying way – that is right for me. Your environment may not need to be so stable, but work out where you function most effectively and what environment brings you the most joy and fulfilment.

“Cherish your yesterdays, dream your tomorrows and live your todays.” ~ Anonymous

People strive for happiness, and many would argue that happiness correlates strongly with progress in many individuals. The world is filled with unhappy and unsuccessful people that often strive for goals and try to uphold values that society has planned for them, that rarely overlaps with their own values and dreams. They can even be rich, have a comfortable lifestyle and have the specific factors that many see as success in today’s achiever society. Without being genuinely successful at all within themselves and most importantly they often don’t feel happy with a brand of imposed success. Create your own path, create your own environment. Test your imagination (that is, run it by yourself to see how it all feels) to find your environment to develop your knowledge, skill sets, passion and a platform towards getting good habits that move you in the direction of your dreams.

Don’t make excuses:

There are very few (if any) guarantees in life. So create habits towards your dream and be the part of the environment that grows in your direction already today. Create the possibilities for yourself without assuming anything will happen without you being part of it.

Talk and think from the perspective of you as a human being; you’re more than your working role whatever it may be. Talk from the perspective of what you do in life, what you strive to be, what your goals are, and who you are as a human.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did.” ~ Mark Twain.

Sit down and think about what you have today, and what you can do to reach the dream goals. Success is done by creating a superior effort and focused execution. Discipline and consistency towards your goal is the key.

Here are a couple of articles that go into more detail on some of these themes:
7 Ways To Be More Self-Disciplined.

How to Stop Procrastinating.

Accept failure:

Life will always have ups and downs, accept that as a fact of the reality you live in. And it is important to remember that it is in your downs that you learn deeply too. Create habits of learning at the max potential from your mistakes, fail fast and recover fast.

Don’t congratulate yourself too much, or regret yourself either. Your choices are a half chance. So are everybody else’s. Remember that failure is often just a part of a set of chances. By learning from failures you reduce the chances for similar failures to happen again and open your mind for growth and development.

“Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can.” ~ Danny Kaye.

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what to do with your life. Most people don’t know what they want to do with their life.

Here are a couple of articles on this topic that go into more detail:
How to learn from failure.
How to bounce back from being knocked down.

The fear of having a dream, and failing at it is great in all of us. Just having a dream and accept failure as a process towards reaching your dream is the key. You will fail, that is a certainty. But the key is how your perception of the failure as a resource is. How many times have you thought about something you want to do in your life, a dream that you have? And you talked yourself out of it. It is when you are uncomfortable in life that you learn.

Dreams change, but finding meaning in life and finding the meaning in your life of who you are, will shape your dreams…

Find meaning in life:

There is not necessarily a prize out there. The life you lead and the journey are the inherent prize.

We tend to grow up with prescribed motivations, incentives, rewards, and prizes for so many accomplishments in life. Some get rewards for good grades, rewards in their work for achieving, recognition from others and so on. If you see the big picture of your dream life, there are no real prizes, there is no tangible prize you will achieve, reach or stretch towards in life. The only prize is the one you create for yourself. The experience of the life you create. To want and to be ambitious is not enough, that’s just a desire. To know what you want and to achieve what you want while satisfying the values you care for and stand for… that’s living your dreams. Enhance meaning in what you do. If all you do is running around and achieving goals, there is nothing more to it than that; it may lack substance and depth. The point of goals is to have some kind of sense, some kind of meaning. No one can live a life without a sense of meaning. You have got to have a reason for what you do. These two articles will help greatly with this point:

How To Live a More Meaningful Life.
What Is Your Life Purpose?

Take your passion and make it into something. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.

Studies support that the foundation for you to create your dream life is for you to take the time and visualise what that life will look like. Have a vision for your dream life.

If you don’t know how to do it… that doesn’t have to mean that you cannot learn. You don’t have to be great to start. Start somewhere, if you know your dreams, recognise your deficits, develop skills, advance your knowledge and understanding to reach them (and enjoy doing so).

If you don’t know your path, the same rules apply. Learn and explore. Find out who you are, learn more about yourself, your skills and your dreams. Maybe you have neglected and forgotten yourself for a period of time, this is the way to rediscover yourself. Remember your dreams as a child, who were you then? Find what you love, love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t be scared of closing your eyes and dreaming, thinking big. But when you open your eyes you have to see the reality, what does it take to reach that goal? What do you have to do to reach that goal? And find and write down the reasons for the goals (what they do for you).

“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt.

Somewhere deep inside, you know what kind of person you can be. You know your strengths, how can you use them towards your goals that will help you live the dreams? Discover yourself, respect your nature, find and follow your dreams and create your own story.

Invent yourself, and then reinvent yourself again. If the reinvention of you changes your dream one day, adapt to that.

It’s not about victories or losses in life, but truly about creating habits and a mental mindset towards continuous growth. The habits of success. Create a plan of action, focus your attention, be accountable, develop your character, develop habits, be brave and then start enjoying the journey as you implement it.

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Have some of these themes here resonated with you? Then have a read of these pages:

1. Do you need help or support in a particular area of your life?
Coaching with Adam Eason Or Hypnotherapy with Adam Eason
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Adam Eason’s Anglo European training college.
3. Are you a hypnotherapist who is looking to fulfil your ambitions or advance your career?
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Likewise, if you’d like to learn more about self-hypnosis, understand the evidence based principles of it from a scientific perspective and learn how to apply it to many areas of your life while having fun and in a safe environment and have the opportunity to test everything you learn, then come and join me for my one day seminar which does all that and more, have a read here: The Science of Self-Hypnosis Seminar. Alternatively, go grab a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book, it’ll help you live with integrity!