Everyone wants – and deserves – to live their dream life. However, oftentimes, we can find ourselves so overwhelmed with the day-to-day responsibilities of adulthood that we start to lose focus of what we truly want out of our own lives. If this sounds familiar, just remember that it’s never too late to make a positive change. Each day is a brand new chance to start living the life you’ve always dreamt of! So what are you waiting for? Grab a notebook and pen and follow these steps to start designing and living your dream life today!

Tap Into Your Inner Child

It’s important to tap into your inner child before you start to design your dream life. 

Throughout our adolescence, we are constantly being shaped by our experiences. By the time we are adults, these experiences have influenced the way we view ourselves, the world, and the people in it. By tapping into our inner child, we can reconnect with our true authentic selves – the version of who we were before we adopted misbeliefs about the world.

This is because it allows you to let go of worldly expectations you may subconsciously be holding yourself to. Instead, you’ll find the freedom to explore new possibilities for yourself with a renewed sense of creativity and without the fear of judgment from others. 

Tapping into your inner child is all about releasing your inhibitions, embracing spontaneity and adventure, and finding joy in the little things through the lens of childlike wonder. 

You can connect with your inner child by engaging in playful activities, specifically ones you enjoyed doing as a kid. This could be anything from coloring, to working on a puzzle or building set, to watching a favorite TV show or movie from your childhood.

Self Reflection

Now that you’ve tapped into your inner child and have connected with your authentic self, it’s time for self reflection!

Before you can start to design your dream life, you need to know what you want and what truly matters to you. A great place to start is these self-discovery journaling prompts.

First, you need to identify your values. What do you value most in life? This is a really important step because every goal you set for yourself from here on out should align with these values! Check out this core values list which contains fifty of the most common personal values. Then, choose five that are the most significant to you! Write these down in your notebook.

Next, make a personal joy list. Think about what things or activities fill you up and bring you the most happiness! Your list might include spending time with family or a specific person, your hobbies and passions, practicing self care, getting in touch with your spirituality, or giving back to your community. Create a list of 10-12 things that bring you joy!

Finally, the last step here is to reflect on your purpose. Take a moment to write down your passions, talents, and skills. How would your dream self use those things to make the world a better place? Write a couple of sentences about what your purpose is and how you’ll use your passions, talents, and skills to live out your purpose every day!

Visualization

The next step in creating your dream life is to actually visualize it! Think about your dream life.  Ask yourself questions about your ideal self like: 

Where do you live? Visualize what your house looks like. 

What do you do for work? Describe what a typical day of work is like in your dream job.

What does your ideal self look like? Feel like? 

What is your friend group like? Who do you spend the most time with? 

What do you do for fun? Describe what your lifestyle looks like.

Make a list of what you want your life to be like and what you have achieved in ten years, five years, and one year from now.

Then, write out a detailed version of what an ideal day in your dream life looks like. The more specific you can be, the more effective this exercise will be! 

Finally, take it a step further and make a mood or vision board on Pinterest. Having a curated, visual representation of your dream life will help keep you inspired and motivated to make it a reality!

Plan And Prioritize

Now it’s time to start planning and prioritizing all the amazing things you want to achieve! 

Make a brain dump of everything you’ve ever wanted to try, do, or achieve. While it might be totally possible to accomplish everything on your list, it’s imperative to only focus on no more than two or three goals at a time. This way you don’t overwhelm yourself so you can stay focused on turning those dreams into a reality. 

Circle or highlight the top three things from your list that are most important to you and that you can start working toward. Those will be the top three things we will prioritize in the next step when we begin goal setting.

Set Clear, Attainable Goals

Taking the top three things you want to achieve from the last step, it’s time to start setting clear, attainable goals. 

Looking at the big goals you’ve selected, it’s time to start working backwards and breaking them down into smaller, mini goals. For each big goal you chose, write down every single action step you need to take in order to accomplish it. 

When you’re done, you should have a sizable list of action steps for each big goal. These are your mini goals! If you can, try to break down any of these mini goals into even smaller goals. The smaller you can break down your goals, the less overwhelming they appear and the more actionable they become! 

Next, order and prioritize these action steps into tasks that you can go ahead and start working on. As you do this, keep these questions in mind: 

What task can you do first to simply get started?

What small step can you take each day to get 1% closer to your goal?

Finally, be sure to schedule these tasks into your calendar so that you can have dedicated time each week to work toward your goals.

Take Action

You’ve set yourself up for success by taking the time to reflect, visualize, plan, and set clear, attainable goals. Now, for the most important part: it’s time to start taking action!

Of course, this is often the hardest part, too. It’s easy to talk about our dream life and play out various scenarios for ourselves in our heads. But we all know that dreaming doesn’t get you where you want to be in life. It’s important to keep our dream life in mind as we work toward what we want, but simply dreaming will keep us idle. Instead, we must be willing to put in the work in order to turn our dreams into our reality! 

There are many things you can do to make this step easier and more enjoyable:

Hold yourself accountable. Making excuses won’t get you any closer to living your dream life. Be responsible for your actions and the progress you make. Surround yourself with other ambitious people who are actively chasing their own dreams. Have a spouse or other family member hold you accountable by giving you deadlines and checking in on your progress.

Keep a routine. It’s really hard to be consistent without a routine. If you can’t commit to working toward your goal everyday, then try your best to stick to the same schedule each week. This helps signal to your brain when it’s time to start working on your project and can help you transition to deep work more seamlessly. Having a set morning and evening routine can also boost your productivity. 

Aim to get 1% better each day. In his #1 New York Times Bestselling Book, Atomic Habits, author James Clear talks about “the power of tiny gains”. Clear explains that, if you strive to only get 1% better at something each day for an entire year, you’ll become an entire thirty-seven times better at it by the end of the year. For further reading on this topic, check out this article on his blog where he delves into how continuous improvement works and teaches how to master it.

Reward yourself. Doing all the hard work in the world won’t mean anything to you if you don’t enjoy the process. Life is short, so make it special. Reward yourself with something you enjoy each time you make progress toward your goal. This will also help to positively reinforce your brain into enjoying the work you’re doing. Rewarding yourself doesn’t have to mean spending lots of money, you can treat yourself to something simple and inexpensive even, as long as it’s something you really get pleasure out of. Rewarding yourself not only motivates you by giving you something special to look forward to, it also encourages you to find joy in the simple things in life as well!

Practice self care. Again, working hard is great, but don’t forget to take care of yourself while you’re at it! You are your biggest project, after all! So be sure to practice mental, physical, emotional, and intellectual self care. Your dream life probably doesn’t look like you working 24/7, so let your current life reflect what your ideal self does to take care of yourself. 

Conclusion

Designing the life of your dreams is a highly rewarding and personal journey, but nothing feels better than actually living your dream life! By committing to these steps, you’ll be able to make your dream life a reality. Remember that everyday is a brand new chance to start living life the way YOU want to. So don’t waste another minute of your precious time living a life that doesn’t make you happy! Take action and start living out your dream life today!