Do you know what you want?
I was six years old. I was already in love with traveling, the excitement of airports, getting on planes and getting the window seat. Going to new cities and staying in shiny new places. My mind made up, I turned to my mother, and said:
“When I grow up, I want a job where I travel all the time”.
“Great”, she answered. “You can become a truck driver”.
I wasn’t entirely impressed with her answer, obviously. But it is a conversation I remember often, especially during the early sessions with a coaching client as we work through what precisely it is he/she wants.
It is important to get really clear on all the aspects of what we want. Here are three ways to get you started:
- Vision boards: The Secret / Laws of Attraction followers recommend putting together a collection of pictures, words and other artifacts to nail down what you want to achieve. Placed somewhere you can see it on a regular basis, your vision board can be a powerful reminder of where you want to go, and will help you choose actions that will move you towards it.
- Writing your obituary: sounds a bit drastic, but it is also a good way to help you get clear on what legacy you wish to leave behind, or what is the impact you hope to have on your world.
- The success article: write the front page news article that celebrates you or your achievement, whatever that might be, 10-20 years from now. What will it be? Winning the Nobel prize? Making a serious dent in world hunger? Becoming the youngest billionaire? Landing on a new galaxy? Make sure you put a date on this article, and get as detailed as you can about the cause for the celebration.
You can do one or all three of these to help you get in touch with what you want for yourself. Make sure it is what you want, and not what strong influences around you want for you. One of the ways to make sure it’s truly your dream, is to imagine achieving precisely what you want but no one in your current community (family, coworkers, friends) will get to witness it. Yeah, that kind of changes things a bit doesn’t it?
The good news about getting clear about you want is that you can now begin focusing on it, ensuring that every step you take, every choice you make, moves you steadily and inexorably towards your destination.
The bad news is that you will need to continuously and consciously steer your life to ensure that you stay on track. I say “bad news” because it is very easy to let automatic pilot take over as we get busy with the myriads of details of living. The moment autopilot takes over, the destination coordinates are no longer yours; someone else is driving your truck, and you didn’t even want to be in a truck in the first place.
Many who work with a coach (or self-coach) to discover what they want end up in a completely different career. Others find the strength to create more meaningful relationship right where they are. Yet others grow fearful of what they uncover, and return to their safe, head in the sand position, sleepwalking through life.
It would be a shame to wake up many years from now and realize you’ve been living someone else’s life. Get clear and get accountable to yourself to go after your life. Aren’t you worth it? In the words of Diana Ross in the theme from the movie Mahogany:
Do you know where you’re going to?
Do you like the things that life is showing you?
Where are you going to? do you know?
Do you get what you’re hoping for?
When you look behind you there’s no open door
What are you hoping for?
Do you know?
Now, looking back in all we pass
We’ve let so many dreams just slip through our hands
Why must we wait so long before we see
How sad the answers to those questions can be?
Have a safe and exciting journey!
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this post came in time
I’ve been thinking about my life recently and such thoughts made me think of How to be happy, or Why i am sad and how to fix it. My life in conjunction with what it might mean to live a fulfilled life. And the question remains what do you i want?