Do This to Get Clear on Your Dreams
Feeling a little lost when it comes to your dreams/what you want to pursue? Today I am walking you through the exercise that I did to help me realize that I wanted to drop out of grad school and pursue Hustle Sanely full-time! I'm not kidding when I say that this exercise changed my dang life and so I'm pumped to share it with you 👏🏼
Keep reading this post to learn:
⋒ An exercise that will help you get clear on your dreams
Okay, let’s chat about getting clear on our dreams -- I feel like this is something that almost everyone has in common...the desire to know what you want to pour your heart into. Wanting to know the thing that is going to light you up every day.
2 things first:
01. Dreams are incredible but they don’t define you. Your worth does not go up or down based on whether or not you know your dream or not, do you hear me?
02. Dreams are just vehicles for our purpose. I believe that we all share the purpose of loving and serving others and leaving the world better than we found it. It doesn’t really matter how you do that - you can be a stay-at-home mama and be making a bigger impact than a boss babe entrepreneur guru or whatever. The dream itself isn’t the point - your heart in pursuing that purpose of making the world better is.
It’s so rad to know what your dream is and to walk into it every day BUT you cannot sit still letting life happen to you while you cross your fingers that a dream will fall from the sky and into your lap one day. Your life is happening RIGHT NOW - you don’t need to wait to create a life that you love until you’re clear on your dreams, okay? You’re clear on your purpose because I just told you what it is. Run with that and I guarantee your dream will become clearer in time.
Anyway, I’ve talked about this exercise before because it’s the exact one that I did to help me decide that I wanted to drop out of SLP grad school to pursue Hustle Sanely full-time. So this isn’t new information BUT I think mid-year is when a lot of us start to feel like we’re in a slump of sorts. You might feel detached from your dreams or like they’re a little bit muddled or maybe you’ve never really been clear on them in the first place.
Whichever boat you’re riding in, this exercise is going to bring you closer to knowing what your dream is. But there’s a catch -- you’ve got to actually pause, get still, and do the exercise with an open mind.
When we go through our day-to-day life, things stack up that we don’t realize. Our minds become a junk drawer - they’re so full of stuff that we just pushed to the side because we didn’t deal with it in the moment and now we’ve got all of these seemingly small things weighing on us and really bogging us down.
And hey, full transparency, I used to be someone who rolled my eyes at this kind of stuff - pausing to be mindful and intentional. I thought it was a little too woo for me and I was too busy hustling to try and get ahead *ahem* burn myself out to the point of exhaustion. BUT when I started letting my guard down and testing this kind of stuff out, my life changed because our minds are powerful.
The Exercise
So, if you can, grab a piece of paper and work through this exercise.
We’re going to do what I like to call, your ideal day exercise. This is something that I teach in the Dream It. Do It. Workshop and inside the Hustle Sanely Program. Honestly, I probably do this exercise 3-4 times a year because as seasons change, so does how I need my days to look to support me. I think it’s totally normal for our dreams to shift as we lean more into them. Example: Hustle Sanely looks very different today than it did when I started it almost 3 years ago. Same dream but it just looks different, ya feel me?
This is the exercise that I did to push me over the edge toward making the decision to drop out of SLP grad school to pursue Hustle Sanely full-time. When I was imagining my ideal day, I saw myself in my brightly lit home office creating planning tools and hanging out on social media teaching people how to be productive.
I had never given myself permission to “go there” in my mind because I was letting fear hold me back. Fear of not knowing if my business would last. Fear of what people would think of me if I dropped out of school after having spent the last 4 years working toward becoming an SLP. Fear of not knowing how the heck to run a business honestly.
Creating intentional time and space to work through this was so freeing for me. Before I started, I acknowledged that I wasn’t there to solve problems or figure out hows. I was there to uncover the desires of my heart.
And I want you to give yourself that same permission today.
I’m going to walk you through the exercise and your goal is to let your mind go where it wants to go. This is a judgment-free zone. Don’t let any limiting beliefs run the show right now. Doubt and worry have no place here. The purpose of this exercise is for you to get clear on your dreams, not figure out how to make them happen. This is your chance to let your heart run wild!
“Close your eyes and think through these prompts. You’re going to be imagining what you want your ideal day to look and feel like. Remember - you are not trying to figure out HOW to make this happen right now. You’re just giving yourself permission to go there, cool?”
Think about your ideal morning.
What is your morning focus? How do you feel? What do you want the vibe of your morning to be? Maybe slow, peaceful, intentional or maybe quick, smooth, and focused?
The focus of my mornings is to nurture my relationship with Jesus and to fill up my cup mentally and spiritually so that my mindset is right and I can serve my community well that day.
There is no wrong answer - this is your ideal morning. Ask yourself questions like:
~ What time are you waking up?
~ What is the first thing you do when you get out of bed?
~ How are you filling up your cup?
~ Do you see yourself getting ready right away or staying cozy in your PJs for a little while?
~ What is your breakfast situation? Are you eating ASAP or do you prefer to have a later breakfast?
Let your mind wander as your piece together your ideal morning.
Now think about your ideal afternoon.
What is your afternoon focus? How do you feel? What do you want the vibe of your afternoon to be?
My afternoon focus is usually work. The afternoon is when I am focusing my energy on writing and creating.
Ask yourself questions like:
~ What do I picture myself doing for work?
~ Do I want to work from home or go to an office?
~ Do I want to be a stay-at-home mom?
~ What does my lunch break look like?
~ How do I mentally and physically transition from the tasks of the afternoon to unwinding in the evening?
Let’s move into thinking about your ideal evening.
What is your evening focus? How do you feel? What do you want the vibe of your evening to be?
My evening focus is family. I like to spend my evenings unwinding and investing in quality time with my loved ones.
Ask yourself questions like:
~ What am I doing after work? Working out? Investing time in hobbies?
~ What does dinner time look like?
~ What does winding down look like?
~ What supports you getting a solid night of sleep?
Here are some more questions to ponder during this time:
~ What keeps you up at night because you can’t stop excitedly thinking about it?
~ What is your thought life like? How are you speaking about yourself and about your situations?
I’m gonna leave you with this -- your ideal day might seem really far off from what your day-to-day life looks like right now. That’s okay. Don’t let that discourage you! Now you know what kind of life you want to work to create. I challenge you to shift into your “how” brain now and figure out ONE thing that you can start doing right now to get you a small step closer to that ideal day you dreamt up.
Maybe it’s joining a gym.
Or decluttering your closet.
Or making a phone call.
Or submitting a job application.
You are bold. You are brave. You are equipped for what you are called to do!
And hey, if this post resonated with you and you’re serious about getting clear on your dream, I’ve got something for you:
And because I love ya, I’m gonna give you a sneaky 10% off code for the workshop:
USE THE CODE BLOGPOST10 to get 10% off the Dream It. Do It. Workshop 👏🏼
If you enjoyed this post, tune into episode 093 of The Hustle Sanely Podcast to listen into this topic:
