How to Figure Out Your Dream
Are you stumped when it comes to knowing what you want to pursue in life?
Today, I am sharing the Hustle Sanely Vision Pyramid - a tool that will help you get clear on your dream and what it is you want to pursue!
One of the questions that I get asked, hands down, the most from the Hustle Sanely Squad is, “Jess, I want to be excited about something like you are about Hustle Sanely. How can I figure out what my dream is?”
First let me tell you that if that’s you, PLEASE don’t think there is something wrong with you or that you are behind or too far gone or anything like that. I also want you to make sure that you’re not hyper-focusing on other people and their dreams and grabbing on and trying stuff because you see it working for other people. I want you to dream with purpose. YOUR purpose, okay?
When it comes to getting clear on your dreams, make sure you’re not closing your eyes, reaching into a bag, and seeing what you pull out. Key 2 to Hustling Sanely is get clear on YOUR vision and believe it or not, there is a process to figuring it out.
Enter - the Hustle Sanely Vision Pyramid. I’m stoked to really break down this pyramid because it is a major part of how I’ve gotten clear on my dream the last 2 years and I really think it’ll help y’all too!
My goal in sharing this is that instead of feeling like you’re just floating through life, hoping to latch onto a dream to be excited about, that you’ll feel rooted in your purpose and be confidently stepping into your calling instead. That no matter what dream you’re pursuing, you know that it aligns with your values and that you are making the kind of impact that you want to make on the world.
If you’re a visual learner here it is:
It’s a pyramid cut up into 4 sections: at the bottom is roots, then you move up to values, then you move up to experiences, and the top of the pyramid is dreams. Now the whole pyramid makes up your vision.
We’re going to break down each section and I’m going to walk you through what my sections look like so you have a tangible example but first I think it’s important that we touch on the difference between your vision and a dream.
Your vision is what you want your thoughts, words, and actions to point back to. It’s big picture, all encompassing. Whereas a dream is a singular ambition - it’s something you want to achieve or accomplish. I’ll give you examples of both in just a bit but I wanted you to go into the episode knowing that when I say vision, I’m talking big picture for your life and when I say dream, I’m talking singular ambition, cool?
So let’s break down the sections of the Hustle Sanely Vision Pyramid:
We’re going to start at the bottom because that’s your foundation. It’s the biggest section - it holds the rest up!
⋒ ROOTS:
Your roots are what keep you anchored. Your roots make up your foundation. They hold everything else up. If everything else falls away, what are you rooted in? Roots are important because they are your guidepost when you’re navigating tough situations. Your roots are a constant in your life. Like no matter what - everything points back to your roots.
There are 3 questions that you can ask yourself to help you determine your roots:
What do you believe in?
What is at the core of how you live your life?
What affects the choices that you make?
I have 3 things that make up my roots section. As I’m sure you know by now, my relationship with Jesus is the most important thing in my life. I want everything that I think, say, and do to be rooted in my relationship with Him. My relationship with Him is the foundation upon which I build and do everything else in life.
My loved ones and my health (both mental + physical) are also part of my roots. Those 3 things (my relationship with Jesus, my loved ones, and my health) are what I think about any time I’m making a choice about something.
Now your roots could look completely different than mine and that’s totally fine. But it’s so crucial for you to determine your roots because if you don’t establish them, you’ll be tossed and thrown around by circumstances. And that leads to burn out, overwhelm, scarcity, doubt, insecurity, all of those kinds of things that we don’t want to be operating out of.
I mean think about a tree - if the roots are planted in solid, healthy soil, the chances of the tree withstanding a storm are high. But if the roots of the tree are planted in loose, rocky soil it won’t take but a strong gust of wind to rip those roots right out of the ground, killing the tree. Kind of intense, but your roots matter and you need to know what they are if you want to figure out your dream, because you want your dream to reflect your roots.
⋒ VALUES:
Your values are how you live out your roots aka your roots in action.
There are 3 questions that you can ask yourself to help you determine your values:
What standards do you hold yourself to?
What impact do you want to make? Or what kind of fruit do you want to produce?
What actions do you align with?So for me, my values align with my roots. Like I said, my relationship with Jesus is top priority right? Everything points back to that. So my values, or how I live out my roots, are the fruit of the spirit. They are listed in Galatians 5:22-23 and they are: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control
Some other values that I hold onto are: loyalty, rest, honesty, consistency, service to others
So, it’s important for us to know our values, because they directly affect how we carry out our dream. You can’t be lying or stepping on others to get to the top if those things oppose your values.
⋒ EXPERIENCES:
Your experiences are situations you’ve gone through in life that have helped shape you into who you are today.
Now I have quite a few questions to ask to get your wheels turning with this one:
What activities light you up?
What are you doing when you feel the most connected to your roots?
What do people come to you for help for?
What did you enjoy doing as a child?
Now from those 3 sections on the pyramid, writing a vision statement comes in handy before you start nailing down specific dreams. A vision statement is a simple statement that encompasses your purpose.
I’ll share mine:
I’m here to share my journey so it encourages others to determine what kind of life they want to live and then establish habits and routines and that point back to that. In short, I want to love and serve people in a way that pushes them to take ownership and show up for their lives.
And now that brings us to the point of our pyramid:
⋒ DREAMS:
A dream is a cherished ambition that is born when your roots, values, and experiences collide!
So to me, dreams are vehicles in how we carry out our purpose. Dreams are PART of our life vision but they don’t make up the entire thing. I think the dream section is the sexiest or most glamorous part of the pyramid to most people but you cannot carry out a dream well without first thinking about your roots, your values, and your experiences, you know?
One of my big dreams is writing a book because it makes sense with my pyramid - I feel connected to my roots when I’m writing. I love encouraging and helping others to recognize and step into their potential.
Now someone on Instagram asked me a great question when I posted this pyramid:
”Also, I know your experiences multiply over the years (Glisten Fit->Social Speechie->Hustle Sanely). How does that affect the pyramid?”
While all of those experiences and dreams themselves were different:
Glisten Fit: I was helping people figure out and accomplish their fitness goals
Social Speechie: I was helping people to navigate the SLP grad school application process and then grad school itself
Hustle Sanely: I help people ditch overwhelm so they can peacefully pursue their dreams
They all point back to my vision statement, right? In all of these dreams that I was living out, I was helping people determine what kind of life they want to live and then establish habits and routines and that point back to that.
Here’s the thing - when you know how your dream relates to your values, your experiences, and your roots, you are impact-driven when it comes to pursuing your dream rather than worldly-success driven. You’re not in it for the fame or money or followers or whatever. You’re in it because you want to make a difference. And friends, there are so many ways to make a difference in this world. You were created so intentionally and specifically and you have gifts that work together in such a unique way. Celebrate that!
If you’re not quite sure what your dreams are yet, don’t be discouraged. Figure out which part of the pyramid you need to dig deeper into and your dreams will bubble up to the surface of your heart before you know it 💛 Your entire life is so much more than knowing those singular dreams.
Let’s be vision-focused instead of dream-focused. Dreams are birthed from vision - consider your whole vision instead of getting hung up on just the singular dreams themselves.
If you enjoyed this post, tune into episode 053 of The Hustle Sanely Podcast to listen into this topic!
