It’s hard to believe we are already in the fourth quarter of the year. In fact, we’re almost halfway through October. We all know that by mid-November, the idea of starting a new project or initiative feels unrealistic. I am traveling for work a lot now through mid-November, so my year feels essentially done.
While finishing what we’ve started this year feels like our biggest goal, there’s something else this end-of-the-year time is good for: planning for the upcoming year. Whatever we can do in these last few months of 2023 to set ourselves up for a lively start to 2024 will be positive action. With about two and a half months left in the year, we have just the right amount of time to thoughtfully and intentionally begin putting our dreams, goals and priorities together for a new year.
This week, let’s just talk about dreams. I openly acknowledge I am a planner addict. Show me a book or a planning resource that refers in any way to your dream life, and I’m sold. Even the very idea of thinking and organizing myself toward a dream life gets me excited.
What comes to mind when you think of your dream life? Does it involve winning the Powerball lottery, quitting your job, never having to make dinner again and all of your obstacles being removed?
That does sound pretty dreamy. But the likelihood of that happening to any of us is, well, 1 in 292.2 million. And that’s just the odds of winning the Powerball.
What is much more likely is creating a real-life version of our dream life right now. Movies and books may tell us the dream life involves no challenges, but that’s not a dream life. That’s a fantasy life. You CAN create a dream life – with joy, love, obstacles, challenges and all. I like to call it the Something More life.
Together, we will spend the end of 2023 considering and putting together an action plan for our dream life in 2024. The best part is that you don’t have to wait until 2024 to start living that life – some of it begins now!
Let’s start by envisioning our dream life. Grab your favorite beverage, journal, and pen and get comfortable. I’ve got some questions for you. These require some thought, so you might want to tackle one question a day or a couple per week. If you did the journal challenge with me back in August, you might want to look back on those entries for inspiration.
Dream Life Questions
- What does a day in your ideal life look like?
- What are the things you are deeply passionate about and/or bring you joy? How can you incorporate those things into your life?
- What goals or achievements inspire you? This could be related to your personal or professional life, personal growth or relationships.
- Who are your role models or inspirations? What about them inspires you?
- What are your values and priorities? What are the nonnegotiables in your life?
I truly hope you’ll take the time to ponder these questions in the next two weeks. I’m traveling for work again next week, so no new post. The following week, when I’m back, we’ll take the answers to these questions and put them into action steps using SMART goals.
Happy Dreaming!