“Dreams are illustrations… from the book your soul is writing about you.”
– Marsha Norman
Today I am inviting you to forget your list of new year resolutions and instead dream your life one year from now, and then make it happen.
Here is the process:
- Take a break from everything you have been doing on your day so far. Go for a walk or run, do some yoga movements or any other type of exercise that you like, listen to an inspiring music, color or draw… Just do whatever it takes you to get out of your usual mindset.
- Then transition to a place where you feel comfortable and safe. Maybe take your favorite drink with you. Sit and take a few deep breaths. And close your eyes. And imagine your ideal life, a year from now. What do you want to be happening? How do you want to feel? What do you want to have achieved? What do you want to remember as highlights of your year? Don’t censor yourself. Allow yourself to dream, and dream big.
- Following the same process that I recommend to set and activate intentions, take one piece at a time and truly activate it in your body: feel it as if it was already part of your life, visualize it, smell it, hear it, taste it… depending of the senses that are the most important for you (I usually recommend to activate at least two of your senses). And write a sentence in the present tense that captures how you are feeling, how you can imagine yourself being there. What is feeling good about being in this life? Write your statement as “I am…”
- Then notice three to five key elements that feel important in that life. You might have more than five but I would recommend not to go overboard with your list. You really want to look at what your priorities are. It might be spending more time in nature, spending quality time with family and friends, finally writing a book or studying a new subject, having discovered new places, volunteering to some cause, living in a completely different environment, etc. Whatever your pieces are, don’t judge how realistic they are or not, just list those three to five things that seem really important in this dream life. Take the time to feel how they feel and… get excited about making them your priorities for this year. You read that right: you are going to make those your priorities, no matter what. This is your way to say YES to your life and to your dreams.
- Then, take that list and, on your weekly calendar, start blocking time for each of those priorities. For some of them, it might mean breaking things down into actionable items. What counts is that you are making them actual priorities and committing to giving them time. You won’t necessarily need to take much time to make them happen but you will have put them as priorities in your schedule.
- And then decide on the day of the week (at the beginning or end of the week for instance) when you are going to take a few moments to schedule your priorities again for the following week. Block that time again, potentially the same moment of the week, every week, when you put your priorities on your schedule. Now, every week, as you do this, take a few minutes to reconnect with your dream life, one year from now. Remind yourself why you are doing this.
- If it helps and if you have that option, do this with a friend, be each other’s accountability partner.
This is how you are committing to make your dream this year a reality: by choosing to create the elements of that life day after day and starting to live it as your present reality.
You might wonder: what would it be different than just making a list of resolutions? Because you are allowing yourself to feel the dream and actually putting into place some elements of that dream. You are allowing yourself to start living parts of your dream, not in the distant future, not a year from now, but today. And I can promise you this: you will be transformed by the journey, no matter what. Wherever you land one year from now, you will have traveled. As Terry Pratchett so eloquently pointed out: “Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” (Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky).
Happy dreams my friend! Happy journey!
Béatrice Pouligny | Shaman, Spiritual Healer and Life Coach
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