A fun exercise I like to do that usually assures me if I am on the right path in life is to visualize myself 10 or 20 years down the road. I like to imagine what type of ‘me’ I would like to be by then. I like to call this the Idealized Me. From that point, I visualize the actual path (often like a little dirt path!) from the present ‘me’, and see if it is leading to the Idealized Me. If I see that my starting point i.e. the Present Me is NOT leading nicely to the Idealized Me, or if the path from the Present Me is going somewhere else altogether, then I take a step back and reassess.

See, the thing is.. Oftentimes, we get too caught up in our present lives. We have full-time jobs, an education, and the world’s concerns on our shoulders. We are so busy making a living and earning money and paying bills and taking care of loved ones, that we rarely have time to reflect or assess. You are living your life, but the concept of ‘living your dream’ falls by the wayside.

But what does ‘living your dream’ really mean though?

You see, within all of us are passions, talents and characteristic that are absolutely unique to us. These are our unique intrinsic qualities and talents. Maybe you are an adept problem-solver and you LOVE working with your hands. Or maybe you are someone who sees the beauty in everything. Perhaps you are someone who loves to dive deep into people’s minds, analyze situations, behaviours. Or perhaps you are someone who comes up new crazy ideas to change the world everyday and are just itching to run with them.

Whatever your own intrinsic talents are, they give you immense pleasure and make you feel pretty good about yourself, since well, you are just naturally good at them. Right? Now, if you were living a life where you had the freedom to flaunt and utilize your intrinsic talents on a regular basis, how spectacular would that be? And by regular basis, I mean as a career. Just think about this for a minute. Indulge your imagination.

If our passions and unique talents align themselves with what we do for a living, the potential for pure happiness, the potential for innovation, the potential for impact, and the potential for RICHNESS.. would be absolutely THROUGH the ROOF! And THAT, is what I mean by ‘living your dream’. It is, simply, a heightened state of consciousness where you are truly in tune with WHO YOU ARE and what your life purpose is.

So if you have never really given any of this much thought, go to the top of this post and do the little exercise. It takes a few minutes, but it can be profound. It gives you a lot (of exciting things) to think about.

Now, tell me. Have you been able to carve out a life for yourself that gives you the privilege to live your purpose every single day? Shout out in the comments below. I would love to hear it.

Thanks for reading UnPsychology!

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