How to Get Clarity on Your Dreams and Why It's So Important

Earlier this year (better late than never) I finally realised  that living your dream life leads to ultimately living the most exciting life possible (you can read about my road to that discovery here). Having dreamed about a better, no, amazing, life, the best life possible for me, for several years I was
very clear on what my dreams were. I also had quite a clear idea how to get there and decided that I would do what I could to make them come true. I'm still working on that, taking action every day. Well, most days. Perseverance is the key.

But what if you don't have a clear idea about what you want or what your dream life would be like?

The good news is that the answer is somewhere deep inside you, all you need to do is dig it out. Here are some ways to do it. Write down your answers to these questions:

• What makes you feel truly alive?
• When you're at your happiest, what is it that you're doing?
• Let's say you won the lottery and had so much money you'd never need to work again (lovely thought). At first you'd probably quit your job and possibly go travelling or on an extended holiday. After a while doing nothing would begin to feel a bit boring. What would you start doing? Remember, you have lots of money. And let's say for argument's sake that whatever it was you decided to start doing, you'd know you would succeed. What would it be?
• What do you daydream about? What is that outrageous dream of yours that you've discounted so far because you're so certain that no way in hell is it possible that it could ever come true?
• What do you find so enjoyable and fun to do that you’d jump out of bed in excitement every morning to do it?
• As a child, what did you dream of becoming when you grew up? Chances are that your ideal life is, if not quite that, then a variation of it.
• List all the things you love doing, even the small ones, and highlight the ones you love doing so much that you lose all sense of time and everything else around you when you're doing it.
• Is there a recurring theme or idea in your life that keeps popping up but you have so far ignored it for a number of reasons? Maybe you thought it was a crazy idea, it didn't feel right at the time, it made you feel uncomfortable because yes you wanted to do it but it scared you or you didn't think it was possible to do it?
• Ask your inner self what its dreams and aspirations are, be quiet and listen to the answer. It may not come immediately but stay tuned - something will start coming to the surface. Why not try interviewing your inner self? Something along the lines of 'Hello my inner me deep inside of me. What would you really love to do? What is the dream life that you'd like to lead that would make us both ecstatically happy?'
• Meditate on it and ask the Universe/whatever is your belief system to give you the answer. Stay open to the answer, as above you may not get any answers immediately but you will at some point.
• What feels right in your heart? Trust your intuition. No, don't bring your head into this, this is a heart matter.

Look at what you've written down. Is there a theme emerging from your answers? Is there something there that is talking to you, grabbing your attention?

It may take a while before you figure it out so be patient. While waiting, why not start doing something you love and really enjoy doing? What often happens is that once we start doing something we get an idea of something else we enjoy even more or it leads to something different that we love. Action is often the best way to get you moving towards your ideal place. Somewhere along the way you will become clear on what it is you'd really love to do.

One very important thing - do not censor yourself or rule something out because you think it's impossible or could never happen. You must not do that. Making sensible decisions that your head said yes to but your heart would have preferred something else is probably why you're not very happy with your life right now. Follow your heart and don't believe your head if it says that something your heart desires is not possible.

If you have a vague idea of what your dream life would be like, start heading in that direction. More than likely along the way your vision will become clearer.

Another thing - don't hesitate to start something you love thinking it's this big massive thing that's for the rest of your life. It doesn't have to be. It may be for just a period of time. After you achieve one dream new ones will emerge. Such is life. Just be brave and start something and be open to your intuition. You have the answer inside you. Just encourage it to come out by letting it know that it won't be ridiculed and branded impossible but treated with the seriousness that it deserves. Give it a chance.

Why bother with all this if you don't have a clear dream to aim for, you may wonder. Why not just continue living your every-day-the-same-old-same-old existence rather than spend time and energy figuring out what would really make your heart sing and make you feel you were fulfilling the purpose of your life?

Because you want to feel alive. Because life with a dream to aim for is just so much happier, more meaningful, fulfilling, exciting, and also challenging. Challenging is good. Challenging makes you grow, feel better about yourself. And think about how it will feel when you finally achieve your dreams? I'm sure that at that moment you'll think it was all worth it.

Being clear on what the life of your dreams looks like gives you a direction to work towards. And that's a huge step towards living a meaningful and fulfilling life.

We're all worth living our dream lives. Why wouldn't we be?