A question I commonly get asked by women is, “Should I pursue my dream?”
There are a lot of reasons that we might be hesitant to pursue our dream. We might be worried about whether it will fail, whether we will go broke, or whether we should just be happy with where we are. All valid questions, but they’re more the nitty gritty of things, they’re not the big picture, overall, life-altering question. This article will go into that life-altering question.
Table of Contents
How this exercise came to life
I was once asked how many years ahead I plan and look towards. I said 20 years.
While I thought that was pretty standard and that everyone did that, by the facial expressions I saw staring back at me, it turns out, it’s not so much.
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Why we should look ahead 20 years
But I find this surprising. If we look at our life as the ocean and we’re a ship, with our brain the captain, isn’t it important to look forward, to make sure that we’re steering the ship where we want it to go?
Sure our immediate concern is not to hit an iceberg, but don’t we also want to see whether we want to steer north or south, or maybe east or west, or maybe someone completely new?
Looking 20 years ahead is not like looking into a crystal ball. In all those years, things will come up. The way we imagine our life in 20 years is not exactly how it will be, but if we look at the direction we’re steering our boat, we can have a pretty good idea.
The 2 exercises
So today’s article is all about looking forward 20 years in two parts. The first part is what 20 years will look like if we continue steering straight if we continue to stay on the path that we are on right now. And that might look amazing, it might be that you love how it looks! And that’s what we’re here to see right now. By doing this exercise, we can answer the question, “Should I pursue my dream?”
Exercise 1: Staying the course
Sit in a quiet space, somewhere where you are comfortable and won’t be interrupted for half an hour. Put a sign on your door that says, Enter at your own risk” if it helps!
Bring a notebook and pencil.
Write down what you are doing now in your life.
Here are some questions to answer that will get you started.
So in the ship analogy, this is the waters in which the boat is now.
Where do you live?
What is your job?
Who are your friends? Who is in your life right now? What do they do? How positive are they?
How do you spend your time? Do you go out, read, write, watch Netflix, go to the gym, dance, etc.
How do you eat? Do you eat out? Would you say you eat in a healthy way?
When was your last vacation? Have you planned your next one?
How are your finances? How much debt do you have, vs how much saved, vs how much invested?
Now if you steer straight, look forward 20 years.
How old are you now?
Where do you think you’ll be living? Which country, city vs village, house vs apartment?
Are you still working? Is it in the same industry? (This could be a probably or maybe answer)
Have you made new friends? Are you still friends with the same people as before? What do you think they are now doing?
How are you spending your time? What do you do during the weekends?
How often are you going on vacation? (Remember this is if you steer straight, not how much you would like to be going on vacation, but realistically how often compared with the rest of your supposed life in 20 years)
How do you eat? Are you still eating healthy? If you weren’t eating healthy before, would you be likely to change in 20 years?
Have you paid off your loans? Have you saved – how much? How much have you invested?
How much time is there left?
Look back over your answers. Do you like what you see?
Do you like the version of your life in 20 years? If you do, that’s amazing! Great on you! Rock on!! Keep going and keep at it!
However, if you don’t, look inward, think about that dream you have. Think about that thing you really want to do. Maybe it’s to write or paint or become an interior designer of fashion designer, or get a job at Vogue or the New York Times, or write a screenplay, or start your own investment company.
Think about that dream. Try not to let judgement or worries or fears in. Remember, you’re not doing anything right now, nothing is on the line, so there is nothing to fear right now. You’re just thinking about it.
Exercise 2: If veer of course and pursue our dream
If you were to decide to pursue your dream right now, that would mean taking that ship and changing direction.
Imagine heading in that direction, with that dream, and look 20 years.
What are you doing? What is your dream?
Who is around you? Have you met new people, have you stayed close with the people of your past?
How does a standard day in your life look?
Where are you living?
What do you do during your free time?
How are your finances?
How often do you go on vacation? What does a vacation look like in this new direction?
How do you eat? What is your favourite food?
How do you look?
How do you feel?
Look back over what you wrote. How do you feel right now? Did your facial expression change while you were writing?
What have you learned while writing this? About yourself, about what you want, about how you want to spend the next 20 years of your life.
And then ask yourself, “Should I pursue my dream?” Are you any clearer?
Now you have a choice
At this point, you have a choice, you can take the pieces of paper you’ve written down and shove them into a drawer, and ignore the trip you took down your dream 20 years ahead.
Or you can decide to linger there. You can decide to consider that you might want to captain your ship to steer into a new direction.
Starting to do this can seem scary at first, which is why I’ve created an incredible free guide for you to get you started on your way!
When we start doing something new, when we decide to veer off course and change direction, we might hear the shouting of, “Hey! Woah! Where you going! Wrong direction! That’s a scary path! Where do you think you’re going!”
And hearing all of this is normal. It’s based on certain beliefs we have about how our life should look and the direction it should take.
Decided to give your dream a chance is a brave decision and doing this guide is the first step to giving yourself a fighting chance.
