It’s the million-dollar question – what should I do with my life? What do I really want out of life, what can give me purpose? The great thing about living in these times is that there is so much choice and different ways and avenues. But then how do we know what is the best fit, the right option for us? It can be difficult to know with so many options.  It can be so hard to define what your dream life would be like.

So here are some ways in which you can start to discover your dream life.

Start by thinking about what are the things that you currently enjoy doing. What are the things that you do that make you feel good. What gives you your best memories after doing them? Another way is to think about your current day, and if you were just doing the things that you enjoy what would these things be? And could you be doing more of it? Make sure to take a note of all the things that you think about that bring would bring you enjoyment and help discover your dream life options.

Next, start to think about the things that you are good at doing, not necessarily out of enjoyment, but because they come naturally to you. Or something that you have practised a lot, so you are now quite proficient at it. These are your strengths and may also be your natural abilities. What are you doing when you are in a flow, that is, doing something that you don’t really need to think about, but time passes easily when you do it. These things could be part of what you could incorporate in your dream life. Things that come easily to you. Make of a note of all your strengths and things that come by nature, as these are clues to what you may want in your dream life..

Who would you like to be? Who is living a lifestyle that you would like to emulate? And then start to be specific about why you think you would like to emulate their lifestyle. What is it that these people are consistently doing each day that you would like? What are you imagining their day is like? Are there bits of their life that you would prefer, but not so much of other parts. Really zone down to the things that you would want to be similar in your life.

And last but not least – what were your dreams when you were a child? Do you remember what you wanted to do as a vocation? If so, what was it about it that you liked about it, do you think? Are you doing something similar now, or is it something completely different? Also, try to think about what gave you joy when you were a child. And did you have behaviours that were specific to you? For example – were you the one who people always went to when they had a problem? Were you the one always creating new games or quizzes? Were you the person encouraging others to climb the tops of trees? These may give you insight into what you naturally did out of pleasure and fulfilment. To help discover your dream life note down any of these child memories that you have.

Now you should have a list of all your areas of enjoyment, strengths, influences and childhood memories. Put them all together and see what themes come up. Are there things that seem to show up in all these areas. Or there could be more than one. Now it is to think about how you could try to put them into your lifestyle. How could you take a bit of these areas and add it to whatever you are doing the moment? Can you do something differently to achieve this? What would you want to aim for in the long term and then in the short term? Could you do something tomorrow? Start to make plans of how you could start to do something that is more in line with areas that give you purpose and fulfilment.

Changes can be done, but we need to be mindful that there is the probability that some of the things you are currently doing may need to change. What would those things be? And are you willing to make the changes that are needed. Would you have less time for other things, less money, less perfection? Think of all the barriers that may get in the way of what you would want to achieve, and then make a plan of how (or if) you will overcome those barriers.

So here we have thought about all the great things that we are already doing that give us joy and fulfilment, and our strengths. We also thought about what others are doing that we like, and what we enjoyed or dreamt about as a child. These all gave us indicators of what would add purpose to our life. Now with this list we can start to think – what are the things that I can start to do tomorrow, next year, or in five years time, that will make me feel closer to having a life I enjoy. It is also to think about what might get in the way of me being able to take those steps and how I can counter those. Then we can start to plan what we can do to bring us closer to discover our dream life – making actions towards this on a daily basis.