4046: How to Create an Ideal Life for Yourself and Start Living it Today by Shirley of Daring Living on Intentional Living

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[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_02] This is Optimal Living Daily. How to create an ideal life for yourself and start living it today. By Shirley of DaringLiving.com and I'm Justin Malik. Welcome back to the show where I read an article with you and give you a little bit of commentary at the end to keep us both on the right track. Short episodes to give us both the daily reminders we likely need. So with that, let's jump right in as we optimize your life.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_02] How to create an ideal life for yourself and start living it today. By Shirley of DaringLiving.com. Vision planning is a life planning method that many people do not understand. Yet it is so important. Even before you begin goal setting, you should first have a clear vision of your life and what it looks like. What is vision planning?

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_02] It is about creating that vision or that idea of your best life as vividly and in as much detail as possible so you know exactly what you want and what you're aiming for. Goal setting versus vision planning. Goal setting, on the other hand, is about setting actionable steps that lead to the results you want to achieve. Most people do not spend that much effort to plan their vision. They only set goals.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_02] What often happens is that three years, five years, or ten years down the road, they realize that they've been working so hard all along for the wrong goals. Because they were not looking at the big picture, which is what vision planning is all about. Ultimately, vision planning and goal setting work together. You need to be super clear about your vision so you can set the right goals and achieve the right results that align with what you really want.

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_02] I created a free vision planning course that will guide you through the steps of creating an ideal life vision for yourself. How do you create an ideal life vision? Number one, discover yourself. Building strong self-awareness is the foundation to designing the dream life for yourself. You need to know exactly who you really are, what you want, and what's important to you.

[00:03:30] [SPEAKER_02] This includes acknowledging where you are in life right now, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and letting go of things that no longer serve you. A great way to consciously practice self-awareness is to ask yourself good questions, then journal out your answers. Here are some great questions to get you started. What is important to me? What am I good at? Describe a time when I felt like myself. Why did I feel like myself? What do I need to improve on? What do I want to learn more about?

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_02] What are some things that scare me and excite me at the same time? What does success look like for me? Who or what do I want to invite into my life? Number two, create your ideal day. Create an ideal day in your best life. What does that one day look like? Try to list everything out. You can write it out, type it out, in paragraphs or in point forms, as much detail as possible from the moment you wake up in the morning to when you go to bed at night.

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_02] You need to be super clear and specific about your ideal day. The more clarity you have, the more you can actively aim for that and create it into reality. So think about what time do you wake up in the morning? What do you hear when you first wake up? What do you see? What does your room look like? What does your home look like? Where do you live? What do you eat for breakfast? What does the rest of your day look like? Who are you with? Where do you work? Write in as much detail as possible.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_02] Remember to write your words in present tense as if you're living that life right now. If you use future tense, for example, I will instead of I am, it feels a bit distant. And when you read it afterward, you can feel that gap. So write it in present tense as if you're really living that life now. And as you read it over and over again, imagine and feel that day in vivid detail. Again, the more clear and specific you are about your ideal day, the clearer you know what you need to do to achieve that.

[00:05:29] [SPEAKER_02] Number three, create your ideal thoughts and emotions. In order to really live your best life, you have to believe and think as if you are already living that life. All our actions and results first started as thoughts. We have a certain thought about something, then those thoughts create the feelings, then we take actions and we get the results we want. So if you have big dreams for yourself, you have to start thinking a certain way and feeling certain emotions on a much higher level.

[00:05:57] [SPEAKER_02] This is how you can think big, feel excited and motivated about it, and then take those big bold actions to create your ideal life. Remember that you can consciously choose to feel those thoughts and emotions for yourself. In your best life, what kind of emotions do you want to be feeling? How do you want to feel? Some example feelings may be determined, ambitious, committed, peaceful, inspired, joyful, and loved. Likewise, what kind of thoughts do you want to be thinking about?

[00:06:26] [SPEAKER_02] Here are some examples. How to empower others and how to lift people up. How to expand your business. How to give back to the community. Do you see how these emotions and thoughts can really help you create the dream life? Hope you find these exercises helpful. You just listened to the post titled, How to Create an Ideal Life for Yourself and Start Living It Today, by Shirley of DaringLiving.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_02] Thank you to Shirley. I think the main message here is the difference between vision planning and goal setting. Most of us jump straight to goals, but if you're setting them without a clear picture of the life you actually want, you can end up achieving everything you set out to achieve and still feel like something's off. I've been through that myself. It's something we've talked about before with things like minimalism. And I'm a fan of the ideal day practice,

[00:08:21] [SPEAKER_02] because that's also something we don't even think about when coming up with goals for ourselves. What if the goal has nothing to do with our ideal day? And using present tense instead of future tense was a good tip in there. If we're writing this out, which is excellent, might as well write it out as if we're living that life right now. I think it makes it feel a bit more tangible. So hopefully this one was helpful or inspiring for you. Thank you to Shirley for this one.

[00:08:49] [SPEAKER_02] And thank you for taking the time to be here and listening every day. Have a great rest of your day. And I'll see you tomorrow as usual, where your optimal life awaits.