Your Perfect Life

Do you ever dream of your perfect life? Not just a vague idea but the nitty gritty details of it, so it’s so real you can feel the texture of it beneath your fingertips?

I find most people either imagine it, dream about it, allow themselves to feel the joy of it, if only as a promise, or they keep it locked away, not daring to look at it too much for fear they’ll somehow ruin it.

I’m definitely in the former category. Vision boards, detailed lists, regular daydreams… these are the things that make my world go around. I’m not one for goal-setting. I find that too masculine in it’s approach, with its timelines and structured planning. If that’s your thing, that’s great, but I prefer the feminine style of intuition, free-flowing energy and visualisation. I like to set a course then flow where the current takes me, using my intuition as a rudder.

Of course you’ve got to take action to make anything happen – you’ve got to work bloody hard at making your dreams come true otherwise they’ll just remain daydreams. But for me, putting energy into visualising the things I want to achieve helps guide those actions.

I often can’t picture exactly how the big stuff will look, though. Do you ever have that problem? I get around it by focusing on the little things – like texting a friend with the message, ‘I’ve got an agent!!!’

It’s important not just to imagine how things will look, though, but also how they will feel. I can’t picture exactly what will be in the email from the agent who accepts my manuscript, so instead I focus on how it will feel when I read it rather than what it will say.

Imagining how my life will feel when I achieve my dreams becomes a touchstone when making decisions, because I can feel whether it will lead me closer to those dreams or further away.

I’ll give you a very real example. On my first day off to write, I was offered an opportunity to write for someone. It was a beautiful project with good people, well paid and with a long lead time. I could have easily fit it in if I gave up my writing day for it. In other circumstances, I would have jumped at the chance. But when I pictured my life with that project in it, it didn’t match the way I want my life to feel. So I didn’t take up the opportunity. A hard thing to do, but feeling my way through the decision showed me that it would take away from my creative writing, and if I allow that, my life will never feel like it does when I picture myself living my dreams.

What do you think about my approach? Do you do it differently? I’d love to hear what works for you.