Do you feel refreshed? Like a sense of freedom and endless possibilities has washed over you? Well you should, because my friends, it is the very first day of a new year! I don’t know about you, but the new year always brings a wave of emotions. In particular, there’s this exciting and equally overwhelming opportunity in a brand-new year to strive to “live your best life”. But how does one actually get there? We’ve chatted before about goal setting, but what if you’re not even sure which direction your life should be heading in? At the start of this new year it’s crucial that we reevaluate what’s going on in our lives, and where we want to be!
So what am I asking of you here? Well, I’m not saying you have to know the meaning of life, but hey, it’s never a bad topic to ponder when you need to figure out what you want out of life! You’ve probably been asked about your passions before. I find this an especially difficult question to answer, but generally speaking, a passion is something that’s frequently on your mind, something that drives you, something you pursue even when it has no apparent reward to you. What do you find yourself spending excessive amounts of time on just because you want to? With this being said, there’s a subjective meaning of life (the pursuit of our passions), and an objective meaning to our lives (the pursuit of the greater good). In order to design our lives most effectively, we have to somehow merge these two schools of thought and match our passions with objective value in the world.
First Plan
Your first plan should include what you already have in mind. The path you’d be taking if your life continued the way it’s been going, the idea you’ve already been working toward.
Second Plan
Think of your second plan as what you’d do if the first plan was no longer an option. If the first plan was no longer possible, what would you be doing for a living? Force yourself to think of a viable back up that’s entirely different from what you’d be doing in your first plan.
Third Plan
Alright, time to have some fun! In this plan, I want you design what your next five years would look like if money or image were no object. If you knew you could make a living from anything you were doing, and knew no one would scoff at you, what would you be doing?
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Even though an exercise like this may seem like a lot of work, it’s worth it! Take hold of your life and may 2019 be the year of YOU!