5 Steps to Designing The Life Of Your Dreams
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life” — Steve Jobs
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life” — Steve Jobs
Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece. — Ralph Charell
Designing your life is about choosing with purpose & intention the kind of life you want to live, whether that’s working 9–5 in a job you love or travelling the world.
The point of lifestyle design is that you get to choose and design your life accordingly.
Here are 5 steps to designing the life you ideally want to live every single day.
Remember we only get one shot at this (unless you’re Buddhist and then maybe you get a few more), so let’s make the most of it while we can!
Step 1 — Know What You Want!
Start with knowing the kind of life you want to live.
How can you know which direction to go in if you have no idea where you’re going?
What are your priorities?
Do you want to travel?
Do you want to work from home?
Who do you want to spend more time with?
What do you want to spend more time doing?
Do you want more free time to do the things you love to do?
Starting with the end in mind is always an excellent strategy as it gives you the vision to work towards.
Stop ambling through life and live with purpose.
Decide what your ideal life looks like. Where you live, who you’re with, what you do, how you spend your time.
Get granular and create a vision board on your phone or Pinterest account, or write a letter to yourself, one year, five years, ten years from now, describing the amazing life you’re living in detail!
The more emotionally invested you are in your future, the more likely you’ll take steps to get there.
Step 2 — Calculate How Much You Need to Live the Life of Your Dreams?
I love this one!
So many people believe they have to become millionaires to be financially and physically free. Not so!
In most cases, you need far less than you think you do.
Do a cost exercise to discover precisely how much you’ll need every month to live the life of your dreams.
Create your own table similar to the one below with the categories relevant to your lifestyle vision, and start calculating your freedom budget!
Hot Tip!
Talk to people currently living the lifestyle you’d like to emulate and get some numbers from them.
For example;
How much does it actually cost to house sit my way across Mexico?
How much does it actually cost to move and live in Thailand?
How much does it actually cost to rent an apartment in (insert ideal city)?
How much does it actually cost to rent a boat and sail around (insert dream location) for 6 months of the year?
How much does it actually cost to (insert your dream lifestyle here)?
Once you know your number, you’ll be so much clearer about what you’re working towards.
This exercise is a game-changer. It takes your dreams out of the clouds and makes them a reality.
Do this, and you’re halfway there!
Step 3 — What Do You Need to Learn/Do?
Now you know your monthly lifestyle design budget, what do you need to do to get there?
Do you need to create a lifestyle business?
Do you need to add a side hustle?
Do you need to renegotiate your contract?
What skills do you need that you may not currently have and what’s your plan to get them?
It’s time to take action and make a plan.
For more information on lifestyle business/side hustle ideas and how to get started building your own lifestyle business, check out these posts;
189 Lifestyle Business Ideas for 2022 & Beyond
How to Start a Life-Changing Online Lifestyle Business
Step 4 — Who Do You Need to Consider?
Is your ideal life to travel the world but you’re worried about leaving family behind?
Perhaps you have school-age children and are unsure about schooling.
Do you need to chat with your boss about renegotiating your contract to suit you better?
Maybe you and your spouse have different ideas of what an ideal life looks like, or perhaps the goal is to move closer to and spend time with the ones you love.
It’s time to sit down, have difficult discussions if necessary and make some decisions.
To live the life you dream about, there may be some compromises and agreements along the way.
But the critical point is that you’re taking the reins and being responsible for your own choices.
Step 5. Make It Happen
If I’ve said this once over the last 11 years, I’ve said it a thousand times.
The only difference between people who are living their dreams and those who aren’t is that those who are, are.
In other words, they’re out there doing it, making it happen.
Nothing can be achieved from just dreaming, thinking and talking. You have to do!
Know what you want, how much money you need on a monthly basis to achieve it, what you need to do to get there and make it happen!
I believe in you.
This post is a modified extract from the full blog post —What is Lifestyle Design and 5 Steps to Living the Life of Your Dreams