7 Areas Of Focus To Create A Vision For The Life You Want

It’s fairly common to come out through rocky and turbulent periods unclear of who you are and what you want from life. If you’ve been feeling unsure of your direction lately or are just looking to have a fresh start, this big-picture exercise will bring clarity and inspire you to create an exciting life that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning.

We all know people who’ve known all their lives who they wanted to be & have had their entire lives planned since childhood. We’ve also heard stories of people who have spent their lives fulfilling the version of life or success that society and parents told them they should be – only to wake up in their 30’s with the sudden realization that they’re completely miserable and unhappy.

People tell you the world looks a certain way. Parents tell you how to think. Schools tell you how to think. TV. Religion. And then at a certain point, if you’re lucky, you realize you can make up your own mind. Nobody sets the rules but you. You can design your own life.

If you’ve felt moments of resistance lately and aren’t completely fulfilled with the life you’re living currently, I wanted to share an exercise I do when I’m feeling directionless. Please note that this life vision exercise is for everyone at any point in life – be it high school students unsure about their future or working professionals seeking a change.

As a warmup to this exercise, make sure to complete the questions I share in 70 Journal Promps for Self Discovery. Answering the self-discovery questions will help you understand more about yourself, your values, habits, and the emotions you’re going through right now. Once you’ve “cleared the air,” and learned a little more about yourself, take this newfound insight and put it into action with this dream life exercise.

What is a life vision?

Sometimes all you need is to visualize the lifestyle you dream of having, even if it seems outlandish or impossible. Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.

A life vision is a big picture of many components that make up what you want your daily life to look like. These “departments” might include spiritual connection, family and friends, health (mental, physical, emotional), personal growth; love; and career, finance, and business. Your life vision can change throughout life so it’s ok to adjust your goals as you go along. The point is to honor the little dreams you have right now because they were planted in your heart for a reason.

Set aside an hour of your day to create a new vision for your life. One that you feel connected to and one that is clear enough so that when opportunities come your way you make the best decisions & take action from a place of alignment.

You can literally create your dream life if you believe in yourself enough & show up every day to do the work.

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
Malala Yousafzai

Why having a life vision is important

It’s been proven that we can live the life we want simply by choosing to intentionally & consciously design it.

When you focus on something — the ideal relationship you’re going to have, that awesome tech job you’ve been fantasizing about, the side hustle you want to launch — that focus instantly creates ideas and thought patterns you wouldn’t have had otherwise. Even your physiology will respond to an image in your head as if your dream life were reality.

The human brain operates in terms of goals and end results. Once you give it a definite goal to achieve, you can depend upon its automatic guidance system to take you to that goal much better than “you” ever could by conscious thought. A brain is a problem-solving machine and it’s wired to fill in the gaps. “You” supply the goal by thinking in terms of end results.

Here’s why having a vision is important & some of the benefits of asking “why?”:

Self-Esteem & Motivation – The little wins you make going towards your goals increase confidence – making it that much easier for you to go after even bigger goals.

Scared? Good. We don’t grow when we’re stuck inside our comfort zone.

Right decision making – Given what you’re trying to accomplish, is going out on Tuesday night when you have an important meeting/event the next day worth it? No, no it is not. With your goals in crystal clear focus, it will be easier to make the right decisions that honor your highest self.

It clarifies focus- Just taking two minutes and writing out your primary reason for doing something invariably creates an increased sharpness of vision, much like bringing a telescope into focus. Frequently, projects and situations that have begun to feel scattered and blurred grow clearer when you ask yourself, “What am I really trying to accomplish here?”

It expands options– paradoxically, even as purpose brings things into pinpoint focus, it opens up creative thinking about wider possibilities. When you really know the underlying “why”— for the dietary restrictions, saving, and education, it expands your thinking about how to make the desired result happen.

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Areas of Focus

Is your purpose clear and specific enough?

In order to access the conscious and unconscious resources available to you, you must have a clear picture in your mind of what success would look, sound, and feel like. When imagining your dream life, think in terms of emotions. How will this feel when I achieve it? How will I feel when walking down the hallway of my dream house or turning on the engine of my dream car?

Make sure to clarify WHY you want to achieve this. The goal has to be aligned with a value that you identify with. When aligning the goal with a purpose will help you endure the periods when motivation stops showing up.

So here are the 7 Life Areas method that is loosely based on the program Date with Destiny by Tony Robbins. Do these on your own time and remember to be kind to yourself!

1. Money & Finances

How much do I make annually?
What does my home look like? Where am I living? (city/country)
What kind of car do I drive?
Do I have any debt?
How much money do I have saved up?

2. Professional Life

What do I want to be known for? This question can also be applied to the “personal life” section.
Where am I working? Am I working from home or the office?
Do I own a business?
What am I doing professionally?
Who am I working with?

3. Fun & Enjoyment

What do I do in my free time?
What hobbies am I working on?
Where am I going on vacation?
How often do I go on vacation?

4. Physical Body

Our body is the vehicle with which we do things so it is important that improve our relationship with it. There are many outside factors that we don’t have control over but for most people, our bodies and health is something that we can control through the right information, discipline, and determination.

What am I doing to stay healthy?
What do I want to look like?
What am I eating?
Am I free from disease and illness?
How do I stay fit? What does peak fitness look like for my body?

5. Relationships (Romance, Friends, & Family)

Who do I surround myself with (who helps me be the best self)
What is my relationship with my family like?
How often do I see friends?
What are the activities we do together?
What type of romantic relationship am I in?
What kind of principles, values, & mindsets do the people in my life have?
What kind of experiences and lifestyle do we have together?

6. Personal Life

How am I improving myself as a person?
How am I nourishing my mind, body, and soul?
What kind of goals am I working towards?
What kind of communities am I part of? What is my role in my community?
How am I helping others?

7. Mindset & Emotions

The difference between who you are now and who you want to be is your mindset. You can’t go to new places with your old mindset.

What is my attitude toward life? What emotions do I experience daily? (for example: bliss, success, ecstasy, peace)
What skills do I possess? What am I learning? What have I learned to achieve success in my personal/professional life?
How do I react to change and recover from setbacks?
How do I make my mind a good place to be?
How do I handle criticism?
How do I practice self-care and take breaks to decompress when needed?
What are my daily habits? (Success comes from what you do constantly).

Turning this exercise into an actionable plan

After this exercise, it’s time to actually start showing up in the world as the highest version of yourself. Like, TODAY.

Intellectually, the most appropriate approach when creating an actionable plan for your dream life ought to be to work from the top down. This includes defining critical objectives (GOALS), focusing on the details of implementation, & committing to your goals (the hardest part).

Goals are the steps you need to take in order to get to your vision. Goals are SMART: Specific – Measurable – Achievable – Relevant- Timebound.

So let’s break down your goals into a linear & timebound list. Ideally, this exercise should result in at least fifty to one hundred different current actions for you to accomplish if you really break each goal down enough. Here are the different time horizons to consider.

Life – this is the exercise we just completed above. The “big picture” view. What do I want to accomplish? Why do I exist? The primary purpose for anything provides the core definition of what my “life” really is. It is the ultimate personal mission statement. All the goals, visions, objectives, projects, and actions derive from this, and lead toward it.
Three-to-five-year vision – Projecting three to five years into the future generates thinking about bigger categories: location, career, higher education, longer-term family & financial goals, and life transition circumstances. Decisions in this period could easily change what your work might look like on many levels. This section should have a few plan B’s just in case your feelings change about your life.
One-to-two-year goals – What you want to be experiencing in the various areas of your life and work one to two years from now will add another dimension to defining your life. This time period is tough because motivation has died a little & you are facing some hurdles in the decisions you have made. Many of the challenges you will face are mental.
One-to-six-month goals – If you focus on becoming 1% better every day you can be a completely different person in 3.5 months. This period is great because you have the most energy to complete your goals. You probably haven’t experienced enough setbacks yet to deter you. Just don’t overwhelm yourself too much because burnout is a real thing.
Current actions – This is the accumulated list of all the actions you need to take — all the phone calls you have to make, the e-mails you have to respond to, creating a budget, the errands you’ve got to run, and everything else you’ve been putting off. You can’t go into this new self without first tying up loose ends of your old life. You’d probably have three hundred to five hundred hours’ worth of these things to do if you stopped the world right now and got no more input from yourself or anyone else.

Reading list

The following books are great resources for learning more about dream life planning if you’d like to learn more

The Success Principles(TM) – 10th Anniversary Edition: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Jack Canfield
Getting Things Done by David Allen
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss

Vision Boards

In the age of the internet & social media, it’s easy to lose focus on the big picture when you’re so easily affected by the trivial things screaming at you for attention.

A vision board is a collection of images you place in your room that act sas a visual reminder of the life you’d like to achieve.

it’s a powerful manifestation tool that will help inspire, motivate, and drive you in the direction of what uoi desire. The primary purpose of the vision board is to visually remind you of your highest self. It inspires and will keep you focused.

I’ve seen many people create vision board wallpapers for their phones and I’ve included one on the right that’s a perfect example of how to do a dream life vision board correctly. Include some I Am affirmations to rewire your subconscious beliefs towards that lofty dream life of yours.

Good luck!

Whilst you may have found the exercise of defining your life vision and goals challenging, what will be even more challenging is creating a system that helps you complete habits while in periods of doubt or low self-esteem. Your daily habits and state of mind every day ultimately decide if you can create your dream life.

Rome was not built in a day. If you think of each stone that was laid to create the colosseum, you can start to visualize the importance of your daily habits.

It is the consistent laying of every stone, sticking to the plan, making sure you have breaks, working hard, taking action, being kind to yourself, & take breaks when needed that helps you reach each milestone.

Check in with yourself regularly, track where you are against your goals and most importantly BE KIND to yourself. Enjoy the ride. Be present. Be joyful.

Remember that you were put on this earth to achieve your greatest self, to live out your purpose, and to do it courageously. Creating this positive state of mind will help you to stay committed to your goals and bring your life vision into reality.