Have the Courage to Dream

44 of 45 Moments of Wonder

Do you have the courage to dream of the life you truly want? Yesterday I asked you to consider what your dream life looks like and then to have gratitude for those parts of your dream life that are already showing up for you.

Today I want to share with you two wonderful resources I have been using to help me shift my mindset from one that feared dreaming for more to one that is beginning to live as if my life is already the one I dream of. The two resources are journaling and planning.

I have been journaling since I was in my early twenties. For quite some time I would journal every day. But my journal really was a place for me to get the events of the day and how I felt about them out of my head and onto the page. I was journaling about the past or the present. I wasn’t considering the future.

Now I journal every morning. It is the first thing I do when I wake up after taking care of the needs of my dogs. I still use my journal to empty my mind of the worries of the day before but now, every single day, I also spend time journaling in a new way. My therapist introduced me to Dr. Nicole LePera and her Future Self Journal. The Future Self Journal prompts are designed to help people who want to make shifts in their lives by taking what is in our subconscious and bringing it into our conscious. It helps us become aware of the things that keep us from living the life we dream of, so we can begin to shift patterns in our lives.

The seven questions in the Future Self Journal are:

1. My Daily Affirmation
2. Today I will focus on shifting my pattern of:
3. I am grateful for
4. Three traits my Future Self has are:
5. The person I am becoming will experience more:
6. I have the opportunity to be my future self today when I:
7. When I think about who I am becoming, I feel:

If you are interested in reading more about Dr LePera’s work, you can follow her on Instagram or go to her website yourholisticpsychologist.com

Now, this kind of journaling may not work for you, and that is okay. I do, however, believe that writing your thoughts in a journal is one of the best ways we can become less judgemental and more curious about ourselves, our wants and needs and the relationships we have. I think journaling is one of the most courageous things we can do because it encourages us to get really honest about how we feel and what we are experiencing in the world without editing our thoughts and feelings. When we are able to get that real, we can make real changes.

The other tool I use is my planner. I use the Passion Planner but that is just my preference. Whatever calendar or planner you use that works for you is exactly what you should use. In my planner, I schedule my work commitments, my family commitments, the blog post ideas or quotes I want to use (and I give myself the flexibility to change course if I am feeling drawn to write about something else) and the commitments I am making to myself. As I consider my dreams, I know I need to commit to myself and keep promises to myself. What I have learned is that when I schedule the small steps I need to take to make my dreams happen, I am more likely to honor it and I am less likely to self-sabotage.

Today I want to challenge you to consider journaling as a daily practice. Write about the dreams you wrote down yesterday. Write your feelings. Write about who you want to be and the kind of life you want to have. Then take your planner and begin planning or scheduling small steps you can take toward creating that dream.

I wonder if you will feel a shift in the patterns of your life that you want to change. I wonder if you will find that the more steps you take, the more you want to take.

I am doing this work right now. I would love to talk with you if it is something you are trying too.