5 steps to live your dream life

My profession is to work with your attitude and personality and shape it up appropriately. Your attitude and personality are the backbone of your physical, mental and emotional health. I coach several people everyday. There is a common thread that binds most of them. None of them like their job. To compound their suffering, they have a home loan that prevents them from changing their job. This hatred towards their job makes them mentally, emotionally and physically sick. The path to freedom is to work your way out of your self created misery. You need someone who is not in your shoes, living a life like what you are living to tell you what you have to do. You need a coach. What I coach is what I have shared here. I call it – \”The 5 steps to live your dream\”.

Most people start their career without a dream. Few make money, a self owned house that they can call their own. Their dream run ends here. Some others begin to hate their jobs, but the high salaries keeps them from deciding whether they want to live their or tolerate the present. They often choose the latter. And then, the fear of losing their job gets them to accumulate wealth in the form of hug investments in insurance plans, investments in mutual funds, buying a house, lands, etc,. I am not saying what you are doing is wrong. The intent with which you make these investments is unhealthy. It will create more misery. You cannot live your dream this way. You will forever want to accumulate wealth. Fear makes you do that.

Fear cannot free you

There are two kinds of people in the industry. The ones who stay and the ones who stick. The ones who stay are like the caterpillar on the leaf. They know how to survive in the industry. They love to learn and progress. Nothing can stop them. These are the people who are living their dream.

And then there are the ones who stick to their job. These are the people who are there for the money. Their skills are redundant. Learning new skills seems a Herculean task. They need constant mentoring to keep them going. Everyday seems to be a challenge.

Most people I coach have this similar story to begin with. They don\’t like their job but, they have a home loan which makes them stick to the job. There is no time to learn while they earn but then, they have been promoted as a Manager. They earn a six figure salary every month. One employee who works in their team seem to perform better than them. The team lead reports to your boss instead of reporting to you. This creates anger, frustration and fear. You don\’t know what to do. You feel this guy will overtake you and take away your job.

Fear cannot make you live your dream. If you really want to live your dream the way many people do, you have to follow some steps, then prepare the action points and begin acting on them. You must design your transition from where you are and what you are doing, to where you choose to be and the dream life you wish to live.

The 5 steps to live your dream

Prepare your list

This is the first step. You need to prepare a list of what you love doing. If you weren\’t doing this job, what would you be doing instead? What did you dream of becoming when you were a kid? What did you see in that dream? Let your list contain everything you dreamt of becoming. But, do write what you saw in that dream.

Amongst these dreams check the ones that will make you love doing what you will do. You might have dreamt of becoming a sailor or a pilot only because you can travel across the world. If that is what you love doing, check that. However, if any of these dreams are about money, watch it. If it\’s not about work and only about money, don\’t check that. Leave it for now.

The pre-final list

Now that you have your list, you need to prevent yourself from getting confused. So, you need to write the checked ones in a separate list. This second list is definitely shorter than the first one.

Humans are emotional beings. Although being logical and practical is necessary, the human emotion must not be neglected. That is a big chuck of why we are the way we are. We must be passionate and live and love what we do. Remember, your work becomes your passion and you live your dream, only when you have invested your emotion in it. It is the lack of this basic understanding of human emotion and how human biology thrives that, with time, people become mentally tired and physically ill.

The final list

The final list must contain only those dreams that you really really want to live. Do you remember seeing the Bollywood movie Chef? Remember, everyone has an opportunity to make the best out of their life.

When I transitioned from the techno world of computers into Ayurveda, I did not have someone to tell me how to go about it. But, my love for working with people could not hold me back. I planned and executed it. Today, it has been over 20 years and I don\’t remember a day when I have not lived my dream. My evey day is beautiful. I am living my dream every day.

My health went down spiralling. I was in bed for 10 days, unable to move. In the last 20 years, I have known myself to be ill only 5 times. And all of them came from over working myself. Don\’t neglect your health. You current situation can keep you from being healthy. People who consult with me are given simple psychological practices to keep them motivated and release stress, physical therapy to harmonise the body and some herbal remedies to correct the physical symptoms.

Can your dream by monetised?

It is important for you to know whether your dream can be monetised. Do all the research it requires. This means, your dream must earn you an amount that is sufficient to maintain your current lifestyle. Nothing changes on day one. Investing time, energy and dedicated effort will see you through. People who have a dream but not enough steam or will or drive, will need hand holding from someone who has reached their dream and is living their dream life.

Foster a new relationship with yourself

It is also important for you to create a new relationship with yourself. You must find ways to inspire yourself to progressively invest in your dream. My wife was my greatest strength while I was investing in my dream. She stood by me and kept me motivated and trusted in my efforts to accomplish my dream. If your parents or spouse support you, you\’re lucky as I am. If your family is not supportive of your time invested in your dream, go out for an hour of two, drive to a highway and stop your car in any coffee shop of eatery where you can spend that precious two hours. Remember, no one understands your dream. They don\’t need to. It\’s not their passion, it\’s not their life. So, don\’t be carried away by their demotivating words and expressions.

Begin investing in your dream

Once you have prepared your final list and done your research on monetising your dream, you are ready to invest some time and energy in your dream.

Several IT professionals working on a 5 day week complain of lack of time. You can begin investing in your dream on the weekends. Although this article is not only for IT professionals, much of my clients come from the IT industry.

You can start investing an hour or two to begin with. You can increase the number of hours you will invest in your dream as your dream begins to consume you.

One of the persons named L whom I coached several years ago, invested time and energy in his dream. He has been living his dream for over 5 years and is also writing everyday on his Facebook wall about his every day. Apart from living his dream job, he also is aiming at publishing his first book sometime soon.

Yet another person H whom I coached about 3 years ago found his dream job. His frequent job changes was what he saw as his obstacle to winning his dream job. After he took the coaching from me, he shifted his focus from the weakening thought of frequent job changes to what he had learnt in these jobs. When your thoughts change, so do your opportunities. They turn towards you. He succeeded in his interview and got his dream job.

Both of them and several others followed the 5 steps to live your dream principle and succeeded.

Transition to your dream life

Take time to transition into your dream life. It took me 8 years to transition and live my dream life. It seems like a lot of time. I did begin investing in my dream a bit everyday. Every day for me seemed like I was that much closer to my dream. Did I miss telling you that that happened 20 years go? I have been living my dream for 20 years now. And every memory is intact. When I look back at the 20 years I have spend living my dream, I am so full of appreciation of life and so grateful to have chosen this dream.

Don\’t lose hope. Begin investing in your dream today. Your dream will come true, to fruition at the right time. And that time will see you through to a beautiful life. Start today, Start now. And when the time comes for you to shift, all you have to do is step in to your new life to live your dream life.

Remember, If you want to live your dream, follow the 5 steps to live your dream and then you have to do all the necessary things to live your new life.

— Mahesh Krishnamurthy