How to Start Your Journey to Living a Fulfilled Life

Life is happening every single day. It happens whether you want it to or not. It happens if you’re ready for it or not. Life is constantly moving forward. Are you?

Do you wake up feeling excited and ready for your day or wake with dread and indifference? Do you wake up worried and unsure or satisfied and driven? Seriously, take the time to evaluate how you’re feeling when you wake up… It can actually tell you a lot about yourself and about how you see your life going.

Now, I’m not a morning person by any means… I will literally tell my husband to drag me out of bed when I ask him to wake me up in the morning the night before when I know I need to be up early. And trust me I’m working on it, guys. And let me tell you, starting my day off with freshly brewed coffee and quiet time, that’s the sweet spot right there. I highly suggest getting a morning routine in but that’s a topic for another day.

When you evaluate your life, what do you see? Who is there? Do you like them? Where are you? Do you like it there? What about where you need to go for the day? Do you like going there? Do you enjoy the work you do? What about the company you work for, do you like them? Are they encouraging and inspire collaborations or promote feelings of accomplishment or is it all about productivity and deadlines? Who do you choose to spend time with? Are they inspiring you, encouraging you, helping you, being there in the present with you, making you laugh, planning futures with you? Are they causing your insecurities, feelings of doubt or inadequacies, talking over all your ideas, and never really asking how you are and what you’re doing but instead asking you for everything?

Take some time right now. Answer 2 questions, if not all. Please. Just sit and think about it.

Hopefully, you did, if you didn’t… stop reading and fucking do it… you need this introspection, even if it scares the shit out of you or you’re thinking “Chels, whatever this is stupid.” I. DON’T. CARE. Do it. I’m not asking you to write it down (though it would be helpful if you did). I’m asking you to think about it. What emotions does your life elicit from you? Do you want to feel that way?

I hope your life is fan-fucking-tastic, but I’m just going to go out on a limb here, if you’re here, reading this, you might be looking for more… Maybe not. You might just be bored and somehow happened upon this post. But I’m thinking you’re here for a reason.

So, rolling with the assumption that you do want more (whether it be a HUGE more or a tiny more), how do you feel about the path your life is taking you? Do you have a path?

VISUALIZATION (I know, trust me, keep reading)

Now, let’s get one thing straight. I was definitely the one who used to be like, “Visualization!? HA. What a joke”. Let me tell you, I was so fucking wrong on so many levels.

If you’re thinking that now, let me help you understand why I shifted my mindset on it, in one simple question.

How are you supposed to get to where you want to be, if you can’t see it, imagine it, or even know it is out there?

If you can’t see it, oh honey, enjoy life as it comes at you with no real progression in life.

That question I asked earlier. What do you see? This is the first step. This is where you start. Now. What do you want out of life? Where do you want to end up? You have to know where you’re starting from before you can ever hope to know where you’re going.  

What do you want your life to look like?

Those dreams you want to make a reality. They need a start and finish point. Otherwise, what is the point of having dreams? Dreams come from within right. You have that dream for a reason… because it is supposed to be there. It’s supposed to be something that you will achieve. But how are you going to achieve it if you don’t give it life?

Think about it this way (It may be silly, weird, and/or stupid, don’t care, just follow me here.) I want you to imagine your dream as a seed. It’s small, helpless, and without nutrients, it stays just that. A seed. Now imagine planting that seed. Giving it some water, access to sunlight, day by day your little seed is growing though, you may not see it just yet. But a few days go by and you see it peeking through the soil! You’re doing it slowly, day by day. You know you need to keep it up, maybe give it some flower food to help nourish it further, and increase or decrease the amount of sunlight it needs for optimal growth. Day by day you see that little flower growing. You keep giving it water, food, and sunlight that it needs and one day you have your beautiful bloom. Right there in your little flowerpot. You did it! You grew your tiny seed into a beautiful bloom.

Your dreams are achievable. They just need to be nurtured. They need to be watched daily for signs of life and fruition! You WORK at it!  You develop your skills and knowledge all while working for your dreams to transform into your reality.

Now, this goes for literally everything. What you put in the time for is what you get. You need that visualization to help you keep steady on the path.

So again, what do you want out of life? Tell yourself, remind yourself again and again. Put that shit EVERYWHERE. I mean your phone, print out a picture, sticky note to the mirror, the dry erase board on your frig. Tell a friend, a family member, reach out to someone who you found that is already doing what you want to do! YOU are the ONLY ONE who can make it happen. No one else. Keep your eyes on the prize.

This shit you want to do to, the life you want to lead… IT. FUCKING. MATTERS. Visualize how you want it to go, how you’re going to accomplish it, and how it’s going to look. And when things don’t work out… FUCKING TRY AGAIN! If there is nothing else you take away from reading this… take this, TRY AGAIN! Don’t let your dreams die because it’s hard or you didn’t expect that obstacle. This is life, and you need to push through all the shit and hardships. Be COURAGEOUS in your life and your dreams. GO FOR IT. Only you are the only one who is stopping it from happening.

Hopefully, that helps you out a bit and gives you the perspective you need. Okay, so you got the Big End Goals in your face… So now what?

SMALL STEPS

This is where you need to break it down. Learn what your goals, dreams, achievements, whatever, is going to require to become your reality.

This can be really easy and simple guys. It may seem like a lot when you get it all written down, but I can guarantee that some of those tasks, steps, and to-dos are easy and simple. Sure some will take some extra planning, maybe time, maybe money. I don’t know. What I do know though is that when you can break it all down and know what you need to do to get it all set, you’re halfway there. Think about it. The plan is half the battle to making your dreams your reality. Without a plan, you’re going to be running about like a chicken with its head cut off… Nobody has got time for that! So, you make a plan of small steps. Steps you can do every day or every other day… You got goals, which means they’re going to need some consistent work and time. Don’t dwell on the time it’s going to take, the plans you’ll have to say “No” to, or the people you won’t get to see as much. This is for your life, boo. YOUR. LIFE. Have your pity party. Whatever. Things are going to have to change for you to accomplish those goals, let’s be real. Now, accept it, get over it, and move forward. Go full speed ahead down your path!

Look at your day and see where you have the time. For my ladies who work part-time/full-time/mom life, your day is busy. You either have before work or after work to execute the tasks and to-dos for your dream life. Which sounds more appealing, waking up earlier and grinding in the morning before going into the office, or coming home from work and putting in the grind there. You know you best. When is the best time for you? Maybe look at a few days of the week see what works best for you. It could be morning one day and evening the next. You decide, it is your time. But be sure to make a decision and stick to it. Make a promise to yourself that you will show up for you. Then if you try it out and it doesn’t work, give it a shot at a different timeline in your day. Just don’t give up because waking up is hard or working after working all day is tiring. Living a life working for everyone but yourself is not a life. 

Now that you know when you’re going to work on yourself and your dreams, it is time to commit to a courageous living! Do the steps! Do the work! It’s going to be hard, there are going to be days when you are going to question your sanity… That is normal. Put in the time, make the commitment to yourself, to your future. The time is going to pass anyway, might as well come out of it with your head held high because you at least fucking tried, at most you fucking won. That’s more than most people. But you’re not most people. You’re here to make your life better. You’re here to be more. You’re here to be courageously you. Keep working on the grind.

EVOLVE

With new goals, dreams, and accomplishments there needs to be growth. You need to work on your mindset, your skills, your knowledge, your way of thinking. You will not be able to complete it without evolving yourself into who you need to be.

Take a class or sign up for a course (that you have researched, and you know will benefit you, don’t be spending your hard-earned money all willy-nilly), research on the hundreds of free sites available, read a book, gain some experience, learn from someone who has done it. There are hundreds of ways to grow yourself to help you achieve your goals. DO. NOT. LIMIT. YOURSELF.  This is your time! This is your life! You will never accomplish what you set out to do if you’re staying stagnant. You need to be challenged. You need to be able to re-think plans through. You need to be able to adjust and adapt to the ever-growing changes in your world. The time in now, sweets.

So again, I’ll ask. What do you want out of life?

Now go get it.