Do you currently have the life you want for yourself or would like to learn how to create it?
From childhood to our teenage years, and then into adulthood, we all have dreams and aspirations.
There is a certain picture we have of what we want our life to be like.
Perhaps you are not there yet, but we can show you how to create the life you want.
So let us ask: “Why kind of life do you want?”
Do you think of getting a dream job, contract, or set up a business that has always been your passion?
Do you picture yourself daily living in that apartment furnished the way you’ve always wanted it to be, for your comfort?
Or perhaps you have certain dreams and goals relating to family life, and you picture yourself with your partner living your best life.
Whatever the dreams are for you, the life you want can be a reality and it is something you can create for yourself.
True, the journey would not be an easy one, as this is not promised, but it is very possible with the right approach.
It is not just enough to dream the life you want, hope for it, or even pray for it.
The most important things are your thoughts and your actions.
When you get these right, it is only a matter of time before you successfully create the life you want.
In this article, we will consider what creating the life you want involves.
Also, we will look at some common challenges that mitigate the success of creating the life you want.
We will also consider how to overcome such challenges and successfully create the life you want.
What Creating the Life You Want Involves
Growing up, we all have dreams, hopes, and aspirations.
Can you take your mind back to when you were still a child? Can you remember some of your big dreams and fantasies?
While growing up, you probably had to let go of some of those fantasies as you came to see them as less important.
However, there are some that stick with you even into adulthood.
Additionally, as you get older, you also begin to think of new things you want for your life and have new dreams.
A lot of these are personal goals and aspirations, and you already envision your life to be as you dream to be deemed a successful one.
The beautiful thing about success in life is that it is relative and the definition for this differs from one person to the other.
This is one reason why the title of this article is not necessarily “How to create a successful life”, but rather creating the life that “you want”.
This is because what success in life means to you might differ from what it means to other people.
However, one certain thing is that particular principles guide the process of creating the life you want.
Whatever your dreams are, different as they might be from others, the same principles would guide you towards realizing them.
That means when you follow those practical steps as would be discussed later in this post, you can get to your preferred destination.
And of course, when you create the life you want, then your life can be meaningful and you find purpose in life.
How to Create the Life you Want – Challenges You Need to Overcome
Creating the life you want is like climbing a hill or a mountain.
This comparison is necessary to show how difficult a task this is, and why it requires so much dedication and hard work.
In your life journey, you would meet with many challenges, both intrinsic and external forces.
These challenges will work against you in effectively creating the life you want.
It is important that we identify those challenges so that we can prepare ourselves for the task that lies ahead.
And of course, knowing them is the first step towards understanding how they impact you and avoiding or overcoming them.
Here are a few of them:
Self-Doubt
You probably know what they say about self-doubt about meeting goals and actualizing dreams.
Not giving accolades to it, but self-doubt has successfully killed more dreams than failure has.
Everyone has distinct strengths and abilities and when we channel our inner strengths, there is no limit to what we can achieve.
You must have this belief in yourself as you make the journey towards creating the life you want.
However, sometimes you might subconsciously allow self-doubt to creep in which can handicap you in that area.
Self-doubt can make you lose faith in yourself and what you can do.
It can also affect your decision-making, such that you either shy away or run away from key decisions that define your life trajectory.
Failure to take these decisions might either slow down your progress or even prevent you completely from creating the life you want.
Hence, this is a big challenge and one which a lot of people have had to deal with.
The Fear of Failure
Another challenge to creating the life you want which is closely related to the above is the fear of failure.
The fear of failure is a fear of not being good enough, and that whatever actions you take or decisions you make would not end up well.
Fear of failure has handicapped a lot of people in life and has made them hold back from making life-changing decisions.
If you have a persistent fear of failure, then it might be very difficult for you to successfully create the life you want.
The reason is that you will not do what is necessary to achieve this, as such actions directly or indirectly lead to your success.
This is yet another challenge that you have to overcome should you want to create the life you want for yourself.
Undue Attention to Other People’s Opinions
While respect and reverence for others remain a virtue, creating the life you want for yourself is solely your responsibility.
As we grow in life, we meet with different input and opinions on how we should live our lives and what we should and should not do.
This mainly starts from our parents and/or guardians giving us rules and regulations that are meant to direct our lives.
Even as we leave home and grow older, we are also faced with different external factors and opinions attempting to shape us directly or indirectly.
Hence, pressure from our environment, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers might affect us in creating the life we want.
Sadly, a lot of people today have failed in creating the life they want for themselves because of “what people will say”.
Therefore, when you give too much attention to the opinions of others, more than it is necessary to do, it can be a challenge also.
Distractions
Creating the life you want can be likened to attempting to complete a marathon race.
For such a race, you no doubt need a good level of focus and attention to see it to the end.
During your race, you will surely meet with many distractions along the way, all lying around to either slow you down or knock you out completely.
It is very important to maintain your focus on the goal and avoid such distractions.
The same is true for when you want to create the life you want.
You will find many distractions along the way, such as social activities, entertainment, conflicting career paths, and other things.
Without the right focus and strategy, you might fall for these distractions, which would prevent you from reaching your destination.
Discouragement in the Face of Disappointments
To explain this point, we will still liken the journey of creating the life you want to run a marathon race.
If along the way, you are faced with hurdles that momentarily knock you off by tripping you to slow you down, what will you do?
Well, you have two options.
You can either stay down and wallow in the dejection that results from your stumble or get up, dust yourself and keep going.
Of course, the one who does the former would not reach the final destination and not get the prize.
However, if you keep going, then will you reach your final stop.
Creating the life you want is also like that.
More often than not, you will face some setbacks on your way.
Some of these might be due to making poor decisions and others just happen for inexplicable reasons.
Whatever the reason, your response would determine your success in creating the life you want.
This is yet another common challenge or stumbling block to reaching this goal.
Lack of Access to Relevant Information and Support
When it comes to climbing the ladder to create the life you want, you surely cannot do this alone.
Along the way on your journey, you will need to be armed with enough information and resources to help you.
Some of these might be found in books, the internet, or gotten from experts and professionals.
If you are not exposed to these or source for them, it might be hard to create the life you want successfully.
Hence, this is also a challenge that you need to overcome.
How to Create the Life You Want – What You Need To Do
Before you continue reading, one thing you need to be sure of when it comes to creating the life you want is that it starts with you.
If you put the responsibility of creating the life you want in someone else’s hands, then there are zero chances for success.
Having said that, here are some of the things you can do starting right now to create the life you want:
Know What You Want
This is the place the entire journey starts from- the dream itself.
The truth remains that if you do not have the dream or vision of the type of life you want, it would be impossible to create it.
Creating the life you want is just like building a machine or equipment.
Even before you get to work on construction, you first need to think about what you want to develop and the reason for it.
When you do this, the process of creation becomes more easier and direct.
In a similar vein, if you want to create the life you want, it is very important that you first decide on what you want your life to be like.
It is also good to write these things down as you think of them, as this makes them stick with you and keep your focus intact.
Take Full Responsibility for Your Life
The moment you start giving the responsibility of this to others or blaming others for your position in life, you stay stagnant.
You must always remember that there is only one person responsible for how your life turns out, and that is you.
Your thoughts, actions, and inactions would dictate the type of life you create for yourself and decide if it is the one you want.
How to Create the Life You Want – Find Your Purpose in Life
This is also very important if you want to create the life you want.
All of us have a purpose for why we are here, and this is what should direct the trajectory of our lives.
Your sense of purpose might have been distorted at some point in your journey by external factors either within or outside your control.
But you must do a self-discovery, looking at yourself carefully to find out what your real purpose in life is.
Doing this will help you in devising the right plan towards creating the life you want.
Cultivate Good Habits of Highly Successful People
One thing about success is that the blueprint for it is always the same for all and there to see.
If you consider the stories of all highly successful people, the path they took to success is covered with the same principles.
There are certain habits of highly successful people, which you do well to cultivate to create the life you want.
It might be having a good work-life balance, ability to manage finances correctly, how to deal with stress, how to stay motivated e.t.c.
When you learn these habits and imbibe the culture in yourself, you are making a great step towards creating the life you want.
Maintain Focus and Avoid Distractions
If there is one thing you can be certain of as you journey to creating the life you want, it is that there would be distractions.
These distractions would be everywhere you go, and if care is not taken, it can slow you down or even prevent you from reaching your destination.
Therefore, you will need to learn and develop skills that can help you improve your focus in life.
This might involve setting priorities, clearing your mind, having the discipline to say no, and even avoiding multitasking.
All these can help you avoid distractions and keep your focus intact for the task you have ahead; creating the life you want.
Consider Your Actions That Need to Change
It is often said that the only constant thing in life is change.
This also applies when you are working to create the life you want for yourself.
You need to realize that you cannot be rigid with your goals and life plans.
Instead, you need to be flexible enough to know when some things are not working and need to change.
These might be bad habits that are drawing you back on your journey and making it hard for you to reach your destination.
It might also be certain values or beliefs that aren’t helping your course, and you need to put them aside.
When you constantly review these things, you will surely see areas for change and quickly affect them to good results.
Work on Self-Motivation
Discouragement is one of the challenges you will face along the way as you strive to create the life you want.
That is why you must work on building self-motivation.
Some of the goals you have set for yourself might take months or even years to actualize.
Along the way, you are bound to face some forms of discouragement which can make you feel as though you cannot continue.
At such times, you need to find the inner strength to keep going.
Some of the things you can do are: breaking down large goals into milestones, doing one thing at a time, and getting a mentor to help you.
These can help to build your resilience even in the face of problems and keep you motivated to reach your goals.
Belief in Yourself
You have to believe in yourself because if you don’t, no one else will.
When aiming to create the life you want, it is easy for self-doubt to creep in and you begin to lack confidence in yourself.
This is a recipe for failure as this can weaken your resolve and make you fall short in creating the life you want.
Hence, you must convince yourself that you have all it takes to create the life you want.
Assure yourself that you have the talents, skills, ability, courage, and resources to do that which you want to do.
This is a very good step towards getting off the ground and creating the life you want.
Make a Plan
Deciding the life you want is one thing, but creating that life involves careful planning.
It is not just enough to dream of it or think of how it would feel to finally get the life you want.
You need to consider all you need to do to make it a success and set out a working plan on how to get there.
This would make the journey easier and guarantees you success.
Envision The Life You Want Daily
Every day, once you get off your bed, remind yourself of the life you want for yourself and picture it.
Whether it is working your dream job, living your best life with your family, having a healthy life e.t.c.
Always have that picture in your mind daily, and see how it makes you feel when you are finally there.
That might just be the extra motivation you need to work hard on getting to that destination.
How to Create the Life You Want – Final Thoughts
Success is relative; for what it means to one person is not the same as what it means to another.
What does success mean to you?
Whatever it is, you have all it takes to create the life you want for yourself.
And that is why you must take sole responsibility for how you want your life to be.
This begins with discovering who you are and knowing what you want in life.
Once this is done, then the path to creating the life you want is a straight one, using the principles found here.
