Are you Creating Your Dream Life?

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Me with Cherries 2015-cropThis morning I woke up feeling stressed, overwhelmed and resentful. My brain was full, I was tired and frustrated. It’s too much!

It’s been an extremely busy few weeks for me – holding my biggest sale of the year at The Coaching Tools Company.com, planning the next steps for our Salt Spring Island tourism website, getting back into the rhythm of having B&B guests at our Cosy Woodpecker Cottage, having work done on our new garage/office building and planning out the work we’ll do ourselves, consulting and working on the patio and shade pavilion we’re building, keeping the garden alive (just) with watering while also keeping it to a minimum in the drought we’re having!, picking all the fruit and vegetables that are busy ripening all around us, seeing friends and family.

And that’s just the key things.

It’s easy to lose sight of what really matters, to get caught up in the mechanics and busy-ness of life, doing the next thing next with barely a moment for our “selves”.

Dexter-with-Cherry-adj

Dexter, helping us pick cherries

But as Duncan (my hubbie) finished making me a breakfast smoothie from fresh blackberries, raspberries and cherries from our garden, I suddenly thought WOW – we’re building our dream. Our dream home and our dream LIFE!

No-one said it would be easy, or stress-free. In fact if I’ve learned anything it’s that following your dreams is NOT the dream everyone leads you to believe!

And yet, what I am experiencing is LUCKY. Feeling stress because I’m overwhelmed with all the work to create my dream life is a first world problem. Bourgeois suffering!

What was interesting is that for once my critic did NOT step in and say rude, judgemental things like “Boo-hoo! Quit complaining you lazy $%@*!% – just get on with it!”

Instead I felt this sense of awe, connection and immense gratitude that this was even possible. I literally “saw the light” in the situation instead of the dark. And a massive weight lifted.

Yes, I AM exhausted (did I mention weeks of 28-30c in the bedroom trying to sleep?). Yes, I wish it was all done, that our finances were more certain so it felt like less of a risk. I wish that after 8 years of being on gorgeous Salt Spring Island and working on our home, property, businesses and selves that it was getting easier.

But it isn’t. And even though the challenges keep shifting and changing, I would not switch this life for any other. This IS my dream life – and even though it’s SO much harder, more challenging and riskier than I ever thought it would be, I don’t regret a thing! Every step, every mistake has led to a learning that I can’t imagine being without. And as I look around at what we have created I am in AWE!

So where do YOU fit in to all this?

Most of us are tired, stressed and/or overwhelmed these days but I wonder:

  • Are you stressed for the right reasons?
  • What is your tiredness, stress and/or overwhelm in service of?
  • Is your stress in service of you, your family, your dream life? Or is it serving your boss, the company you work for, what you think you SHOULD be doing, what other people think or want?

Perhaps you’re on autopilot and haven’t thought about it. Either way, I urge you to think about it this week. Because when it gets tough, when I’m tired, stressed and overwhelmed, I just look out of my window at the flowers in the flowerbed I created, or the zucchini carbonara or salad lunch made with veggies from our garden and I can say, “I’m living and working towards my dream life! How lucky am I?”

Can you do the same?

manMH900442237[1] 325x217Here are some very important questions to ponder:
If you are not taking care of your dreams, who will?”
“If you don’t start now, then when?”

Finally. If you’re feeling inspired, some next steps:

  • Create a Vision Board of your Dream Life,
  • Journal about your Dream Life: What would an ideal day look like for you? What would your ideal life look like?
  • Start a weekly “Post-it Action Plan”! Each week on a post-it write out TWO next steps that move you closer to your dream life (make the actions as small as you need to, so you’re 100% committed to completing them). The THIRD post-it action is always “Write out my next 2 actions.” Now cross off your actions – and repeat!

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