We all want to live our best, most extraordinary life. That’s the common goal, right? We all want to live our own version of a perfect life. And while most people throughout our lives will tell us that’s “unattainable,” they’re wrong. Here’s the thing about living our dream lives, if they involve living in a perfect society (whatever that means to you), then yes, that part is unattainable. But, when you drive all of your energy, focus, and love into YOUR dream life and make it all about you, that is attainable. As we’ve established previously, we live in a world of free will. Meaning we cannot control the actions and lives of those around us. But we have control over our actions and how we feel about the actions of others. To manifest our dream life, we have to focus on ourselves.

Despite how “out of control” things may seem sometimes, we are always in the driver’s seat of our lives. I understand that may be hard to believe. If you had told the Lauren that had existed three years ago that statement, she would have laughed. I was so adamant that everything was happening to me rather than for me. I refused to believe differently. The first step in actually living your dream life is believing that everything is happening for you, no matter the circumstance. In each valley of life, there is a lesson to be learned. We walk away with a slightly better understanding of how the world works and—hopefully, a greater appreciation for our lives. The second step to the journey is a clear understanding of what you want “next.”

The First Chapter is the Most Important Chapter

With every goal or experience we want to achieve, there is always a next. There is always another income ceiling we want to shatter, another place we want to travel, and another thing we want to achieve. But, we’re not going to achieve our biggest goals without achieving some smaller ones first. We’re constantly zoning in on that big vision and skipping over the rest of the timeline. Our “dream life” isn’t just one vision; it’s a vision that grows over time as our lives evolve. There is a first step or first chapter to everything. We are always living/pursuing a dream life because dreams continue to change. So, how do we reach the “first chapter?” How do we begin living our dream life? Besides the obvious answer (living intentionally), you have to get clear on YOUR vision.

In the world we live in now, with the access we have to other people’s lives with social media, it’s so easy for our dreams to become misinformed by what we think we want based on what other people have. When someone asks you, “Where do you want to travel next?” Do you think of the last place someone you know traveled? Or an influencer you follow went to? There is nothing wrong with informing choices and dreams based on what you see and observe. We all do it. But you have to want these things for the right reason. Influencer culture has made it difficult to see through the “pomp and circumstance.” It’s given us rose-colored glasses and made things confusing to distinguish. I can’t tell you how often I’ve impulsively purchased something or wanted something because someone told me, “I need it.”

Work your big vision backwards

If you’re looking to the future too much, thinking you want something “BIG” but don’t know how to get there, it’s always great to work the vision backward. Last year, as I was publishing my new year content, I wrote a piece on Causation Manifestation. I explained in detail how we can reverse engineer our big dreams to create a step-by-step action plan to get there. We can essentially do the same thing with our overall vision. Living your dream life doesn’t mean suffering or living in mundanity first to get to that dream. We just have to break down our dream life into chapters. If you had asked me three years ago if the life I’m living now was my dream, I would have said absolutely without hesitation. Does that mean I don’t have dreams beyond what I’ve already achieved? Of course not.

Manifesting the first chapter of your dream life is HUGE! Because once you’ve reached the first chapter, it means you’ve taken the most challenging steps, and that’s where intentionality comes in. The first chapter is always the hardest because it’s where you’re establishing and figuring out what works for you. It’s where you’re beginning to heal, grow, and expand. We establish the foundation of our life from which all dreams will expand. The first chapter is our soil; without it, we would never grow our forest of dreams. We establish our goals, create habits and routines, build relationships, and forge our career paths. Here, we are planting our seeds.

You don’t have to see it

The seeds are the first chapter. It’s the chapter where we may not see the growth and expansion (because the seeds are still growing underground). However, we know that even without seeing, progress is being made. The first chapter is the journey we know true growth is beginning, but we may not be able to notice until we’ve moved into chapter two. It’s once we move into chapter two, we have genuine appreciation and love for who we were and how hard we worked in chapter one. You’re always Manifesting your Dream Life. We’re always making progress towards bigger goals. And when you’re clear about YOUR goals and YOUR vision, and you live intentionally, the chapters of your book or the trees in your forest will naturally grow.