How Can I Figure Out My Aspirations?

You can have lifelong goals that drive your daily decisions. Do you want to grow as a person? It’s possible. Do you want to fulfill your childhood dream of becoming a nurse? You can do it. 

What if you do not know what kind of aspiration you should pursue? It takes effort, but youcan discern what matters to you and build your life around those dreams. As you take a deeper look at how you envision your future, you may find that you need to drill down to your why to find success, but you have the ability within you to figure out your aspirations. 

4 Suggestions to Figure Out Your Aspirations

When trying to establish your aspirations, go in with both an open mind and open heartalongside a large piece of paper. The idea here is to formulate a roadmap that will guide your path toward attaining all you could have dreamed. Here are some steps to get you started:

1. Take Some Time to Answer Some Important Questions: Plan an afternoon when you can be alone and have some quiet time. Meditate, exercise, or engage with some activity that allows you to break your mind away from routine. You want to go into this feeling as connected to yourself as possible.

Have some paper and a pen close by, and start interviewing yourself. Begin by imagining who you’ve become and what you envision your life looking like in twenty years no matter what your age. What does your family life look like? What job will you hold? What business will you start? What are you passionate about? What activities have you always dreamed of doing?

Give yourself thirty minutes to complete this step. Be as detailed as possible, but don’t get hung up if you have some difficulty at first. I’ve had instances where I really struggled here too and that’s okay. Just do your best to write out what your life could look like twenty years from now.

Then repeat that step looking ten years into the future. What would the halfway point to your dream life look like? Take thirty minutes again to complete.

Finally, take another thirty minutes to envision five years from now. 

2. Categorize What You Have Discovered: As you write everything down, you will discover themes will start to pop out. You may find that your passions revolve around family or spirituality. It’s helpful to group these as it will guide you in your next steps. It will also help you understand how to give your life more balance.

Six of the most common categories include:

• Mental Health
• Physical Health
• Business / Career
• Wealth
• Spirituality
• Relationships / Community

3. It Is Imperative Not to Play the Comparison Game: One thing that may keep you from really digging into your aspirations is comparing yourself to others. Remember that what you want out of life is for you, not others. Your goals should be based on your values, not those of others who might have their own vision for your life, like your parents, or other loved ones. You’ll also want to avoid comparing yourself to others and their dreams. 

If you’re having difficulty figuring this out, go back to your life vision and begin to dissect the elements you find in it into the categories that you’ve decided to use.

4. Remember That Your Aspirations May Change: You will want to continually review your aspirations, especially as you enter different stages in life. What you wanted at 25 could be radically different at 45. That’s ok. The purpose of revisiting your hopes and dreams is to help guide your overall life.

If you choose to take the driver’s seat, you’ll gain new freedom when you figure out your aspirations for your life and career. Having them will infuse your life with new meaning and a deeper sense of purpose to help you push through the hard times and find joy in the good times.

The Creative Work Behind the Post

Voila - A Short Story

Erik Reinhardt looks to his brother Arthur to teach him how to be a man.

But what Arthur is going to teach him is the most powerful magic he'll ever learn.

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