I believe one of the most important things you can do is have a vision for your life. In the past I’ve written in detail discussing why you need a vision for your life and suggested different ways to record that vision. What I’m going to do here is talk about how to align your habits, routines and environment with your vision or how to align your lifestyle with the vision for your life. I chose this because if you have goals or a vision for your life or have an idea of what you want in your future, you’re going to need to become the person that is congruent with that life. If your vision is a grand one and bigger than you could accomplish as you stand then maybe you could benefit from tweaking yourself and elevating yourself into the version of you that makes that life possible.
So how do you align your habits, routines and environment with your vision?
- Habits and routines
If you study successful people you will find that they each have some form of routine that they follow. They have certain habits that got them where they are and help keep them there. For example I’ve found if you start your day well, you can accomplish more, so a morning routine that gets you closer to your dream life daily is important. Whether its exercise, meditation, journaling, or any other mindfulness practice, starting your morning well sets the tone for the rest of the day. You may also need to remove bad habits from your life. You know the things you do that are holding you back and you have to remove them from your life.
Changing your habits to help transform your life is not something that happens overnight or takes a month or two, chances are you’ll only see results over time. When I stopped drinking, nothing much resulted from it immediately but when I look back now 5 years later, I’m a completely different person and I’ve done things I never would have achieved back then. Think of the future you want for yourself, who would you need to become to make that future possible? The book I’ve found that tackles the topic of habits and routines in a way that helps you start some and stick to them is Atomic Habits by James Clear. He delves deep into habit formation and looks at why people sometimes find it difficult to stick to new habits and helps you avoid falling into that trap. I’m finding that book useful as I start to form new habits and improve on old ones to better bring myself into alignment with the life I’m working towards.
- Environment
Your environment can determine whether or not you achieve your goals or succeed in what you do. This can be your social environment, your physical environment or any other environment. Socially, the company you keep matters. Jim Rohn said it best when he said “you are the product of the 5 people closest to you.” The people around you affect you in one way or another, whether for the better or for the worst. It’s important to therefore ensure that the people you allow close to you or associate with are those who bring a positive impact into your life. So surround yourself with people that build you up, people that you can learn from and you can encourage each other to pursue your dreams. Look around you, who are your closest people? Do you want to be like them?
Who you associate with is not the only factor in play, it is a part of many factors that come into play in crafting who you are and what you become. Your physical environment plays a part too. For example if what you do is not something celebrated in the small town you live in, you may have to work towards moving to another city or country. You might not be able to choose your physical environment currently, whether due to finances or anything else, don’t let that stop you from deciding where you want to live, work and experience life.
- Self-actualization
If you’re going to get to the life you dream of, it would serve you to continuously work on yourself. You have to be your number one project. It’s important to work towards your dreams but it’s you who ultimately moves the needle. It’s you who succeeds or fails at getting yourself to where you ideally want to be. You are the one managing the company that is YOU. You alone are responsible for its success, no one else. It’s therefore imperative that you get this company working at its best.
As you work on yourself you’ll become self aware, you’ll find things you need to let go of, figure out what’s holding you back, grow from different challenges, among other things. This process for me started through books; from personal development books to biographies and autobiographies. I also began watching and listening to podcasts and speeches and talks by people I admire and people who have succeeded in the pursuit of their dreams and any other people who inspire me. The books and podcasts have helped me be able to better manage myself, improve myself and daily move closer to becoming the person that is congruent with my vision, somebody worthy of that life and somebody who will thrive in that life, instead of it breaking me or turning me into someone I don’t want to be.
As you work on making your dreams a reality, work towards ensuring that your lifestyle is aligned with your vision.
