7 Questions to Discover Your Dreams

I’ve always been a big goals person. A dreamer. I’ve had a Life Goals List for as long as I can remember, and having goals and dreams inspires me to be intentional about creating and living my best life.

When I talk to people about their dreams, I realize not everyone approaches life that way. While many of the people I’m around have even bigger goals and aspirations than I do, there are a lot of people in the world who have given up on their dreams. Either their dreams for the future have gotten tucked in the past, or they grew up in an environment that encouraged them to “be realistic” about their lot in life, so they haven’t allowed themselves to dream.

A couple things I’ve learned about dreams is (1) the past does not equal the future, and (2) every successful person I know has one thing in common: they are constantly dreaming about how to achieve their goals.

I think one of the challenges people have with “dreaming big dreams” is they don’t know how to start. Someone once said, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” If you haven’t yet discovered what the “life of your dreams” looks like for you, then it’s no wonder you’re not taking massive action to achieve it. The first step is to create the plan, and then you can take action to achieve it.

Here are seven questions to help you discover your dreams. In the next day or two, set aside a time when you can think about, and write about, what the life of your dreams looks like for you. Take out your journal, or a notebook, and write down your answers to these questions:

1. What do you love to do? 

What are you passionate about? What gets you out of bed in the morning? What keeps you up late at night? 

Whether you have a goals list or not, you’re likely to be inspired by something. Everyone has aspirations, or at least things they think about. What do you think about? What is it that excites you when people ask about it – something that causes your whole disposition to light up when you even think about it? 

2. If you could be, do, or have anything in the world, what would you want?

This is what I call a blank slate, “no limits” question. If you got to be the architect of your life, and design it however you want it to be, what would that look like?

(Here’s a secret: You are the architect of your life!)

3. What does your perfect day look like for you?

Don’t hold anything back, and be as descriptive as possible. Where are you getting up? What do you do first thing in the morning? How does work fit into your perfect day? What do you do for fun? What about health and fitness? Who is part of your perfect day?

Think and write about every element of how you want your perfect day to look.

4. What would you do if you learned you only had six months left to live?

This is an intentional living question. Time is our scarcest commodity. What if you knew your time was limited? Would you live differently? Would you invest your time differently? What would that look like?

(P.S. Time is limited. Don’t wait.)

5. What are the five people you admire most doing that you’re not doing? 

Think about five people who are doing what you want to be doing, or living how you want to live? What is it they’re doing? What is it about how they’re living that causes you to want that for yourself?

We can learn a lot both by modeling the success of others, and also by avoiding mistakes we see others making. What do you want your life to look like, as you think about those you admire?

6. What have you been saying “no” to for a long time, but are ready to start saying “yes” to? 

Sometimes we just need to jump – to make the change we’ve known for a long time we need to make. What is the future that you’re ready to start creating – today?

7. What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?

We’re often held back by the fear of failure, and sometimes that causes us to not even dream in the first place. What if you knew failure was not even in the realm of possibility? What would you do then?

Once you’ve answered the questions, go through your answers, and reflect on the life you want to live. What one action can you take that will begin moving you in the direction of the life you want to create?

What is your big dream… and what will you do, starting today, to make it come true?