Part 1: Build your own life map for deeper meaning, fulfilment and happiness
I love Hollywood movies, I really do.
I enjoy sitting back and getting caught up in a story. They’re easy watching films (most of the time) that you can enjoy.
BUT… I do have a bone to pick with Hollywood.
It’s to do with the stories they tell and the roles women play in them. You’re the bride, the mother, the angry ex, the greedy/mean boss. Women have certain roles and that’s where we’re stuck.
The thing about film is that they reflect our culture AND it guides as to what the ‘norm’ is.
What do I mean by that? Hollywood isn’t giving us many options here. Either you follow the mainstream get married and have babies or you grow old single and became a sour spinster. Maybe you have a successful business and you’re portrayed as the “bitch” boss.
There are certain roles and they have a good or bad pitch to them.
The point I want to make is - there is no one way to live your life right. There are simply ways. What we lack as young women are stories to show us all the myriad ways we can live our lives (they are as plentiful as people on this earth).
(Side note: Reece Witherspoon is on a mission to change this. She has created a production company run by women creating movies written by women, starring women providing us with different stories we can reflect on)
Something I wish I had have received when I was young, are tools to create our own life map. Now, life is always going to have it’s ups and downs. There are parts we cannot control.
However if we’re a boat floating on the sea of life, we can certainly have a rudder, a motor, know what direction we desire to go in and learn how to use the wind in our sails.
Here are the tools I’ve picked up over my 30 years of life create my own map so when I measure myself up, I’m not always falling short upon someone else’s standards. Instead, I’m working solidly to build the life I’ve always dreamed of.
Core desired feelings
The best tool and the first I get all my clients to consider are your CORE DESIRED FEELINGS. Danielle Laporte came up with this concept and she wrote an entire book on it.
In summary, when we desire to be, do or have anything in life, we believe that in the being, doing or having of that thing we will feel a certain way. So the quickest way to get what we want is to start feeling that way already.
Danielle Laporte took this further and attaches are core desired feelings to our goal setting.
So, here’s are some big questions I hope you get well acquainted with your personal answers for:
How do you desire to feel in your daily life?
How do you desire to feel at work?
How do you desire to feel in your relationships?
How do you desire to feel with your finances?
How do you desire to feel in your friendships and family life?
It’s about getting really clear on how you desire to feel. Then aligning everything you set out to do with these core desired feelings.
Your core desired feelings become a barometer for decision making.
For example, my core desired feelings are FREEDOM, FULFILMENT, CREATIVITY, JOY, ADVENTURE AND EMPOWERED.
If I’m thinking about buying a Mercedes Benz…
I would ask myself does buying this car and having this car make me feel FREE, FULFILLED, CREATIVE, JOYFUL, EMPOWERED AND ADVENTUROUS?
I would visualise having the car, driving it, spending the money on it and notice how I feel.
If my answer was no, to the above question, I wouldn’t buy the car.
If my answer was yes to the above question, I would buy the car.
See how these core desired feelings can become the guide posts you use?
In the next blog I’ll share some more guide posts to help you create a map for your life that will leave you with a meaningful life that is fulfilling and full of joy.
Life’s short, be bold,
Katrina