Do you know what you really want your life to be like in the future? With enough detail and clarity so that it gives you focus and direction on exactly what you should be doing and not doing every day? For most people, the answer is no.

Do you know your most important Values? The things that really matter to you, that you would never compromise on? Specifically enough so that you could tell someone the 5-7 most important Values in your life?

This free Design Your Ideal Life course is the beginning of the Happiful program, and when you complete it, you will have created a powerful Vision of your ideal future life, giving you clarity, focus, and motivation. And you’ll have uncovered your Values, the things that are truly most important to you and should guide your daily behavior.

The truth is that most people go through life as though they are on a life raft in the ocean: they are drifting, just getting through each day, pushed by the wind and currents of life. This happens because they don’t have a clear Vision of what they want their life to look like.

To continue the life raft analogy, the full Happiful program gets you off the raft and transforms you into a jet pilot, with a destination, a flight plan, and an engine to get you there quickly. It helps you take control of your life.

Most people spend more time planning their evening than planning their lives. The result is that they just drift from day to day like that person on the life raft in the ocean. Months, then years, then decades go by and they are making no progress towards a happy and fulfilled life. They look back and wonder where the years went.

It doesn’t matter how old you are, you need a clear Vision of your ideal future life so that you can live the life YOU want. Then you can get off that life raft, stop drifting, and start making progress towards turning that Vision into your reality.

Another analogy is to consider a road map of the US. Let’s say you’re in New York and you want to get to Los Angeles. There are millions of miles of roads in the US, but only a handful of highways are the right ones to get you from New York to LA. The right highways (I-80, then I-76, I-70, and I-15) represent your major plans, actions and habits to achieve your goals in life. When your goal is to get to LA, all the other roads (all the other things you might do with your time) are a distraction that will either lead you in the wrong direction, or at least slow you down. And each of the right highways you take has interchanges on an average of every 15 miles; at each one, you have to decide whether to stay on, exit to the north, exit to the south or go back the way you came. Think of those 165 interchanges as representing the decisions you have to make throughout every day (and the distractions you have to avoid). But first you have to know that your destination is Los Angeles. Without knowing your destination, you will just be driving aimlessly. And even if you are driving fast (working hard for long hours), unless you know your true desired destination, you could be driving fast in the wrong direction.

One final analogy: If you wanted to build your dream house, it wouldn’t be enough to just have lumber and a toolbox filled with tools. First, you would need to have an idea – a Vision – of what you wanted your house to look like. How big, how many floors and bedrooms, what style of home, and much more: you need a complete Vision of what the house should be, inside and out. That Vision is then reflected in a set of blueprints before you can start building your house. And you’d also need to build a foundation on which to build the house.

To build your dream life, you need the same thing: a Vision of your ideal future life so you know what life you want to create, a set of plans, and your Values to serve as your foundation.

In Stephen Covey’s iconic book ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, Habit #2 is “Begin with the end in mind”. That’s what determining your Ideal Life Vision is about – you need to get clarity on what you really want your life to be like in the future. Only then can you set the right plans and make the right decisions each day.

Once you have your Life Vision, the impact is incredibly powerful. Over and over, I’ve seen how people who have gone through the process of defining their Vision are able to make it come true – often much faster than they ever dreamed possible. It isn’t magic: it’s a combination of programming your subconscious mind, and giving you motivation, focus, and direction.

The full Be Happiful Course will give you a lot of valuable tools for your toolbox. But your very first steps are to determine your Vision of your ideal future life and the Values that will govern your behavior.

Regardless of your age and current circumstances, determining your Vision and Values can be truly life-changing: helping you set the direction of your life, giving you powerful motivation, and guiding your daily decisions and actions. Once you have determined your Vision and Values, the full Be Happiful Course will give you the complete implementation system to achieve your Vision of your ideal future life while living in alignment with your Values. But it all starts with determining your Vision and Values.

Today’s Action:

Block out 30 to 60 minutes in your calendar for later today or tomorrow to complete one or both of the following exercises:

  • Happy List: Make a list of the activities that make you happy. For my list, I have 50 activities listed such as listening to birdsong at sunrise, listening to music, bodysurfing, hiking, talking with friends, eating a good meal, reading a good book, skiing, playing tennis, running, and playing cards. Put down everything you can think of. Now bold or highlight those things that are easy to do from your home and that you can do on your own so that there is nothing stopping you from enjoying activities from your Happy List. Having a bad day, or feel like you’re in a rut? Pick out one or more and do it. You can also build ‘Happy List Time’ into your calendar to make sure you schedule time for things that make you happy each day or at least each week. While this exercise is fun and valuable for creating more happiness in your everyday life, it will also help you to craft your Vision of your ideal future life.

  • Life List: Everyone should have a Life List consisting of all the places they want to go, the experiences they want to have, the people they want to meet, and their desired achievements. If you don’t have a Life List yet, start it now! Adventurer Dr. John Goddard (the inspiration for the movie ‘The Bucket List’) put it this way: “The quality of your life is the quality of your list.” (Here’s his Life List.) And as Jim Rohn said, “Life is not just the passing of time. Life is the collection of experiences and their intensity.” It’s fun to write your Life List and like your Vision itself, your Life List gives you inspiration and focus. Write your Life List, and then take action to work your way through it, and you will have a great life. Don’t worry about trying to make it complete, just get started with several things that you’d love to have, do, achieve, or experience. You can and should keep adding to it, but getting started on it is fun and will help you in crafting your Vision of your ideal future life.