10 Daily Habits To Unlock your Dream Life
Daily Habits are the building blocks to unlocking your dream life. It seems funny, right? Something so simple as a habit that can lead to you living your best moments. Why is that? Well, there are a lot of reasons that habits help you so much, but I will only focus on a couple of big ones right now.
click here to see all posts in this series
The first is that you are reducing decision fatigue when you have habits. That is key to crafting your dream life. When you are constantly thinking about all.the.things. it doesn’t give your brain space to enjoy anything. Instead, it takes over, and you don’t know exactly where to go next. Habits are those things that you don’t think about, you just do. So, if you have implemented habits into your life, you are going to be able to move through your days easier, and you won’t have to constantly consider what is next. It helps to reduce the mental load.
The second is that it helps you spend time on what matters. You have daily habits that help you run your life, but then you also have daily habits that help you live that amazing life that you want. When tasks and other to-do’s are automated, you spend less time thinking about and doing those tasks which opens time for creative pursuits.
Daily Habits: Journaling
The first daily habits that I am going to talk about are what I call the considering habits. These are habits that revolve around thinking, considering, and getting all of these thoughts down on paper. The first daily habit is morning pages.
This post includes affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and make a subsequent purchase I may receive a commission. Read Disclosure.
Morning Pages
Morning pages are something that is discussed at length in the book The Artist’s Way. Essentially it is 3-pages of writing first thing in the morning – long form writing, by hand, about anything. And writing that is not seen by anyone. This is not your creative writing that you want to do for some particular purpose, it isn’t even a brain dump (which we will get to in a bit). Instead, it is writing that helps you process before your day begins.
It is very difficult to complain about a situation morning after morning, page after page, without being moved to constructive action. ~Julia Cameron
Morning Pages
Brain Dump
The next daily habit is one of my favorites to use – the brain dump. When you create a brain dump, you get new ideas, let go of old ones, and help to reduce the mental load. You are taking all of the thoughts in your head, and getting them out on paper. This helps you to organize your thoughts. If you want to go further than just listing (which I highly recommend), you should also take the time to organize these lists, trash what is unimportant, and make a plan for the other projects that you may face. This brain dump journal can help you get started. Similar to morning pages, a brain dump helps you to easily list all the things on your mind, which frees up space for more creative pursuits.
It doesn’t have to be only stream of consciousness brain dumps. Instead you can sit down to write an idea list on a particular creative pursuit. You can brainstorm some fun new projects that you want to work on, and keep that list handy for when you need either motivation or a fresh idea to try out. The sky is the limit. And the daily habit of a brainstorm can take many variations throughout your days, mix it up! Maybe one day it is getting all of the thoughts you have been having out on paper, and the next you are using your morning pages to give more words to those feelings.
End of Day Reflection
The next journaling type daily habit is the end of day reflection. This is a time to sit down and write down the positive events of the day, do a bit of memory keeping, and let go of what didn’t work. It gives you a chance to dwell on the positive and inspired things from your day before you go to bed. You can do this in a journal or it can also be something that is much shorter – like a 5-year journal which allows you to see what inspired you each day through 5 years. It is memory keeping, and can be long form and many pages, or something much shorter. But, highly valuable.
If committing to this daily ritual is challenging for you, I recommend starting small. Write one small gratitude for the day. Start with one line each day. As you continue to implement this daily habit, you will become more comfortable, and more words may flow. But, it doesn’t have to be a lot of words every day. Even professional writers can not write so many words every day. Let yourself be happy with one line, one gratitude, or one small win, and if you have a day with more words, then let them flow as well.
Visual Journaling
This daily habit is a little more challenging unless you are very comfortable with sketching. So, while I am including it with daily habits, I would also recognize that some people (me included) would not be able to manage this type of journaling every day. A visual journal can be a lot of different things, for my daughter it is sketching and drawing daily. It is filling up notebook upon notebook of doodles, drawings, and other ideas. For me, it might be more scrapbook-y. Something where I am tearing out images or words that I find value and inspiration from, and taping them into a visual journal.
If you are the second type, like I am, it is less likely that you will include this as a daily habit. Instead, it may be something you do weekly or even monthly. Think of this as a way to visually show your excitement about projects, or quotes that encourage you. It can be pictures of finished knit projects, it can be quotes from magazines, it can be little doodles if you like that type of thing, but aren’t quite a visual artist in the drawing/painting way.
Creative Warm-ups
A creative warm-up is taking ten to fifteen minutes before you even begin your projects for the day. This helps to reduce the pressure of creating something perfect on the first go – whether that is some sort of craft, drawing, writing. It is in the name, warming up your brain and creative muscle! However, it can also be a great way to destress and feel as though you have created something before you start on other projects for the day.
Daily Habits: Physical & Mental
One of the best daily habits to unlock your dream life is to get some physical activity in. Why? When you take the time to go for a walk, it helps you unlock your creative potential. It is a stress reliever, and you can get some great ideas while you are outside in nature. It is something that my daughter loves to do before she sits down to write or draw, her little creative walk.
Another fun habit is to incorporate sensory exploration. This gives you a chance to experience life through your different senses. When you do, it helps you to center yourself, as well as come up with some new ideas for creative pursuits. This is a habit that can help shake up your routine enough to not be stale, or going through the motions.
Mindfulness and meditation are both daily habits that focus on centering yourself. Meditation is a great way to de-stress, similar to going for a walk before you sit down to work on whatever projects you have planned. When you take time to clear mental distractions, whether it is through movement like a walk or yoga, or through meditation, it helps you overcome any blocks that you may have as you move into your projects.
Reading is probably my favorite daily habit in this section. This gives you the opportunity to look for inspiration in someone else’s work before you begin your own. Alternatively, you can use it to understand and engage in something completely outside of your preferred craft. This can be fiction or poetry or a fun article. When you are always seeking out new encouraging work, it helps motivate you to do the things you love to do as well. And that is what crafting your dream life is all about!
Daily Habits: Plan for it!
One of my favorite daily habits is my planning system. This is hands-down the best way that I have found to unlock my dream life. I know, planning, it sounds crazy to say that that is something that will help you live your dream life. But, I have to say, when you are proactive about your time, when you understand how much 168 hours actually is in your week, you will make different decisions in order to accomplish the goals you have set out for yourself.
It isn’t something that comes naturally to everyone, but there are so many tools available to help you figure out a system that works best for you. Understanding your realistic ideal weekly rhythm is one of those ways – take the time to figure out where you are actually spending your time. I know yesterday I talked a bit about finding the activities that make you lose track of time and to do more of those. However, sometimes those activities are not actually the ones that are going to deliver on our dream life.
Sometimes, those are activities that instead help us decompress or even turn off everything that we are doing in the day to day. We don’t want to spend all of our time on those pursuits! And being honest with yourself as you go through a time inventory will help you see the patterns you already have in place. When you see those patterns YOU get to decide whether you want to keep them or not.
Which daily habits do you already have in your days? Which are you interested in adding?
