Kathy Hamilton Psst…can I tell you something? You already know the secret to creating a life you love. Don’t believe me? I promise it’s staring you right in the face. Okay, let me explain
Before we get into the good stuff in this blog post, I’d like to make a little announcement! It’s been a little while since I last posted- because life happens, am I right?
But I’m so glad to be back and feeling so inspired to share this blog post with you today! It’s a topic I’ve been mulling over for a long time, but recently I felt as though my thoughts were crystallising into a message I could share with you. So here we go.
The secret to creating a life you love is simple in theory and a little harder to put into practice. It’s all about tuning into your passions and the things in life that bring you joy. However, it’s also about accepting that these might not be things that are easy to achieve or bring success in the ways you’ve been taught to value.
Don’t let your dreams be dreams
Okay, picture the dream version of yourself that lives in your head. What do they look like, what do they spend their time doing? This is a great place to start when thinking about creating a life you love.
Now ask yourself, how different is dream you to real you?
I’ll start. Dream Kathy, as I’ll refer to her, is living her best life. She’s sipping strong coffee in a charming cafe in Paris. She’s reading great books and writing even better ones. She lives in a chic apartment, decorated in a bohemian mishmash of art that inspires her, with shelves weighted down by a large collection of books. The sun filters through the long Georgian style windows…
…Record scratch…
Real Kathy is quite different. She’s occasionally elements of everything I described above but not the whole picture. I’m guessing you are similar. The key to creating a life you love is to find tangible ways to turn dreams into reality. But how?
Life isn’t about Finding Yourself it’s About Creating Yourself
According to the internet, George Bernard Shaw once said: ‘Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself’. Something about this quote really resonated with me! The thing about saying you’re ‘finding yourself‘ is that it’s finite. I mean, what will you do when you get there?
Life isn’t a series of boxes we tick off. It won’t magically become perfect when you accomplish a certain list of goals, either. There’s always ‘something’ to strive for, challenge yourself with and grow towards.
So, I love the reminder that it’s a creative process! I think all of us are trying to be the best versions of ourselves. And the idea of creating yourself reminds us that the process is ongoing. It’s about believing and staying true to yourself. It also gives us the freedom to try things on for size and decide they don’t fit us the way we expected.
Take dream Kathy, she’s a die-hard espresso fan. But real Kathy ain’t about that bitter coffee kind of life. She’s a latte girl through and through. She tried the dream and adapted it to suit.
Change or Don’t Change: The Choice is Yours
Recently I was reading this book about Existentialism (which is one of the weirdest ways to begin a sentence!) and one of the key things that got stressed over and over was the importance of choice. You see, as humans, we’re fundamentally free beings.
However, we load ourselves down with expectations, assumptions and traditions that make us feel only certain paths are open to us. We chase good careers because we’ve been taught that’s what success is. Similarly, we don’t follow passions because the risk feels too much or they seem like a waste of time.
For me, this applies to writing. If you’d asked me as a child it would have seemed obvious that I’d write a book when I grew up. Because duh, I was a writer. However, I’ve been ‘grown-up’ for quite a few years now and although the ambition is there, the self-doubt obscures it. The worry that what I write won’t be good enough. Or make me any money. Or, or or…a whole host of things keeps me from writing for the love of it.
However, reading about existentialism made me realise that whether I write or not, a choice has been made. I’ve either chosen to be a writer or I have chosen not to! It shook me to my core. What do we have to lose by not trying to do the things we love?
The Freedom to Keep Choosing
Ultimately, the choice to change our lives is always there. We just have to take it. That doesn’t mean it might not be tough, or that we may not struggle along the way. But it does mean that we can actively take charge of our own lives.
Now, am I advocating that we all quit our jobs and move to Paris to become bohemian artists? No. But if you yearn to paint…do it. Take the class, try it out. Because what better use of your time is there than to pursue something that makes you happy?
So what’s the secret to creating a life you love? Keep choosing. Choose to let a certain part of yourself thrive. Chose your dreams again and again. The secret to creating a life you love is that there is no secret. You just have to keep creating.
