How can I work out what I really want in life?

How can I work out what I really want in life? I have just watched this incredible TED talk by Ashley Stahl about how to work out what you really want.

She tells a very moving story of how her father was duped into believing she had been kidnapped. Thankfully they realised it was a scam before handing over their life savings. Ashley, after some thought, has managed to find compassion for the fake kidnappers by believing that it was probably the best way they could find to survive.

She started thinking about the ways we kidnap ourselves from the things we want to do most in life, in order to help ourselves survive. We give away our power because of fear of getting our needs met.

Ashley suggests three steps to performing what she calls a you-turn, a decision to move away from fear and be true to ourselves:

1 – Do a self-audit to work out what is working for us and what isn’t. You can also ask the question “what do you know that you wish you didn’t” to work out where you may be hiding from the truth. It may be painful, but that pain can often launch us into our next stage of life.

2 – Follow our freedom by paying attention to what feels good to us, so we can set ourselves free. We can learn to trust our gut feelings, especially if we are feeling anxious about something, and it doesn’t feel right. Often our true purpose is just on the periphery of what is right in front of us, and we can course correct to find it.

3 – Engage, and take action. Perfectionism is the enemy of action, and often we are perfectionists because we are afraid of failure. Clarity comes from action, not from thought. To be powerful we need to start ticking off actions on our to do list.

I love this talk, and am going to put Ashley’s tips into place in my own life immediately!

Project 365

I set up this website after deciding that I want to build a more creative life for myself, so I can give up my job and be in control of my own destiny.

I have set myself a goal of publishing an article on my website every day this year, to document my journey from employment to self-employment.

The name I chose was Project 365 because I see this as a year that I have dedicated to learning and self-development, as I countdown to freedom. It started on 1st January 2021, so I have 195 days to go!