All my life I’ve been a huge day dreamer. I’ve spent countless hours just sitting still and dreaming Hollywood-worthy versions of how my life could be.

Day dreaming allows me to sneak into unlimited versions of my life, and especially when I travel, I love this little creative exercise.

When I travelled to South Carolina, I totally could see myself living in one of those colonial style houses in Charleston, running a charming little boutique in the historic centre, and spending my evenings sipping mint juleps and savouring crab cakes and other seafood specialities.

When I travelled to Paris, I could totally dream myself into a bohemian lifestyle in Paris, working in an art gallery, meeting friends for lunch in a art-deco bistrot, discussing important life questions for hours till it would be time to get ready for a theatre play or opera.

Honestly, I can see myself in unlimited cities, countries, jobs, hobbies, and they all seem appealing to me.

But does this mean I want to leave my wonderful job and my life between Europe and Brazil, for which I fought so hard over the past years, and where I’m finding so much happiness?

Heck no!!!

Day dreaming, “how would it be”-questions, mind travelling is, above all, a delicious brain training and creativity exercise for me.

And as Life Designers, we love these kind of creative exercises.

As Life Designers, we need to give ourself permission to sneak into different lives.

Why? Because as Life Designers we know, that there’s always more than one way to happiness.

And as Life Designers we also know, that giving ourselves permission to sneak into different futures, takes off the pressure from one single “masterplan to happiness”.

So allow yourself to get your creative juices flowing and think about those questions:

• Could you see yourself in completely different jobs?
• Exploring new hobbies or activities?
• Living in completely different cities?
• Curating a completely different lifestyle?
• Thinking about what would you do with your life, if you wouldn’t have to go work today?

Honestly, how do these questions feel? Delicious, inspiring, motivating? Or rather ridiculous, irrational and a waste of time?

I’m sure many will answer with the latter. And that’s why so many feel stuck when it comes to Ideating during our Life Designing process.

But if we want to design our lives, we need to overcome our pre-conceptions and limiting beliefs around allowing ourselves to stepping into different versions of us, of our lives, of our purpose.

And we have to train this capacity. We have to build up this Life Designer’s trait of mind travelling and day dreaming.

Invite your creativity and imagination to play with you, and have fun together. Prepare yourself for this wonderful Life Designing journey ahead of you. And prepare yourself to get into the habit of always having more than one idea when it comes to a life challenge or life question.

And make it a habit to “steal” inspiration from different life versions. To take certain elements from one sneak journey and merge it with another, or your current life experience.

On my recent trip to Paris, I felt this deep joy of constantly being on a cultural quest, exploring the latest exhibitions and cultural offerings.

And guess what, back in Sao Paulo, I’ll head towards my favourite museums on my first weekend off. I don’t need to move to Paris, to feel culturally inspired and called. This can happen right here, and right now.

Sneaking into different lives vs escaping your current one

But there’s a huge difference between day dreaming as a creative exercise and day dreaming to escape your current life situation.

If you became aware that your day dreaming stems from a deep feeling of dissatisfaction and unhappiness around your current life situation and you try to escape this reality as often as possible, then it’s not a creative exercise any longer.

Then it’s a call to action!

Then it’s time to sit down and take notes of what those sneak journeys are telling you:

• What elements of these day dreams are you missing most, in your professional or personal life?
• Is there a common denominator in all of those day dreams?
• What’s holding you back from stepping into one of these futures?

And by all means, start to take action!

Nothing will be more frustrating and demotivating than sailing off to different possible futures and feeling like a boat wreck when returning to reality, because you’re not willing to change the present.

So as a Life Designer we make it a habit to sneak into different lives, we make it a habit to Ideate .

But as a Life Designer we also use the insights of such mind travels. We use them to pimp up our current journey, or we use them as a call to action in case we realize, that it stopped being a creative process and started to be a big time escape.

Do you want to explore more in depth what might hold you back from sneaking into different futures? Then check out this blog about realizing your dreams.