You must become a dreamer AND a doer to manifest your ideal life.

There was a time, a few years ago, when I was neither a dreamer or a doer.

I had no sense of what I wanted to do in life or where I wanted to go.

I was content to smoke weed, watch TV, waste time with friends and drift through life with no aim or direction.

I was young, in fairness, there was no urgency to get my shit together.

But, as I grew up - more importantly, as I woke up - some things started becoming clearer in my mind.

I was lucky, because I underwent a spontaneous spiritual awakening which transformed my worldview and shifted all my values.

Thanks to this spiritual awakening, I developed a sense of what was important and interesting to me.

And by extension, as time went on, I slowly began to realise what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go.

Now, about 5 and a half years on from my initial spiritual awakening, I have a clear vision in my mind, and a set of actions I can take every day to move towards making that vision a reality.

I now have the right to claim the dual status of Dreamer/Doer.

I have a clear vision in my mind, and I take intentional action in service of that vision.

And that brings me to the aim of this newsletter: to help you figure out what you want to do and where you want to go; to help you to develop a vision, and figure out how to start taking action toward actualising that vision; to help you to become a dreamer and a doer.

First, let’s look at what life becomes if you do not dare to dream, and take action in service of those dreams.

Why Do You Need a Dream to Act on?

Most people sleepwalk through life without a clear vision or intentional action.

Without a dream or a vision, your life is aimless and feels largely meaningless. You simply drift through life seeking pleasure and entertainment wherever you can find it.

Your will is not ultimately your will. You either act in the service of other people’s dreams (work for their business, for example), or you act in the service of your own whims, impulses and desires.

You might feel like you are acting according to your own will when you act to satisfy your impulses and desires, but really you are just a slave to your automatic and largely unconscious lower appetites.

Without a clearly established vision and set of goals to act in service of, you cannot claim to be free or conscious. Your energy and life force is simply depleted in the service of things which do not serve you, your inner self or your higher needs.

On the other hand, if you allow yourself to dream - to visualise who you could be and what your life could be - but do not take the actions needed to make that dream a reality, then you dig yourself into a hole of regret and resentment.

Without action to support your dreams, you live mentally in a fantasy world, but exist really in a world which is much more dreary and less fulfilling.

Eventually the reality of the world you exist in catches up with you, and you realise that the fantasy world you lived in was just that - a fantasy.

Now, you have to come to terms with the reality you are in, and you realise you sit at the bottom of a dark hole of your own digging.

(This is the story of Walter Mitty, before he began to take action - in the service of his dreams - and turn his real life into an exciting adventure.)

The Benefits of Combining Dreaming and Doing

Now, let’s consider what life becomes when you dare to dream and act with intention to bring those dreams to life.

With a vision in your mind of who you want to be and where you want to go, every day becomes injected with meaning.

A new day is not something mundane to take for granted, it’s an opportunity to bring your vision closer to reality.

Now every action you take holds meaning too, because it either serves your vision or rejects it.

You can clearly identify which actions support you in actualising your vision, vs those actions which remove you further from it.

In a sense, it’s like having a compass. You can intentionally choose the actions which usher you in the direction of your vision and goals.

Now life is meaningful and exciting. Now you can dare to do things you never would have before because you know that every step into the unknown is a step away from the familiar world you have known and a step closer to the reality you wish to create.

How Can You Go About Becoming a Dreamer and a Doer?

So, now it gets interesting.

How can you go about generating a vision and taking action towards it?

To obtain the answer to this question, there are a few things you need to establish first.

If your vision informs your action, then what informs your vision?

There are four primary things:

1. Your values

2. Your curiosities/interests

3. What you are good at

4. Your goals

You cannot take meaningful action until you establish a vision. You cannot establish a personally meaningful vision until you have first established these four things to inform that vision.

So, sit down with a journal and a pen, and answer the following questions:

1. What are my values?

   What do you believe is important in life? What brings you a sense of meaning? What traits you admire in others? What things make the world a better place and makes life worth living?

   Think peace, love, security, family, justice, truth, wisdom etc.

2. What are my curiosities, interests or passions?

   What catches your attention? What holds your attention? What do you want to spend your attention learning more about?

   You don’t choose your curiosities, they choose you.

   Your curiosity is the gateway to your purpose, follow it.

3. What am I good at or naturally inclined towards?

   What things do you enjoy doing that can serve as a medium of expression?

   It could be writing, video editing, animation, art, dance, anything.

   If you know, start doing it in a way that it incorporates your values and interests.

   If you don’t know, observe yourself. Take note of when you feel good doing something. If you have to, experiment with things you might like until you find it.

4. What are my goals?

   What do you want to achieve in life? How can you embody your values and share what you learn to make the world a better place? How can you earn money in a way that aligns with your values, skills and interests? Do you want to start a business? A podcast? A political campaign? Do you want kids? A wife or husband?

Once you have established all of these things, you can piece everything together to form a clear vision in your mind.

Envision your life 5 or 10 years from now. If you could tick every box, what would that look like?

Once again, write it down. Think family, career, finances, home, relationships, achievements, everything.

Now you have a vision.

Now take that vision, deduce from it what you have to do on a daily basis to turn yourself into the person in the vision.

Use your vision as a road map, and take steps every day toward bringing it to life.

Look at the (abstract) vision and goals, then reduce them bit by bit into become actionable steps you can take every day to move toward bringing the abstraction to life.

You know where you are, where you want to go, and how to get there.

Now your actions hold intention and meaning.

Now, you can become a dreamer and a doer.