How to Know Your Next Step
With everything we want to do in life and all the things that need to get done, it’s natural to feel confused about knowing which direction to go next.
This is especially true in trying to follow your big dream…the one that feels exciting but also uncertain, scary, unrealistic and frankly just SO BIG!
I’ve got three ways to help you not only determine what your next step is, but to also help you feel confident and courageous to actually take it!
1. Start with what you DON’T want.
If you feel unclear or confused about exactly what you want, that’s totally normal. Often our big dreams feel so out of reach that we find it hard to even admit them.
If you’re not sure what you want, I’ll bet you know what you don’t want. Start there.
Write down everything that’s not working in your life at the moment. Everything that stresses you out. Everything that feels heavy, constricting or annoying.
Really go to town on this list. Write it all out. Then destroy the paper. This is a really important step because if you know you’re going to destroy this “evidence,” you’ll be much more inclined to be very honest with yourself. Don’t worry about having to commit to making changes in your life. That’s not the reason for this exercise. It’s merely to know where you are right now and to be truthful about what you don’t want.
2. Write down the opposite of all those things you don’t want.
Then bump it up. If you could do/be/have/experience anything at all in life, what would it be? Even if it feels unrealistic or unreasonable or doesn’t fit the context of your life right now, write it down. There’s real power in admitting things that feel really far-fetched.
3. Play the Warmer/Colder Game
Remember playing the Warmer/Colder Game as a kid where you’d try to find something based on someone else telling you if you were getting closer to the object (warmer) or moving away from it (colder)? If you took a step, listened to the person’s reaction (warmer or colder) then you’d pretty much know in which direction to take your next step.
Life has its own way of playing the Warmer/Colder Game with you when directing you to your big dreams, and that’s by using your intuition to guide you.
Take a step in any direction and then “listen”. Does it feel warm, expansive, exciting? Or does it feel cold, constricting, boring?
Your intuition will guide you one small step at a time. And the nice thing about your intuition is, it’s ALWAYS right. It’s your connection to Life. To your Higher Self. To God. To the Universe.
But here’s the other thing about intuition. It doesn’t usually come in big claps of thunder or flashing neon lights or raging smoke signals. Rather, it’s a quick, subtle, pulsed feeling in your center, your gut or your heart. It comes quickly and then it’s gone.
You can listen to it or not. You can follow its wisdom or not. It doesn’t demand anything of you. It merely informs the next small step to take along your creative path.
Contrary to what some believe, your intuition doesn’t actually instruct you to hurl yourself off a cliff and trust that there’s a net. Rather, it gives you a small solid step to take.Click To TweetIf you were trying to make your way through a room in complete darkness, you wouldn’t run across the room. If you did, you’d bump into things and possibly hurt yourself. Instead, you’d reach your hand out and feel if there was something in your way. You’d slowly make your way across the room by taking very small, safe steps one at a time.
This is the design of following your dreams. One small step at a time gets you there. The steps may not always feel logical or reasonable. But once you have a clear intention set in place, you’ll find that Life cannot help but whisper what that next small step is to take. And then the next one. And then the next one.
Listen and act.
Tell me below, where do you sense your intuition? In your stomach? In your heart? Have you ever ignored its promptings? What happened?
Do you know your next small step?
Dear Karen,
This three steps to follow big dream attract my intention somehow.
2) -Yes I have a big dream and I can tell you, I have no idea where am I going to find the way to realise it. I have a big huge dream and I know exactly what it is.
I have the pictures of them right in my imaginations and in my eyes as soon as l go to bed or close my eyes.
Now come your email about the three steps to follow the big dream.
1) -Should I still have to go to the first step about what I don’t want to see?
3)- the word “intuition” is really the word appropriate to express that little voice into us when come to an ambiguity situation. I thought it is the chance as sometimes I heard the voice, sometimes not. In the case ,if I don t write the word down straight away I forgot it and it is lost till similaires circonstances comes up again.
Where is the intuition come from? In my personal opinion, it comes from my brain and much more nearer my ears as it comes like a word/voice from inside of me. It travels down to my heart and fills me up of joyful conviction of what is in my mind is the right things to do.
One hears only the word/voice only when there is peace an inner peace.
Nonsi, since you already know your dream you can skip the step of what you don’t want. It’s wonderful that you can see it so clearly in your mind, and it’s totally normal to feel like you have no idea how it can come about. A great next step for you would be to gather some images from magazines or photos that will now move the dream from just thoughts in your mind to actual physical images outside of your mind and into the real world. Start gathering some images and words that depict the dream itself and/or the FEELINGS the dream evokes in you. You can pin this on a pinboard or make a collage. Put this somewhere where you can look at it daily. Tiny steps like this help us to inch our dreams closer to being realized. Then continue to follow that intuitive voice that shows up during those peaceful times you create for yourself. Your next small step will be revealed to you! (And continue to connect with that wonderful joyful feeling of conviction and truth that wells up in your heart, then add in the feeling of gratitude and you are well on your way!) xx