I've heard many people ask this question, "how do you live an aesthetic life?" It's a great question and honestly there isn't a right or wrong answer. Creating and ultimately living an aesthetic life is based solely on your vibe rather than overly curated images on Instagram or Pinterest. Don't get me wrong, I love both of these platforms for allowing me to share my thoughts, ideas and even more for showing me the endless possibilities that exist in this world but the thing is, they only allow you to create a your visual aesthetic rather than how to create a life around it.
Now, I'm sure everyone has some idea of what dream lifestyle they want to live and often times this stems from being in a place of success but what we don't realize is that there are things in your life that you need to change in order to even come close to having that dream lifestyle. You have to come to realization of who we need to be in order to maintain and sustain the life you are creating. It may seem scary especially from your current point of view, becoming an entirely different version of yourself can seem pretty daunting but the ability to create your dream lifestyle isn’t as hard as it seems. In this post, you will find out just what it means to live an aesthetic life and have a simple guide to create a life that's truly aesthetic.
Clearly Define Your Dream Lifestyle
In order to live an aesthetic life you need to decide what your ideal aesthetic is. You need to do some reflection on your present lifestyle, your likes, dislikes, things you want to achieve and those things you absolutely need to have in order to live a life that you feel comfortable in. Once you have come to terms with your currently lifestyle, it's time to think about the person you want to become, what type of life do you want to be living in the future? What do you want to accomplish in the next year, 5 years, or 10 years? This part may be a little tricky but try to find someone who inspires you, who is currently living a life that matches your aesthetic to give you an idea of what you want to achieve. You need to think big picture when it comes to your lifestyle.
When we think about 'living the dream', it usually stems from achieving success in life, finally accomplishing the goals we set for ourselves but in trying to achieve those goals it's easy to lose sight of why you sought to reach the end goal in the first place. Having a crystal clear vision for your life ensures that you can create the life that you always dreamt of having but it also keeps you grounded to avoid decisions that will lead you on a path to living the life you don't want to have. This can be really difficult in today's society especially as a young adult because you have been conditioned to follow 'the natural order of things' but that's why it is so important to find out what YOU want your life to be like beyond the endless list of goals.
What do YOU want to experience in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years from now? Not what you think you should be experiencing because you parents, school counsellor or friend told you should be experiencing; not what you think others want you to experience, but truly what YOU want to experience later in life. Are you living abroad with your significant other? Will you have children? Do you want to be working remotely as you travel the world ? Are you the CEO of your own company ? A successful blogger? Make it a point to be clear about what you want out of this life. Don’t be scared to dream big and never be too afraid to go after what you want.
The reason why it’s key to get clear on your vision before you do anything else is because making the shift from your the old you, getting rid of those habits that don't align with the person you want to be is hard and honestly as much as you would like to make the change, your mindset might just not be where it needs to be and that ok, but at least you have your vision of who you want to be. Getting over all the obstacles that will come your way is going to be hard but once you have a vision, it's a lot harder for it break you. Once your vision sticks, once it's clear, then you can begin the next steps of the process and begin to live your dream aesthetic life.
Change your Mindset, Shift into your New Lifestyle!
The first step of this process is very important but what is even more important than even creating your dream aesthetic lifestyle, is cultivating the mindset that goes with it. It's easy to say that you are going to do everything it takes to become the person you want to be but something that I have come to realize on my own journey is that anything can happen and the obstacles you face have the potential to throw you completely off your game and make you want to just give up on it all but the thing is those are the moments that will define whether you are true to your word, true to yourself and more importantly true to your VISION.
You have to believe that you will receive; you have to believe that you are worthy of living and experiencing life in a that is completely different from the life you are experiencing right now. You have to believe that the vision you have for your life isn't just a compilation of things you desire but that it is real! Your mindset is going to the play the biggest role on your journey, so you have to start living your life differently, to become more self-aware of your actions, thoughts and behavior. You have to be able to notice when your thoughts become negative when things become difficult your biggest enemy will be the thoughts that pop into your head at those very moments. Being able to notice them, notice when you are being negative towards yourself is critical if you are going to be able to change them.
It may seem like a lot right now, heck it may even seem unnecessary but you have to remember that change does not happen overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day, but with time, patience and practice, it will become easier and you will start to see positive changes in yourself and you'll love the person you're becoming.
Create your Aesthetic Life in Phases
Creating a life that feels aligned with your goals, ambitions and overall aesthetic is not impossible but believing that you will be able to have a totally new life overnight definitely is. In order to create an aesthetic life, your dream life, you must decide what areas of your life you want to start incorporating your chosen aesthetic into. Something that is very important to remember at this step is that you are every action or step you take has the potential to directly affect your ability to manifest the life you want to live in a few years so you have to be very intentionally with everything you do.
Being able to live a truly aesthetic life requires that you make certain changes to your current lifestyle. Now we’re talking about things we have control over specifically, the things you get to have a direct say so in. These can include your wardrobe, furniture, the way you decorate, the places you go, foods you eat and ultimately the experiences you have. This actually ties in with our first step because if you aren't clear about what you want then you are going to get pretty confused when it comes to deciding what you need to change. To make it easier I recommend choosing one area of your life to work on first, and to keep you on track you can give yourself daily reminders about your overall VISION. You can ask yourself questions like:
What aesthetic do I resonate with the most?
What are the colors of my aesthetic?
What changes can I make to my current lifestyle to reflect my desired aesthetic?
As you make changes to each aspect of your life you will begin to notice how much closer you are to living the life you desire.
Create Habits Around Your Dream Life
It may be hard to find a connection between where you want to be in your life over the next 1, 5 or 10 years and the reality you live in now but being able to create that connection between these opposing timelines can help to strengthen your belief in your vision. You can to this by committing to improving one thing about yourself . This isn't because you aren't good enough but because you don't currently possess the skills or habits of you need to live the life you dream of becoming. I encourage you to immerse yourself in activities your future self would partake in as a way to create new habits. Day by day you will be building the very foundation that will ultimately be the lifestyle you want.
The best way to start creating habits around your dream life is to visualize what a day in your dream life is like; from morning to evening; what would your dream day look like for you?
You know what’s constantly been a part my ideal dream day? Working from home. Since the pandemic started, I have included that as well as made it a focal point in all my dream day visualizations that I’m working from home in my office. The home office isn’t quite a thing yet but my workspace surely does the trick and honestly it has been a huge piece of freedom for me to be able to work at home. You can create your dream lifestyle, dream habits with visualization. It could be the smallest thing but I promise on this path it won't go unnoticed in the slightest.
Stop Making Excuses, Start Taking Action
It’s not that we can’t live out our dream lifestyle, we don’t believe we can. With that lack of belief, you start making excuses about why it isn't the right time, why you can't start implementing the steps necessary to start, why you aren't ready. Do not allow yourself to become a victim of fear and self-doubt. The fear of change you have developed can easily disguise itself as your necessity to create a "well-thought out plan of action" but it's just the opposite, your procrastinating your transformation.
Something important to remember is that there will NEVER be a perfect time to start making positive changes in your life, the timing will never be perfect but the circumstances surrounding why you want to start creating a better life, start creating your dream life will never change, in fact the only change that occurs with procrastination is that you become more miserable in your current life. On this journey, the biggest decision that you will have to make is to start but keep in mind that you aren't looking for the PERFECT situation, you just need to start.
Once you take that first step, you will be better able to make those hard choices about the changes you need to make because you have overcome your first major challenge. When I think about starting my journey, I like to compare it to a rollercoaster ride. When you know that your about to take the ride of your life, you are filled with fear of the unknown but once you decide to take the ride to live out the experience you're filled with the most amazing feeling ever. The adrenaline takes over and you realize that the path you are on is a lot clearer when you know what at the end of the tunnel. If you are truly willing to stay on this path, before you know it the fear and uncertainty will be behind you. You have a vision of what your dream life looks like, and you have an idea of the amount of effort it is going to take to make it happen. However, you won't know how realistic your expectations are until you experience it.
It's not going to be easy to live the life of your dreams. Work will be required, as well as stepping outside of your comfort zone. As a result, you must be open to new obstacles that may arise along the process.
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