Do you remember when you were a kid and the world was such an easy place to be living in and to understand. Everything was so straightforward. The holidays were the highlights, school was ok, at the age of six you knew who you were going to marry and what you were going to be when you were grown up. Somehow, somewhere that absolute certainty of our life path became one big swamp of indecision.

Look at this statement and consider whether it is true. People who have the same dream, in full technicolour are actually able to realise their dreams, whereas people who have many vague dreams dont get anywhere? What do you think? I myself have no idea what the correct answer is. However, what I do know is that most people actually dont really have a clear idea of their life forward. They kind of react to what is thrown at them. I once asked a person this question. What is your strategy for the next ten years, or are you just going to drift along. He looked so shocked that I should ask a question like that.

Logically, if one has no clear idea of what one wants, it is going to be really difficult to get that! You go into a shop and you know that you want to possibly get a new shirt, but you are not sure whether you want long sleeves, formal colour or casual one, button sleeves or not and never mind what colour. You have no idea. You walk into the shop thinking, when I find something I like, then I will know what I was looking for. Does that sound right? And is it a good idea to treat your life along the same lines? If a job comes along that I might like, Ill take it. So what are the odds that the job you like will actually come along. You might not even recognise that its a job you might like, because you dont really know what you want.

What stops us from identifying what we want in life. Do we think we are not worth it and therefore its pointless to actually decide on what we want. Or, its never happened before, I never get what I want, so why bother putting a plan of action together to achieve what I really want to have. In any case, I dont really have time for all this day dreaming stuff. There are more urgent things to attend to.

What if you decided that what you really wanted was a couple of million Dollars in the bank account, a beautiful four bedroom house with a garden, the grey Mercedes in the drive way, a holiday home in Spain and a seat booked for the first tourist flight into space. Wow. I can hear you say, I could never get any of these. I know my limitations. Ill be lucky if I can raise a bond on a studio apartment, car is out of the question because I cant afford to buy it, never mind all the road worthy and insurance costs and as for a holiday place to own, you must be kidding. Thats the response to the suggestions of what we might really want. So what do we do, we stop dreaming and settle for mediocre.

But just say as an exercise, just for fun, you actually put together a clear map, a plan of action, a totally identified landscape of your dream that you might have had in your first year at college for instance. You put it onto paper, whether in words, or using pictures and drawings and you hang it in a space that you will always see, such as next to the bathroom mirror. You keep that dream in your mind and some time everyday, while you are brushing your teeth, you check all the details that you have put down and think about it.

Eventually the dream starts getting to feel a bit more real because you have been looking at it so often. And then you start making career decisions that start to fall in line with your dreams. Suddenly you are looking out for promotion. You start to work out exactly what job you want in order to earn a better package. And somehow, from drifting, you suddenly have a plan. That could be something.

Doesnt that sound better than just milling around, taking out your frustrations on the dog, wife, partner etc because you know in your heart that this life of aimlessness and underachieving, is actually not for you. You feel total dissatisfaction because you know and feel that something better was actually meant to happen to you. Its not too late. Work out what you want, visualise it and see how long it takes for you to get there. Why not try it. You have absolutely nothing to lose. For more information and some help and inspiration to move forward to go to http://anjamerret.blogspot.com.

Anja Merret lives in Brighton, UK. Her personal blog http://www.anjamerret.com allows her to voice opinions on issues that interest her and observations she makes.

She has started a new blog http://www.pinkblocks.com that deals with observations on self development and personal power. Her recommendation for self help tools may be found on http://www.anjamerret.blogspot.com