Getting Started Living a Life You Love
This entry shares simple tips about being a glow-getter, an ambitious, possibly audacious person who takes sustainable aligned action toward living a life that lights them up. This entry is for those who dare to dream that personal happiness is possible and helps get you over the hump of getting started with some easy to start steps to start recognizing and naming what you truly want in life.
*Updated November, 2024
Get Started
To identify all that you bring to the table and using that to shape your meaningful goals, you have to know what’s important to you, who you really are and what’s holding you back. Start with making some lists, making note of anything that helps fill in the picture of what you want your life and your successes to look like.
This is a simple place to start because it is truly a mind dump with some loose categorization. The focus is on noticing what comes up for you when you get curious about asking yourself these questions.
Start with a couple sheets of blank paper and draw out four quadrants on the first page.
Give each box a heading- Like, Don’t Like, More, Less
Fill out each box following each prompt, literally anything you can think of that fits into those categories
Do you like creating your own version of a recipe or want less time sensitive deadlines at work? Or you don’t like weekly check-in calls but would want more time to explore your passion project?
Fill out anything you can think of- more green beans, less clutter, noticing how you look great in that certain shade of blue and don’t like when you run out of your weeknight snack.
On your other sheet, write out a list of whatever else your brain is holding. Dump it all out on the page so you can free up your mind and start to see some connections between the lists.
To make it easy to experiment with this practice and additional tips on how to use this method, download my free printable.
Ways to Explore More
We hold a lot of magic and clutter in our minds. When our lives are busy, things get jumbled quickly and it’s important to take some moments to sort them out.
Taking time to journal and process your thoughts by talking out loud are other important ways to help you articulate your thoughts and feelings. Writing out your thoughts lets you string your thoughts together and have a record of it to show your progression. My journey with The Artist’s Way opened me up to a freeing type of writing and revealed a lot of the big and little things that I put on my own More/Less list.
Talking through it out loud is another way to let the thoughts come together, sometimes in a faster, messier way. I often use my daily walk to literally talk things out with myself. Schedule some time with a friend to share with them or take yourself on a walk and just speak your words to the wind. This can be especially helpful if feels too much to write down. You can record it as a voice memo while you walk and talk if you want to allow a stream of consciousness to take over and not worry about any nuggets being lost to the air.
Addressing Doubts
As you work through these fact finding and processing steps, don’t let WiCS take over your thoughts, the What if’s, Coulda, Shoulda’s and dampen your exploration into being a glow-getter. What if this doesn’t work? I could do this or I could do that. Should I be doing more of this? Or that? Or should I do...
My recommendation for even mild cases of WiCS? Take two steps of forward action and thank me in the morning. Look at your lists and discoveries and see where you can add more of the things on your More/Like lists to your day and eliminate things on your Less/Don’t Like lists. Trust the process while you explore your interests and start to follow your glow.
Side effects to taking aligned action may include less stress, more mental clarity and emotional confidence.
How much worry do we waste thinking about doing the thing instead of DOING THE THING? The mind that was so busy worrying shifts into action mode. The more you focus on the doing, the less space your mind has for worrying. So when that doubt creeps in, rev up that momentum with even a small step forward.
The second side effect is that you either have progress or feedback, which is another form of progress. If you put something on your list that you thought belonged in the More box but once you tried it, realized that wasn’t exactly it, now you know that maybe it wasn’t what you thought it was, so then you can put your energy toward a different direction.
“There is no change where there is no action.”
Importance of Daily Habits
The other component of being a glow-getter? Having good daily habits I can rely on to help me show up each day with my internal toolbox ready to go. While I’m not an early bird (yet), I do aim to start my day off right-
a good day starts the night before so you are rested up to tackle the day with energy
stretch your body and get that energy moving through your body
take a big drink of water to help flush out the system
eat a healthy breakfast to fuel that beautiful glow. Smoothies are a fast way to make something full of nutrients
I can’t help but make a hot cup of tea each morning for a little caffeine jump and something cozy to sip on
once the kids are situated, I’m at my desk, ready to tackle my to do list and get it done!
and when my energy needs a reset, taking a break to lay down or get outside for a daily walk
“For kids, play is life. For grown ups, play is a return to life.”
Remember to Play
The ultimate way to be a glow-getter is to make time to play like a firefly. Play is the most important element to add to our days and when you dance through the air, flashing your inner glow, you bring delight to those that are in your presence. I like to think that it’s best to let fun be spontaneous, but the truth is that if we don’t plan for it, allow space for it to happen, it just doesn’t happen.
So take a moment to think through your daily and weekend plans and decide what you’d like to do for fun and when it’s going to happen. Is it a walk in the park as spring is breaking? Are you going to get out one of your craft projects? How about creating a scavenger hunt and discover things with the kids? Throw in a cartwheel or two! Do something this weekend that makes you feel like a kid again and makes your heart feel a little lighter. I guarantee that’s a prescription for growing your glow!
Share your play date with #fireflyscout so we can see the glow we’re putting out in the world.
Want More?
If making lists is your jam and you found this experiment helpful, I’ve created a tool to help you go deeper and get even more out making this type of list.
We’ve just scratched the surface on using this method to help you really know yourself more deeply and guide you toward taking the easeful steps to implement what you uncover in your daily life. If you would like to go deeper with this method and closely look at different areas of your life that might be pain points, I’ve created an in-depth workbook. This printable workbook will guide you through creating and using these lists to help you explore it more deeply and implement the Name to Tame process so that you have solutions to start implementing right away.
Going deeper into this More/Less method will help you tame your sense of overwhelm and uncover easeful ways to navigate forward with small, daily action steps.
Start to feel the shifts across each area of your life as you have the deeply curated and powerful lists to make meaningful changes in some of even the smallest of ways. You will show up in your life more confidently because you truly, deeply know what makes you light up as you incorporate the more and less lists into your daily life.
Your inner glow is in there, waiting for you to follow the steps to help uncover it. Name it to tame it and let your glow show.
*post may contain affiliate links
Founder of Firefly Scout, Stephanie Rose is a transformation-focused mentor and strategic change guide, helping people uncover the mysteries that hold them back from living a life they love. Through energy management, intuitive insights, and practical tools like the Glow Map and Human Design, with a playful, detective-inspired approach, she empowers others to confidently pursue their dreams and create sustainable, lasting change.
Start your journey and create your free Glow Map and check out her free resources to start living a life you love.
Related reading
Feeling stuck in a rut and craving a little more joy in your life? It's time to ditch the to-do lists and embrace the power of play! This month, I'm challenging myself (and you!) to add a daily dose of fun and whimsy into our lives with a playful "Let's Play May" adventure.