Create Your Ideal Life
by Hani Al-Qasem

“Where do you see yourself in five years?”

This is a common interview question that I am sure many have been asked when job hunting. The curious thing is that many of us do not give it a second or more serious thought in our daily lives. Isn’t that amazing? We haven’t caught onto the importance of that question.

It is, in fact, a very powerful, perhaps life-changing, question; one that we all should give much more attention to.

I once stretched that question even further with someone: “Where do you see yourself if five years if your life was perfect in every way?”

Think about it for a while: If you had all the resources available to you, what would your life be like in five years?

This tall, well-groomed man sank even deeper into his chair and stared blankly at a spot on the wall ahead of him. After nudging him to answer my question, he admitted that he had never planned anything in his life; not today, not tomorrow, yet alone the next five years.

Opportunities of all sorts seem to knock on his door and only then would he make the most of them. He wasn’t one to plan ahead, at least not until now, the night of his fiftieth birthday.

After a lot of deliberation and bouncing of ideas, we came to the realisation that all he wanted was to feel like a new person and to live each day with joy and energy. That on his fifty-fifth birthday he would feel more rejuvenated and very energetic.

That was a good start. We got his brain ticking, yet he could want more, much more, if he really thought about it, if he had all the necessary resources.

I teased him again: “Where do you see yourself if five years if your life was perfect in every way? You had absolutely all the resources that you would ever want or need. Where would you be in five years? Think deep.”

He finally reached deep within, to his soul, and decided that he wanted to stop saving every penny and start spending; to stop seeking approval every time he wanted to spend some money.

In other words, he wanted to live life the way he wanted. To do what he wanted, to buy what he wanted and to go where he wanted without having to answer to anyone.

Great. Success. His inner most desire, or dream had finally surfaced. The next step was for him to focus his daily actions to create the life that he wanted so much.

He had to create and follow the steps to create his ideal life.
We decided to start slow and establish several quarterly goals. And with every goal that he would reach, we would step up, expand and set new more challenging ones.

Perhaps, in time, he could discover more ‘wants’ along the way, and he can focus on them in his endeavour to create his ideal life.

If you were to imagine you had all the resources you need to create your perfect life, what would that perfect life look like in five years? How would you see it?


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