Unlock Life’s Answers
Through Deeper
Questions

Have you ever caught yourself in the middle of a perfectly ordinary workday thinking, “ugh, I wish I was doing something cooler or more fun”? 

You’re imagining running your own business or moving to another city or a completely different domain or even just having a job that wouldn’t make you hate waking up on Mondays. That thought passes as quickly as it comes. And sometimes, the thought is recurring. 

We might assume that imagining a different life might mean that we are unhappy with our current one; it might not always be the case. For most of us, work is a big part of our daily lives, so it becomes natural for our professional lives to become the stage for us to imagine alternatives for. 

Work is not only about making ends meet and being able to afford our bare necessities anymore. It has become tied to our identity, ambition, social status, independence, purpose and a sense of self-worth. So, when work isn’t meeting ‘above-expectations’ levels of satisfaction, it might make us wonder whether an entirely different life might make it better. It’s only natural and valid that these thoughts arise. 

Then, there is also the issue of comparison. We see a promotion announcement, or someone moving abroad for work, or someone living a career that feels like our dream. So, suddenly our random Tuesday starts feeling like a series of wrong decisions we’ve made. 

But maybe there’s a question to ask which can help us get clarity:

Do I want a different life or do I want something in my life to be different? 

This can help us narrow our answers down to something more specific than we realise. Maybe we don’t feel like we have any control over our time. Maybe we want more creative freedom. Maybe it’s not a different life we’re looking for but a break or better boundaries or space to explore our growing capabilities and skills. 

This is where imagining an alternative life might become useful. Instead of dismissing it as unrealistic, maybe we can pay attention to the version of ourselves in the “imagined” life and recognise what they have that we don’t. 

That can answer a lot of our questions.

If the “imagined life” version of yourself is doing “work that makes a difference”, then it might be time to redefine your career’s purpose. If your fantasy is simply about not answering emails at 10 p.m., what you really need is healthier boundaries with work.

Sometimes the answer might actually be a changeover to a different life, but making that decision becomes easier when we understand what we are trying to move towards, rather than simply what we are trying to escape.

It doesn’t always have to be a choice between accepting the current life and completely starting over. Maybe the “imagined life” can be a clue for improvement and not an instruction to leave everything behind. 

The question then goes from "Why do I keep imagining a different life?" to "What is that imagined life trying to tell me about the one I'm living?"

And so, the goal might not be building an entirely different life but to make this one feel more like a version you can imagine for yourself.