Why you feel lost in life and how to fix it // feat. Ali Abdaal
Reflecting on prompts. Zero cost learning tools. Finding your network. Embracing new approaches.
If you use social media, online courses, apps and let’s say “the internet“ wisely, there are tons and tons of free options to learn a new skill, to learn from and connect with likeminded people, to gain expertise in any kind of field and even to get prompts to figure out what you want to do with your life.
You only have to know which people to “follow“, on which websites you can find the knowledge that you want and need in order to support your goals, and little by little you’ll build your own social power network at zero cost.
But, yes, since there are millions of creators, learning platforms and also spam-offers out there it quickly can get overwhelming.
That’s why I’ll share one valuable resource with you today. Take it as a starting point. Once you’ve found one resource, one creator, one platform that vibes with you and your goals, it is much easier to then find more of the same content by visiting linked resources or follow recommendations of that very person.
What you’ll find here ⬇️
Today’s resource 🎥
Ali’s prompts 📋
What should I do with the prompts? 🤯
What else can I do this week to elevate my life? 🤓
1. Today’s resource 🎥
It’s the following YouTube video by Ali Abdaal:
Ali is a YouTuber, Podcaster, New York Times bestselling author, entrepreneur, he writes his own weekly Newsletter, teaches on Skillshare and is passionate about productivity and side hustles. (No, I am not getting paid for this promotion lol, just passionate about what he’s doing).
In this video linked above, he’s giving prompts to get clearer on why and what you want in life and how to get there (from point A to point B).
Over the last 3 months I’ve learnt so much from him about productivity, side hustles, goal setting, entrepreneurial mindset… just different - and to me very inspiring - approaches to life that I can’t just keep all of this genius wisdom to myself.
You are welcome to watch his video and come back for the written prompts after or if you would like to access the prompts in a written format to reflect on straightaway at a glance, here you go. ⬇️
2. Ali´s prompts 📋
Access the prompts in my notion page, ready for you to start working on by clicking here.
Future TED talk
Imagine a TED conference where the speaker inspires everyone, including yourself. The speaker is you, 20 years in the future. What are you talking about, and what's so inspiring about it?
Talent Service
Imagine a world where you have all the money and all the time. How would you use your talents and skills to serve others?
Eulogy
Visualize the eulogy at your funeral, where your friends and family are saying nice things about you. But what would people positively impacted by your work say?
Fearless Dream
What would you do if you knew you could not fail at it?
Fail-Proof Dream
What would you like to do, even if you knew you would fail at it?
Deferred Dream
What's one dream you've always had but never pursued?
Why is it a dream for you?
What is stopping you from pursuing it?
Ideal Tuesday
What does your ideal ordinary Tuesday look like? What are you doing? Who are you with? How are you spending your time? What makes this day perfect for you?
Future Self
Imagine you've achieved everything you've ever wanted. How have you changed as a person? What qualities and achievements define this future version of yourself?
Role model
Who are the people you most admire, and why? What qualities do they possess that you wish to emulate?
If you were to become an amalgamation of 3-5 people you admire, who would they be, and what would you emulate about them?
Obituary Writing
What would it look like if you wrote out your own obituary?
3. What should I do with the prompts? 🤯
Obviously, you don’t have to answer allll of those questions. Even if you take one of those prompts to reflect on and just write down your answers - on a sheet of paper, in your notes app, or the nicely designed Notion page I created - that’s enough.
My advice for you is to choose one of the prompts that resonates with you, copy paste it from above and just take 3 minutes to free write on it (maybe tonight instead of scrolling Instagram, hehe).
I pinky promise those 3 minutes of your day are well spent and if not, at least you’ve tried, and it was only 3 minutes, hey?
Sometimes you are so stuck in your own head, your own thoughts that it’s valuable to think outside of the box and reflect on some basic yet essential questions (from another person). That’s one of the reasons why coaching is so beneficial too because you have a scheduled time block to be given prompts to reflect on, to dive in deeper, to answer questions that you didn’t even know were good to ask in the first place.
Plus, if you write your thoughts and answers down (and you have a good enough note taking system to remember where you wrote it down) it’s nice to look back on it in a few months, years and see how your perspective might’ve changed.
What else can I do this week to elevate my life? 🤓
Find your mentors, find your community, find your place to thrive and to get challenged. And yes, in the 21st century you are allowed to find those online. A few weeks ago, I started to follow one new person each day (either on IG, Twitter, Substack, YouTube, Skillshare…), a person who does something that inspires me, whom I can learn from and who challenges my thinking. Nowadays, we have the greatest resources to reach out to people on Social Media. You might be surprised how many actually will get back to you if you just send them a cold email. Try it. There’s nothing to loose.
FYI: If you happened to like Ali’s prompts > it is actually a 3-part series, so you might be very likely to get some takeaways from the other two videos as well which are linked in the video description.
Btw: If you wondered what got me into the idea and execution of starting a newsletter: it was Ali’s input. And I’ll probably be forever grateful that someone found the right words to kick my a** to start.
Shoutout 🫵🏼
If you have a favorite creator recommendation (sb. who truly adds value to your life), I would be super excited to check them out too! So please share your role model, mentor or the like by sending me a DM on Instagram!
And of course, we can use “Passion, flow, let’s grow” as a safe space to share inspiration, tools and methods to grow. So if you have a friend who is also always keen on elevating his/her life, please share this post! 💛
Let’s expand our network!
Let’s flow, grow and glow ✨
xx elina