Living the Dream Life Now: The Enough Audit (Part 2: The Permission)
Previously, I shared about sitting at the Red Skiff in Rockport, watching Clark's human order his "usual" and longing for that kind of belonging. I talked about how I'd been dismissing my regular life as "not the dream yet"—caught up in Pinterest boards and future plans instead of recognizing the dream life happening right now.
Today, I want to get practical about how we stop waiting for permission to call ordinary moments our dream life.
If you missed part one (Rockport + Clark’s human), you can read it here: Anchored in the Everyday: Notes from Rockport
So how do we stop waiting for permission and start naming this life as enough?
Dreams vs. Endless Chasing
Hear me when I say this: goals and dreams are not the problem. They're necessary and beautiful. The problem is when the dream life becomes a carrot dangling in front of us as we walk endlessly on life's treadmill. Each time we get close, the goalpost moves further out.
Having goals gives us trajectory, direction, hope. But who's defining these goals? Are they truly yours, born from your own desires and values? Or are they borrowed from societal pressure, Instagram feeds, and the voices that whisper you're not doing enough, being enough, achieving enough?
This obsession with chasing isn’t just personal—it’s cultural. We’ve even built frameworks that promise a neat path to fulfillment, step by step, like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
The Maslow Question
Maslow's hierarchy promises a path: meet your basic needs, find security, build belonging, develop self-esteem, and finally—the golden prize—reach self-actualization. It's seductive in its simplicity, like a video game where we level up toward ultimate happiness.
But what if the game is rigged? For some, even the first rung—basic stability—feels out of reach. For others, each rung climbed only brings new whispers: “Have you optimized your morning routine? Upgraded your skincare? Started that side hustle?” Either way, the ladder isn’t built for us to ever arrive. And that’s the point—it keeps us climbing.
The Selling of Dissatisfaction
And this isn’t an accident—it’s by design. Our culture thrives on keeping fulfillment just out of reach. The endless optimization we’re sold—the routines, the hacks, the challenges, the courses—feeds an economy built on our perpetual wanting.
Every "New Year, New You." Every productivity hack promising to unlock your potential. Every supplement to make you younger, every "lock-in" challenge, every "winter arc" transformation. All of it sells the same lie: that fulfillment is always one purchase, one habit, one optimization away.
But here’s the truth: we’re not broken, we’re not behind, and we’re not missing a secret step. When we’re constantly striving without ever arriving, all we’re left with is the selling of our own dissatisfaction.
I realized I had bought into a promise of a dream life that was always out of reach. But maybe the trap was the promise.
And that’s when I began to wonder: what if the way forward isn’t more striving, but stopping?
Permission to Stop
If the promise itself is the problem, then maybe the real rebellion is giving ourselves permission to stop—not to quit, but to say enough. To call Tuesday morning coffee in our pajamas the dream life without needing to earn it first.
When I first realized I was treating my life like a rough draft, I was angry. But maybe instead of chasing the dream life, we need to chase enough. We've heard of life audits, but what about an Enough Audit?
The Enough Audit
How do we practically shift from "someday" thinking to "right now" living? Not in a productivity-hack way, but in a mindful presence way. We do an Enough Audit.
An Enough Audit isn’t about fixing yourself or adding more to your plate. It’s about noticing the seeds already planted in your life and naming them as enough.
Ask yourself: What is my dream life, and what am I currently doing that aligns with it? And do NOT minimize your enough—it is enough for a reason.
I want a vegetable garden in my backyard in my dream life. Well, I currently have three small garden beds in my parents' backyard. That is enough! I'll keep tending and growing, but right now, this is my dream life happening.
I want to create content that helps others realize they're living their dream life right now. I may not have 100,000 followers or six-figure months, but I am living my dream life right now. I am helping you realize yours.
So ask yourself: What is enough right now? Look at the seeds you're already planting—what are you currently doing that aligns with your dreams?
Then ask: What can I fertilize? Where can I grow and improve while still honoring that I'm already living my dream life?
Maybe that's what Clark's human understood that morning at the Red Skiff—that his "usual" wasn't something he had to earn, optimize, or unlock. It was simply Tuesday morning, bacon for the dog, coffee in hand—the dream life disguised as ordinary life, lived one gentle moment at a time.
