If you’re considering a career shift or a significant personal change, and you haven’t established the goalposts, here’s a question to consider:

Who is living a version of the life I’d like to live?

This is a practical question. It’s not about envy. It’s not about comparison. It’s a question of learning one way that a certain kind of life might be lived.

What does work look like? How is income generated? What is family life like? How do they do it?

Approaching things from a perspective of, “I’m going to do this like no one has ever done it,” is not useful. Neither is, “I’m going to do things exactly as this other person has done them.”

But we can learn from how others have designed their lives. We can learn from their journeys. And we can take or leave what we’d like.

We need not be passive. Consider the kind of life you’d like to cultivate. Explore reasonable ways that you could make it happen.

Then, go.