How To Start Over In Life When Everything Feels Broken
When the world falls apart—your career, your relationship, your identity—it can feel impossible to imagine a future. Dreaming feels like a luxury. Hope feels naïve. Here’s some tips on how to start over in life when everything feels broken.
This is Part 4 of our Rebuild Your Life, Reinvent Yourself series. In this post, we’re looking at how to find what you’re passionate about again. How to rethink your goals, hopes and dreams after those you already had didn’t work out as planned.
But what if your dreams aren’t a distraction from healing? What if they’re the very medicine your soul needs to come back to life?
The Death of a Dream Isn’t the End of Desire
Maybe you lost your job. Maybe you’re at different stages in your life to others around you. Maybe you became a mother and haven’t had a full night’s sleep in 3 years. Maybe you’ve stopped dreaming because you’re afraid it will hurt too much if it doesn’t work out again.
But desire doesn’t die. It goes dormant. It waits. And when the dust begins to settle, it starts whispering again. It might not even be a matter of desire or a lack of dream but rather a lack of confidence. If so then you definitely have to read this book here.
Even if your life is still messy. Even if your bank account is empty. Even if you don’t have the childcare, the clarity, or the courage.
Desire will wait as long as it has to. But it will never leave you.
Why It’s Okay to Dream Before You’re “Ready”
The world tells us to have it all figured out first:
- A 5-year plan
- The perfect niche
- The perfect schedule
But rebirth isn’t linear. It’s not strategic. It’s intuitive. You don’t need a business plan before you dream. You don’t need a vision board before you hope. You don’t need 10 spare hours a week to start imagining.
All you need is a flicker of truth.
Rebuilding the Muscle of Imagination
Here’s how to begin dreaming again—even while everything still feels uncertain:
1. Start with micro-desires. Not “build a six-figure brand.” But:
- I want to feel sun on my skin again.
- I want to write something that makes me cry.
- I want to drink coffee alone in a quiet café.
Let your soul lead with simplicity.
2. Make a “Desire List” Ask: If I had no fear, what would I want? Write 50 things. Don’t judge them. Don’t edit. Just let the wildness pour out.
3. Create a Dream Jar Each time you think of something you want to do/experience/create, write it down and put it in a jar. Let it be messy. Let it be magic. When you’re ready, pick one and take one small action.
4. Journal Prompts for Rediscovering Desire:
- What would I pursue if I didn’t need it to succeed?
- What did I used to dream about before life got heavy?
- Who do I envy (in a good way), and what might that envy be pointing me toward?
- What parts of myself come alive when I think about __________?
Ways To Reinvent Yourself
You don’t need to rebuild it all today. You don’t need to launch the brand, write the book, move to the Mediterranean.
But you do need a spark. You do need something sacred to look forward to. You do need to know that your dreams didn’t die with your last chapter.
They’re still here.
Waiting.
And now—so are you.
Read the Full Series on Reinventing Yourself
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