5 Steps to Design Your Dream Life Using a Vivid Vision (+ Free Download Inside!)
I want you to imagine this…
You wake up in the morning without an alarm. The sun is pouring through the windows of your dream home. You grab your favorite mug filled with coffee (or the drink of your choosing :), you settle into a cozy corner, and take a moment to reflect on the fact that every part of your day—from the work you do to the people you spend time with to the walls around you—it’s all exACTLY how you dreamt it could be.
Sounds pretty freaking amazing, right??
This experience can be your future life— if you’re willing to design it. It all starts with one clear decision—choosing to get crystal clear about exactly what you want. This vision doesn’t just have to be a dream—it can be your future reality! It all begins by you making the powerful choice to define exactly what you want, and then committing each day to making it a reality.
I’ve done the exercise I’m about to share with you not once, not twice, but THREE times over nine years—because it’s THAT powerful. It’s been a total game-changer for me, and has set up a life I can honestly say only dreamt could happen nine years ago. I am so confident this works that I wanted to share it with you, too. I even built a free step-by-step journal that you can follow, too.
If you dedicate yourself to this practice, I KNOW you will achieve insane results, and maybe just transform your life.
Ready to dive in?
What We’ll Be Covering:
Pssst did you hear? I built an ENTIRE workbook for you to follow-along and build your very own Vivid Vision… for FREE! Grab it here:
My Life Design Story:
(Read the extended version of my story here)
For years, I felt… restless. While I appreciated my corporate career, I couldn’t ignore the sense that I was meant for something more. There was always this nagging feeling that I was spending my prime years in a 9-5, while my inner wild-child was longing for more independence, more financial freedom, and more control over how I spent my precious time on this Earth. I was longing to make a broader impact and have the freedom to work remotely, travel whenever I wanted, and create my own success on my own terms. My ambition kept asking: “What if I could run my own business? Control my time? Choose how much I earn?” At first, the life I dreamed of felt like a blurry photo—and super far out of reach.
I now understand that the unsettled feeling came from the fact that my “future”—all those dreams and ideas—felt too far away and foggy, like looking through the wrong end of binoculars. But once I started envisioning my ideal future with clarity and confidence, everything began to shift. I created a vivid vision roadmap (detailed below) that not only inspired me to take action, but also set up the identity I needed to step into to turn my dream into a reality.
Today, I’m going to break down for you the exact steps I took to build out my vivid vision, which enabled me to build the life of my dreams.
Let’s do this thing!
First, What Is A “Vivid Vision”?
Before I ever began building my businesses (and the life I’d always dreamed of), I first had to get my mindset right. Thinking about leaving my safe corporate job to pursue my own business full-time felt overwhelming. The “how” weighed heavily on me, and it can for most people, right? But, the great part of all of this is that you don’t need all the answers upfront. What you need is clarity about where you’re headed. That’s where your vivid vision comes in.
A “Vivid Vision” (a term coined in Cameron Herold’s book Vivid Vision) is a motivating, crystal-clear picture of your ideal life set a few years down the road. It’s so detailed and aligned with your core desires that if you’re intentional about focusing on this vision each day, you’ll start taking actions that naturally move you closer to making it a reality. (I also believe the universe will work to help you achieve the vision, but I’ll save that woo woo explanation for another blog ;).
When I first read Herold’s book and tried this exercise, I pictured a crystal-clear life of independence—one where I shaped my own schedule, ran a thriving branding business, collaborated with a talented and inspiring team, and created stunning, meaningful brands. I visualized my days—some spent traveling to breathtaking destinations, others in a thoughtfully designed, custom-built studio. My mornings started peacefully, with yoga, journaling, and a warm cup of coffee, followed by fulfilling work with incredible clients and colleagues on exciting branding projects and fresh content creation.
At that point, this dream life felt incredibly distant from my current reality. But defining it so vividly gave me a clear direction and a profound sense of motivation that guided my choices each day. I’ll never forget the surge of excitement I experienced as I wrote it all down, recognizing how deeply it inspired me. Reading it each morning reinforced my belief that one day, I would bring this vision to life.
In this blog post, I’m going to break down exactly how you can build your vision, too, step by step.
Let’s dive in!
Real Quick! Want a SUPER straightforward, easy method to complete your vivid vision?? I’ve built you a journal!
I’ve always found that creativity can often flow freer using a pen and paper, rather than a laptop or phone, but it can also be difficult to focus if you don’t have a structured exercise in front of you. To help you out with that, I’ve built you a FREE downloadable journal! Go ahead and grab yours here:
Download Your FREE Vivid Vision Workbook Here:
Let’s Build Your Vivid Vision!
Supplies You’ll Need to Get Started:
Before you begin your Vivid Vision exercise, I definitely suggest rounding up a few items that will make the experience seamless and enjoyable. I highly recommend you grab:
A durable, lined notebook that you can bring with you in to an outdoor environment and easily slip into a backpack or purse. I also love journals that have a spiral binding so you can flip it fully open as you write, and balance it on your lap or easy set it on your table without it flying shut again.
Comfy roller gel pens in black ink that won’t run out or stop up while you’re writing. This exercise requires a LOT of writing, so we definitely want to prep with high quality pens!
Step #1
Set the Scene for Creative Flow: Choose a Natural Environment with ZERO Distractions
Before starting this exercise, choose a space where you feel relaxed, focused, and free to tap into your creativity. Ideally, this should be a calm, tranquil setting—preferably in nature or somewhere peaceful (I always feel calmest when near a large body of water). Minimize distractions by turning off your phone, computer, and TV. If possible, immerse yourself in an open, expansive environment to encourage your imagination to flow freely.
Creating the right environment will make it easier to tap into the bigger, bolder version of your dreams.
Pro Tip: I’ve always found that creativity can often flow freer using a pen and paper, rather than a laptop or phone, so I encourage you to separate from the tech and settle into a natural escape somewhere with just a pen and paper to start.
Before you dive into your Vivid Vision, think through:
What kind of environment helps you feel calm and creative?
Where can you go that you’ll be uninterrupted for a long period of time?
When will you schedule the time to fully focus on this exercise?
How will you create your vision - pen and paper, drawing, laptop, etc.?
Importantly, you’ll need to be intentional about limiting distractions.
Step #2
2. Visualize Your Ideal Life 3 (or 5) Years From Now
This is the heart of the exercise! Close your eyes and picture your life as vividly as possible, like a movie playing in your mind. If it helps, spend some time first picturing yourself, and then allowing creative, optimistic scenes to surround you.
Even if it’s shockingly different from your current environment now, allow yourself to “daydream” this scene. Don’t hold back– the more you let yourself dream without limitations, the more energizing and motivating this process will be. Feel into it… when you begin to feel excitement and motivation around the scene, you’ll know you’re on the right track!
Some details to think about as you envision:
Where are you?
What does your day-to-day look like?
Who are you as a person?
What emotions are you feeling?
Who are you surrounded by?
What work are you doing, and how does it make you feel?
***Important Note:
Don’t let limiting thoughts hold you back! Thoughts like "How will I afford this?” or “How can I make it happen?” can creep in and cloud your creativity. Push those thoughts aside for now. Your only job is to focus on the destination, not the journey. Imagine where you want to be—not how you’ll get there.
For example, when I created my Vivid Vision for my next 3 years of life, I said I wanted to run my own business and control my days. And was bombarded immediately with thoughts like:
“Yeah sure, that’s a little crazy considering I’m nowhere near that now. How will I make the same income? How will I justify this to friends/family/etc?”
This was me focusing on the ‘how’, not the ‘where’. And look how different my life would be if I’d allowed myself to listen to those limiting thoughts!
Challenge yourself to think- and dream- big!
step #3
3. Write It All Down As If It Already Happened
Download your FREE Vivid Vision Workbook here!
It’s time to transfer your vision from your brain to a piece of paper!
I suggest blocking out a few hours for this exercise to give yourself space to let the ideas flow as freely and thoroughly as possible. When it comes to “how” to transcribe - that’s up to you. One method that works great (and is my preferred method) is to free flow write as many details of minute-to-minute scenes as you can. This can fill 10 pages, 20 pages, a whole book! Just let it all flow out of you.
Or, if you feel like you have a lot of scattered thoughts and images that you want to save, build out a mind map of concepts and ideas all over a page, and then connect those ideas with other aspects of your life. Here’s a helpful example of a “Mind Map” from Mindset Momma:
Importantly, let this exercise be messy! The most important piece is that you keep writing and transcribing your vision until you you’re satisfied.
step #4:
4. Bring Your Vision to Life in a Format You Can Revisit Regularly
Now that you’ve written down all of your vivid vision concepts, it’s time to refine them into a clear, exciting picture. There are so many ways to convey your vision- choose a format that resonates with you. It could be a journal entry, a newspaper article, a digital mind map, or even a painting—whatever helps you articulate your vision most vividly. Think through your “where” for every part of your life: your social circles, health, knowledge, career, home, vacations, big life milestones, etc.
As an example, when I created my first Vivid Vision, I started by scribbling out eight pages of illegible thoughts– I didn’t stop until I was completely happy with the vision I’d created. I then chose to refine these thoughts into a one-page, newspaper-style article, describing my life in super fine detail in third person. I liked this format because it allowed me to look at my vision daily and weekly (I even sometimes meditated on it… because I’m extra AF). And I promise when I tell you, I was able to hit almost all of the facets I’d written down.
step #5:
5. Amplify & Solidify Your Vision
Amplify:
I am such a believer that sharing your vision with a close support network will truly amplify its power. When others understand and support your goals, they’ll help hold you accountable and cheer you on along the way - and signal to the Universe that everyone’s believing in your future vision, making it that much more likely to happen :)
Solidify:
Make your vision come true by printing it out, hanging it up, or setting it up in a medium that you can consistently refer back to over weeks, months, or quarters. It’s fun to see how much you achieve as you really lean into- and step into- your vivid life :)
Ready to Step Into the Life You’ve Always Dreamed Of?
I’ve done this exercise THREE times over the past nine years, and each time, it’s led to incredible results.
The true power of this process lies in two parts: first, achieving a flow state as you create a vivid and detailed vision of your dream life, and second, actively feeling the emotions of living that life while making small, intentional decisions each day to bring it into existence.
This isn’t just an exercise—it’s a life-changing practice. Crafting your vivid vision helps you align with the life that inspires you most and gives you a clear roadmap to get there. Dream boldly, act with purpose, and watch how quickly the vision you create begins to take shape.
Get my FREE Vivid Vision workbook today:
I also have an awesome resource library containing literally everything I used to help me create and set up my dream career and life - books, office supplies, all the cutest outfits, and so much more! Click here to check it out!
***I would LOVE to see what vision you came up with! Please feel free to share your creations (or any questions) over at:
hello@shinewithpaige.com | @shinewithpaige
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