Dream Big: How I Designed My Dream Life
Discover how I designed my dream life through imagination and intentional living—then get inspired to start creating your dream life too.
Most people don’t fail because they lack talent or discipline. They fail because they stop dreaming.
Somewhere between deadlines and disappointments, many of us abandon the very thing that once made us limitless: delusion. We become reasonable. Sensible. Practical. We trade in wonder for predictability, and call it maturity. But nothing extraordinary has ever been built on logic alone.
I designed my dream life not by working harder, but by thinking differently. I stopped editing my desires before they could form. I stopped waiting for proof and started practicing faith. I started listening to what I wanted in its rawest, most unfiltered state—and followed it.
This is how I did it. And if you're reading this, I suspect you're ready to begin too.
Elevate Your Life
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Shift Your Mindset
You can’t build a new life with the same thoughts that built the old one. Our imaginations are heavily influenced by this conditioning and all of the information we've consumed and processed up to this point. This is why we must be mindful of what we intake once we are adults and have more control over our own developmental process.
My old mindset was cluttered with inherited beliefs—ideas about what was “enough,” what was “possible,” what I “deserved.” I began to unlearn scarcity, self-doubt, and the belief that I needed permission to want more. The more I reshaped my internal landscape, the more space I had to expand into the person I was becoming.
To develop a growth mindset, we have to be discerning about the ideas, words, and images we allow to enter and permeate our psyche—because this is the material we ultimately use when manifesting. These are the substances we have at our disposal when creating.
Visualize Your Desires
Subpar supplies lead to low-quality outcomes. And a limitation in the tools you have available might mean you can't create at all. An artist can't produce a masterpiece with only a blank canvas. She needs her brushes and watercolors too.
An inability to see what you want—to paint a vivid mental picture of it—indicates a mind bogged down by years of limiting thoughts. It is not equipped to dream big because everything it's been fed has been deficient in novelty and restrictive in nature.
My dream life became possible the moment I could see it. I created vision boards—not just of luxury objects or far-off destinations, but of moods. Light pouring through floor-to-ceiling windows. A kitchen filled with whole foods. Quiet mornings with green tea and no urgency. Joyful activities. A spacious calendar.
Visualization isn’t daydreaming. It’s rehearsal. It teaches your nervous system how to feel at home in the future you’re building. I practiced feeling those moments in my body—until they felt familiar. Then I let them lead me.
Clarify Your Values
A dream life is not a Pinterest board—it’s a values-based reality. To create mine, I had to decide what mattered most. I asked: What do I value more than convenience? What would I fight to protect? What makes me feel most like myself?
It turned out my dream life wasn’t about having more. It was about having less—but better. Less noise, fewer obligations, deeper presence. I wanted beauty, autonomy, and ease. Once I defined my personal metrics of success, I stopped chasing other people’s.
Refine Consumption Habits
Everything is energy. What you consume becomes what you create.
I curated what I allowed in—books, conversations, content, spaces. I began to treat inspiration like nutrition: if it didn’t nourish me, I let it go. I surrounded myself with beauty and ideas that mirrored where I was headed, not where I had been.
This was one of the most powerful shifts I made: I realized that every input is a vote for your future. I stopped feeding versions of me I no longer wanted to sustain.
Embody Your Dream
Environment shapes identity. I refined my space to reflect the luxury aesthetic I desired—elegant, intentional, serene. I let go of clutter and brought in beauty. I edited my wardrobe to align with how I wanted to feel. I designed rituals that marked the transition from old habits to new rhythms.
Every detail mattered. Not because of superficiality—but because beauty reminds us of who we are and what we’re worthy of. When I walked into my space, I wanted it to say: She’s already there. Because you don’t attract what you want. You attract what you are.
So I started embodying the version of me who already lived that life. Not in a performative way—but through energy, posture, and presence. I walked slower. I honored my time. I made decisions like someone who trusted themselves deeply. My dream life wasn't waiting in the distance—it was waiting for me to match it.
Trust the Timing
This was the hardest part: letting go of control. There were days when I questioned everything. Times when I was doing the work but couldn’t yet see the results. In those moments, I practiced surrender—not passive waiting, but active trust.
Eventually, the dream stopped being a projection. It became my present. Not because everything was perfect. But because I was living on purpose—in sync with my values, surrounded by beauty, choosing joy without conditions. I noticed it in the details: the way I got dressed, the silence in my mornings, the confidence in my boundaries.
Design Your Life
You will find that most spiritual belief systems are adamant about the re-conditioning of the mind, or getting it back to that pure, untainted form. The Bible, for instance, gives specific guidelines on how to think positively and abundantly. You don't have to believe in Christian doctrine to see the beauty in this particular scripture. Mindset means everything. A return to childlike faith is the key to heaven’s door.
Whatever is true, whatever is honest, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good report; if there is any excellence, if there is any virtue worthy of praise, think on these things.
— Biblical Proverb
In order to dream big, overcome your limiting beliefs, then start building up a repository of “true, honest, just, pure, lovely, good and excellent” thoughts to draw from. Fuel your imagination with content that inspires and empowers you to create the impossible.
Your dream life won’t look like mine. It shouldn’t. But whatever it looks like—peaceful, adventurous, luxurious, slow—it’s available. And it begins with permission. Not from the world, but from yourself.
Supplemental Resources
The Alchemist is one of the best novels about the journey of following one's heart, and this illustrated version is a true keepsake for your bookcase.
Mind in Motion, by psychologist Barbara Tversky, offers a new way to think about thinking, with actions — not words — being central to our consciousness.
Every dreamer faces a creative conundrum at some point in their journey: pursue your passion or give it up for a more rational endeavor?
Speaking of dreams, your brain needs the type that surface when you slumber in order to boost creativity, problem solve, resolve challenges and more. So good sleep is essential.
According to Harvard Business Review, you can train your brain to be more creative and expand its capacity to support you in pursuit of your audacious goals.
Imagination is a powerful tool that's not valued nearly enough as it should be, even though it is relied upon much more than we realize.
Thought experiments are tools used by exceptional thinkers, such as Einstein, to solve difficult problems and achieve improbable goals.
It's important to periodically assess how you think, as a mental paradigm shift may be in order if you want to manifest big dreams.
Engaging in an artistic pursuit, such as this Beginner's Acrylic Course, is a sure way to expand your mind and stretch your creative faculties.
Once you set your vision, it's important to make it tangible by writing it down. A vision journal by Appointed will help you stay more motivated by keeping your dreams in written form.
This crash course on Design Thinking, by Stanford University, will teach you how to approach challenges and opportunities more creatively.
Elizabeth Gilbert’s popular TED talk explores the idea that creative genius is not rare but a faculty we all have.
Working on puzzles are perfect for staying mentally sharp and agile. The free New York Times Soduku is offered daily at various levels.
