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Remember when you were five years old and you were going to live in a castle and have ten million dogs? You were going to own your own princess shop and then on the side you were going to be an astronaut and fly to the moon? And then you were going to live at Disney World and be unconditionally happy for the rest of your life? Remember when dreaming big was so easy? No, just me?

As kids, we had no limitations to our dreams. We thought anything and everything was possible! As we grow up we stop dreaming as big. We become reasonable, we let excuses set in, hell we even search for excuses. As we grow up, it becomes easier to not chase our big dreams and become complacent.

Maybe you grew up and got a corporate job. You make a nice income, have a family, bought a house, and drive a nice car. But you feel like you are going through the motions everyday. You feel like something is missing but also that you should be grateful for the life you have. You once had a dream to open your own bakery to sell your baked goods. But life quickly showed you how much hard work that might be so you settled for an easier path.

In my opinion, it became increasingly harder to dream big the older I got and I’m not talking about pursuing those dreams, I’m simply talking about dreaming. Just thinking about big dreams, the impossible, or the way out there! It’s like as adults we have forgotten how to dream bigger and replaced dreams with reasoning on why it won’t ever work out before we have even tried. I know I have dreamt of things and then immediately talked myself out of wanting it! It’s ridiculous! But I am guessing a lot of people are like this as well.

I actually started doing an exercise to help myself dream a little big bigger and I want to share it with you today. This came about when I started to make a vision board and I kept talking myself out of things. It’s become incredibly helpful when I feel stuck or uninspired.

1. Get a pen and paper

Seriously, just do it. You might be a digital person or you might just think, I’ll just do this in my head. I promise this will be so much more effective if you get actual paper and a pen. There is something about physically writing things out that make them more effective!

2. List of Dreams

For the first exercise, I want you to pretend that you’ve found a magic genie and he is going to grant you every single wish you want. No limitations what so ever. Literally list out everything. Every little thing! It doesn’t matter how outrageous it sounds or if you don’t even know if it’s possible. Just write it all down!

3. Visualize

Now that you have your list of dreams, I want you to think about your perfect day. What would your absolute perfect day look like? Write out what your perfect day would look and feel like. Be as specific as you can be.

4. Reflect

I want you to now reflect on steps two and three above. Look at the lists and day you’ve planned. What parts of those are already apart of your life now? What are things that you truly want? And what are you willing to work toward?

5. List your dreams/goals

Once you’ve narrowed down what is important to you list out your dreams and goals. It is important to actually write them down! Put them on a piece of paper and put them somewhere where you will see them on a daily basis. This should motivate you!

If you want more info on setting goals, check out my post here!

6. Take action

These next two steps I have added in addition to my dreaming bigger exercise. These steps go beyond just dreaming and actually doing. While it is important to dream bigger, it’s also important to take action or nothing will happen. I mean if nothing changes, nothing changes. This is where you need to start taking action on your dreams and working toward them.

This is the step when you need to cut out all excuses and limiting beliefs. Do you want to lose weight but you can’t because you don’t have time with small children? Ditch that freaking excuse, get on Pinterest, find a kid friendly workout, and get that heart rate up (also follow me!). Do you want to start your own business but you are afraid that you will fail? Identify you limiting beliefs and get out of your own way. Just start! Remember, small, messy actions are better than no action at all.

7. Let go of the how

This is by far the hardest thing for me to do, but it is important to let go of the how. You aren’t going to know exactly how you are going to get to your dream life. If you did, everyone would be living their dream life. You’re never going to know 100% how to get there, so just start taking action and remove the need to know how you’ll get there.

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This is my favorite exercise to do when I am feeling uninspired and like my dreams are lacking. Try it out and let me know what you think!