Build Your Dream Life by Following Your Inspiration

If you have a vision (or even just a feeling) of how you want your life to look, you have a template for how to make it a reality.

Through your dream vision and your feelings of desire, you receive sparks of inspiration that momentarily bring you into the feeling of your dream life.

But how long do those moments last?

What if you could tap into those feelings and hold on to them at will, so that you constantly felt as if you are already living your dream life?

What if the more you drop into feeling as if you were already living your dream life, the closer you got to that reality?

Well that’s actually how it works!

There are aspects of my life today that in the past I would never have thought possible, but are now my everyday life: A supportive family that constantly surrounds me with love. A steady job with enough money in my bank account so that I never have to worry about how I’m going to make ends meet. Delicious, healthy, fresh food everyday. A beautiful home in a safe and friendly neighborhood, with my family and multiple pets and an abundance of nature around me.

Don’t get me wrong – of course there are moments where I still find myself unhappy and desiring more. That’s totally normal and healthy for continued growth. But ultimately, I am grateful for the life I lead today; a life that seemed out of reach just a few years ago.

The way I got here was by trusting and following the sparks of inspiration I received when I most needed direction. For many of us, this is a learned skill. In the beginning it may feel like you’re flying on blind faith, but that faith in your goals one day coming true is what you need to get through to the other side of your dreams, where dreams become reality.

So to make an abstract concept a little more concrete, here are some simple steps on how to build your dream life by following your inspiration. Use these tools to strategically harness your inspiration to step into your own desired reality.

Step 1: Recognize inspiration when you’ve got it.

Inspiration can strike anywhere, anytime. (Even more so if you are intentionally open to it!)

It feels warm. Light. Invigorating. Like you found a little treasure that lights you up inside.

You might even feel sensations of inspiration in your body. For me, it can feel like a pull in my stomach or a tingling on my neck and shoulders.

When this happens, stop and notice: What was it that gave you that jolt of inspiration? What sparked that sense of excitement inside of you?

Was it a song that hit you deep in your soul? Was it a conversation that left you excited and full of new ideas? Was it a kind encounter between strangers that you witnessed on your way to work?

Whatever it is, pay attention to how that inspiration took shape, what about that moment gave you that excitement, and how it made you feel.

It can help to keep a notebook (or even a notes doc on your phone) to jot it down immediately when something moves you. Tracking your inspiration makes it easier to review patterns in what pulls at your heart and soul. By looking back and figuring out what ignites your sense of inspiration, you’ll have an objective record of the breadcrumbs lighting up the path to your inner calling.

Step 2: Let the feeling of inspiration sink in.

When you’re inspired, how do you feel?

Relish in the feeling of your inspiration.

Feel it deeply. Consciously. Deliberately. Encoding it into your body at a cellular level.

As you intentionally marinate in the feeling of inspiration, you are making it easier to return to this state of inspiration again in the future.

Imagine you are building and strengthening a muscle, only in this case it’s the physical and emotional memory of inspiration to revisit again in the future. Which, in effect, is what you are really doing: as you repeatedly visualize and/or embody something, you are literally rewiring your brain and strengthening neural pathways that give rise to that experience! (This is in essence the principle of neuroplasticity… which in my view is truly magical!)

Sometimes it will be difficult to remember how it feels and you’ll struggle to pull yourself back into an inspired state. Especially in challenging situations where you don’t feel particularly inspired, or motivated, or empowered. But this is when such internal self-management becomes the most needed. That’s why it helps to build up your ability to tap into inspiration – so that you can draw upon your own reserves of inspired energy when you need a boost to keep going.

Over time, with practice, you’ll be able to tap back into these feelings of inspiration more readily. You’ll find it easier to remember that you have a vision of something greater than your current reality, and you’ll be able to hold that in your line of sight to stay focused and motivated to keep going toward that goal.

Trust me, this makes all the difference when you’re working a 9-5 that isn’t your true passion. Holding my dreams and my inspiration close acts like an armor of confidence as I move through my work day. I have bigger plans in mind, so nothing at the office really has the power to bring me too far down because I know I have something else, something far more personally relevant, to keep me going.

When you’re feeling down or lost or confused, step back into the feelings of your inspiration.

Play a song that gets you pumped and makes you feel like your most empowered, badass, [insert desired feeling] self!

Hold the vision of your goals and your highest, thriving self in mind and remember that that image of you is you, even now. Using a vision board as a visual reminder can really help, too!

Practice exercising your inspiration “muscle” often. Wear your inspiration close to your heart so that it starts to feel like your natural state.

You can even try it now!

What inspires you? Let the first thing that pops up be your anchor. You should feel a little spark inside.

Notice how good you feel in your body and mind and emotions when you are inspired. Do you have a little spark of energy light up inside? Do you feel a little warmer? Do you feel like you want to move into action and do something? Put that feeling on, deliberately, now.

You may even want to take a few deep breaths, or even take a moment to stretch, to get yourself warmed up and let the inspiration really circulate though your body.

When you’re inspired, notice how you feel all throughout your body, and mind, and emotions. Notice how different it feels from when you are drained, or bored, or unmotivated.

As you move through the rest of this post (or the rest of your day), how long can you hold yourself in this inspired state?

Step 3: Dig into your inspiration: reaching deeper understanding.

As you let these physical feelings sink in, you can also dig into your inspiration at a conceptual (mental) level to uncover more information about yourself and your innermost dreams and desires.

Understanding yourself internally can help light up the path to your dream life. Going deep will help you make sense of where you are coming from, where you are now, and where you are going.

When you really get to know yourself, you develop a clearer idea of what you are doing and why, and you build trust in yourself as you get to know yourself more.

Why is trusting yourself important?

When you learn to trust yourself, you learn to listen to your inner voice seriously. Just as seriously – and eventually, even more seriously – than the external voices around you.

It won’t always look like you are taking a clear and linear path forward in life – and other people will probably tell you so, further shaking your faith in yourself.

But if you have faith and trust in yourself, and if you can believe that a greater tapestry of your life story is being woven – even if you can’t see it in its entirety right now – you’ll be able to live your life and follow your inspiration with less stress and greater certainty.

Basically, you’ll feel better as you live your life. You’ll be less prone to feelings of guilt and self-doubt, because you’ll know that you have your own back (and over time, you may even start to feel that you have the support of the whole universe… which you do! Even now!)

And honestly, this is just a much more comfortable way of life than stressing and doubting and worrying all the time. (I’ve done it both ways, and much longer for the stressed and tense way; it simply feels bad. And I feel like stressful living took life from me, versus the inspired path giving more life to me!)

So dig into what inspires you, and seek to understand why.

What is it that you so deeply connected with?

Why do you have this feeling lighting you up?

Get specific to build a better map back to this feeling. Journaling is a great way to explore your inspiration and what lights you up because it requires you to slow down your thoughts in order to write them down, and allows you to take the space and time to let your feelings unfold and reveal themselves.

Once you’ve laid it out in writing, reflect on it. Literally read back over what you just wrote.

What does your inspiration reveal about your deeper values? What does this say about what kind of person you want to be and what kind of impact you’d like to have on the world?

For me, a good example is when I fall into watching live concert performances of my favorite artists. I love watching people give their all to the performance and the crowd. It hits me once in while, where I can stay up for hours watching concert videos and getting swept away by the performers’ energy. I realized that I was particularly inspired by their freedom and abandonment and total commitment to the full expression of their art in the moment. I am inspired by their vulnerability: a demonstration of authenticity and trust in themselves to do whatever will connect with their audience during the show. They take a leap of faith in laying themselves bare to the crowd – and are so compelling for it.

It’s raw and fearless and spontaneous shows that really get me. In my last concert videos binge it was Harry Styles, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Kills who got me. Watching their shows made me feel inspired to want to share my message beautifully (for me, through my preferred medium of writing) and fully, wholeheartedly, with all of me. Without fear. And in doing so, I want to inspire others to approach life and share their life’s message with courage and fearlessness and vulnerability and authenticity, too!

To be clear, there is no expectation here for you to have insights of any particular depth or gravity. In reflecting on your inspiration, you are in no way required to have spectacular breakthrough moments. You don’t need to discover that you want to “solve” climate change by creating sustainable power plants, or sell all your belongings to move to a mountain village, or anything grand or special.

Just try to uncover what’s true. Be honest with yourself about yourself.

What matters to you, and why? This is what you want to get at. As you move through life, keep coming back to this point as an anchor for what you do, and why.

Step 4: Follow your inspiration.

By now, you know what inspires you. You know how it feels and can (with practice) drop into the feeling of inspiration when you catch yourself falling out of inspiration. You’ve even uncovered some insights into why these particular things light you up inside.

Now let’s ride that wave of inspiration and see where it takes you.

Lean into your inspiration.

Keep it close to your heart. Keep in daily contact with your dreams and goals. And when the universe serves up an opportunity to lean into it, follow it.

I like to use a vision board to help me visualize and embody my highest, most inspired self. Once I’ve made it, I keep it on my phone somewhere I can easily pull it up throughout the day to review my inspiration. It’s a visual prompt to remind you to step into your light and the life that you wish to create for yourself.

If vision boards aren’t your thing, any reminder will do. A note on your bathroom mirror, or by the front door so that you see it every day before you head out into the world. A bracelet that serves as a reminder to yourself that you create your life at will. A calendar reminder with an affirmation on your phone, so that the notification is scheduled to appear a few times throughout the day.

For me, I keep my vision board on Pinterest and glance at it throughout the day. One of my pins is an image that reads “Align your life with your goals.” That reminder keeps popping up in my mind and I try to remind myself of that when I’m feeling particularly sluggish about my personal projects. It’s vague, and can be true for anyone – but when I see it, it reminds me of what my particular goals are and helps me snap back into the action I need to take in order to achieve my goals.

Use these small reminders to help you stay on course to living an inspired life, and a life inspired by your dreams. Take care of yourself by nurturing your dreams and inspiration and keep guiding yourself back toward your light.

Right now I am up late at night because I was catching up on some work from my day job and playing random fashion YouTube videos in the background. One of the videos caught my attention and really inspired me because the creator so clearly loves her work and is passionate about sharing information about dressing yourself and styling yourself for the life you want through clothing. Just like watching concert videos, this fashion video gave me a spark of inspiration and reminded me of my own excitement in sharing my passion with people. That is, how to live and feel better, using tools that I’ve learned in my own journey to living better and becoming a better person. Riding that wave of inspiration, I hopped onto my blog and started typing this!

From there, keep following the things that lead you to your light.

Step 5: Stay open to further inspiration and guidance from the universe.

In the beginning it might feel like you are just receiving random, synchronistic cues from the universe. Oh yeah, those angel numbers do have a message in line with what’s been on your mind lately. That news article mentioned something that you’ve been wanting to learn about for ages. You noticed an ad on a bulletin board for your dream job.

The more you accept that the universe is trying to support you, the more you can work with the universe to accept and receive its help. You can openly ask the universe for signs and support and directions. Some people do this through prayer. Others through meditation. You can do it simply by opening your mind and heart to something greater (which is essentially the same thing as both prayer and meditation, if we get down to it).

Open yourself to receiving light and guidance from the universe. Your feelings of inspiration are your inner light, and the universe will respond accordingly to what you beam out of yourself.

The more you tell the universe what you want, the more it will sprinkle clues and opportunities along your path to help you get there. It is your job to recognize these for what they are, and to take action when an opportunity is presented.

As you follow these breadcrumbs, there will be even more joy and inspiration to follow. Rather than chasing something that is ever out of reach, you are following the path as it reveals itself to you and finding joy along the way.

If you do this – live in alignment with the things that matter to you: your values, your inspiration – you will find fulfillment. You will also usually find life sweet and wonderful and enjoyable. Just right for you.

One final closing example from my own life. There is a documentary on Netflix about American writer Joan Didion, who I have long admired since I first read her novel “Play It As It Lays.” The documentary is called “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold.” As I watched this for the first, and second, and all subsequent viewings I just kept thinking, “Omg I see so much of myself in her!” She lived a life so much like what I imagine for myself at the peak of my career goals. I must remember that all the things that inspire me in her, I can cultivate or open inside of myself too. There’s a reason I like her and am drawn to her. So my job is to let that inspiration from learning more about her help drive and motivate me, to become a writer like she was. She loved it with her whole being. So much so that she couldn’t not write. If I use her as a bit of a reference to tap into that drive and discipline, I can build that up for myself better.

In conclusion, the point of this post is to remind you that the more you lean into your inspiration and follow your inner guidance, the closer you draw your dreams into your present reality.

Whatever your inspiration looks like, know that your feelings hold clues that point you in the direction of how to build your dream life. As it turns out, your likes and interests are your inspiration and road map to your dream life.

How fun is that? It’s gets to be this good to work on yourself!

If you’re having a hard time believing it can be this easy, that’s ok. Let yourself pretend that you believe it. When you step into that, all you’re doing is trying on this new belief. Like you’re trying it on for size. It may not feel natural at first, but it will start to feel more and more right as you grow into it. And one day, you may very well fall comfortably into believing that life can be fun and easy, and that it gets to be so as fair compensation for what you put out into the world. Live an inspired life in line with your values, and put good out to get good back. Follow your inspiration and start building your dream life today.

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What inspires you? Tell me in the comments below!