Get Clear on Your Vision: The Ideal Day Exercise

"Happy people have two things in common. They know exactly what they want and they feel they're moving toward getting it." - Barbara Sher

Mar 24, 2025

I first heard about Wishcraft by Barbara Sher from Alexis Kingsley (@AlexisKingsley), and it’s packed with so much valuable content that I couldn’t possibly cover it all in one post/video—but I do want to share my favourite exercise with you.

If you’re feeling stuck or uncertain about your next steps, this exercise helps you imagine your ideal day—not just as a dream, but as a way to better understand what truly fulfils you. I feel like it’s a useful exercise whether you’re running a charity, social enterprise, or your own business, or simply passionate about finding meaningful work and creating a fulfilling life.

To help you get started, I’ve created a simple template you can fill out. You can download it for free below.

The Ideal Day Exercise Fillable Pdf

574KB ∙ PDF file

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Step 1: Imagine

The Ideal Day exercise invites you to imagine your perfect ordinary day—not a holiday or a compromise, but the daily life you'd truly love. Using as much detail as possible, you describe your ideal day from morning to night in the present tense.

Here are some prompts:

What are you doing? (Work, play, activities that fulfil you)
Where are you? (Your ideal location, whether a city flat, a countryside home, or a beachside retreat)
Who are you with? (Real people you love, new connections, or inspiring communities)

You’re encouraged to dream without limits—imagining you have all the skills, resources, and freedom you need. The goal is to create a vivid picture of a life that excites and energises you.

Step 2: Seven Questions

This follow-up exercise helps you analyse your Ideal Day by breaking it down into essential elements and identifying what’s already present in your life—and what’s missing.

What are the must-haves? – The what, where, and who elements that are absolutely essential for your happiness.
What would be nice, but I can live without? – Things that would enhance your day but aren’t crucial.
What’s just a luxury? – Fun extras that would be nice but wouldn’t affect your overall happiness.
What happens when you remove the non-essentials? – Does your ideal day still feel fulfilling with just the indispensable elements?
What do you already have? – The parts of your ideal day that exist in your current life.
What’s missing? – The gaps in your what, where, and who that need attention.
What’s standing in your way?– The obstacles between you and your ideal day, and what it would take to remove them.

Step 3: Bridge The Gap

This final step helps you bridge the gap between your Ideal Day and reality by identifying obstacles and transforming them into solvable problems.

Identify what’s blocking you – List the real-world challenges stopping you from living your modified dream day (the minimum what, where, and who that would make you happy).
Make a “Problems” list – Write down every reason why you think you can’t have your dream life.
Set an inspiring, bold goal– When setting a goal, don’t shrink your vision to fit reality. Instead, define a goal that excites you.
Transform obstacles into stepping stones – Turn your challenges into guides for your next steps, using them as valuable lessons to move closer to your goal.

This process shifts your dream from an abstract vision into something tangible—something you can actively work towards with practical problem-solving techniques.

What’s Next?

I hope this exercise helps you clarify your longer-term vision and gives you insight into what truly fulfils you. Does it also help you identify a smaller, more immediate goal that you can start working towards today?

After completing the exercise, take a moment to write down your next steps. What's one thing you could start working towards today that aligns with your ideal day?

Download the free template below.