When Laila stood at her train stop five years ago, soaked from the rain and late for yet another job interview, she made a promise to herself: Things have to change. She had no concrete plan, no funding, and very little confidence, but what she did have was a vision—and, as she would later say, “a stubborn belief that the future could be better than the present, even if I wasn’t sure how to get there.”

At the time, Laila was working two part-time jobs that barely covered her rent. She had dropped out of university and was feeling stuck, both personally and professionally. But one evening, while scrolling through a blog about entrepreneurship, she stumbled across something called a “life design canvas”—a simple but powerful visual map of one’s goals, values, and aspirations.

Something clicked.

Over the following week, Laila began to map out her ideal life five years into the future. She imagined living by the sea, running her own wellness brand, and hosting retreats that helped women reconnect with themselves. She wasn’t entirely sure whether any of it was realistic—she wrote it all down anyway.

Instead of setting rigid goals, Laila began each vision statement with phrases like:

• “In a few years, I hope to…”
• “If I continue learning and growing, I might…”
• “Ideally, I’d love to be in a position where…”

These phrases gave her permission to dream while accepting that the path might evolve.

The next steps weren’t easy. She took a night course in business management, reduced her working hours to focus on her project, and began sharing her ideas online. The response was slow at first, but eventually she gained a following of like-minded people who encouraged her to keep going. “Every time I was about to give up, I imagined my future self looking back and saying: Thank you for not quitting. That idea kept me going more than anything else.”

Today, Laila runs a successful company that offers holistic coaching, digital courses, and wellness products. Her retreats in coastal Portugal often sell out within days. When asked how she made it happen, she’s quick to say that it wasn’t magic, luck, or perfect timing—it was clarity of vision and consistent effort.

“If you can picture your future vividly enough,” she says, “you start to walk toward it, even on the days when the road isn’t clear.”