What kind of life sounds like the one you’d like to live from today until you’re dropped off at the crematorium?

A. A black-and-white life
B. A life in color
C. A technicolor life
D. A pyrotechnic life

If you answered A, then I’m going to assume you got confused or you’ve been over-served? I’ll go get you a Tylenol.

If you answered B, we can work with that. Keep reading.

If you answered C, woo hoo, you!

If you answered D, I can’t tell if you’re showing off or just fucking fabulous . . . so stick around, amigo.

We want the vivid color version of life—the full-tilt technicolor dreamcoat variety. We want the iridescent, luminous, kaleidoscopic rainbow kind of life. We want astonishing. We want to live like we mean it. All we ever wanted was everything! And so we’re not showing up for another Monday of life with a palette full of greige paint.

YOU: Wait, did I just show up at art class? I don’t have a beret.

ME: Worry not; this paint with vivid colors is just a metaphor I’m going to work to death here.

Widening our lives with zest-inducing activities is a great place to start in an effort to live in vivid color. Maybe you want to Go for Gusto and dedicate real time, energy, and attention to your positive sense of aliveness . . . or perhaps you’re already feeling zesty but you’re always game to get even zestier. Regardless of how vitally plugged-in you feel today, here are a few ideas to widen your life:

• Hark back on the times you felt anywhere close to the “rapture of aliveness.” What were you doing then? Who were you spending time with? What was your mindset? What activities might you want to pick back up?
• Give yourself permission to try new things. Explore what interests you, while acknowledging it will feel fumbly at first—like learning conversational Portuguese, taking a knife-skills class, reupholstering that chair from the flea market . . . anything new and decidedly out of your comfort zone. Blue eyeshadow, maybe?
• Keep track of the new things you’ve tried. It’s amazing and motivating to look back on a list of things you’ve “given a go”; it can also help hold you accountable to try one new thing a week, for example. How often do you want to introduce newness? Where might you record your “Vitality Victories”? Some teams I work with share weekend photos with one another to keep an encouraging and gently competitive spirit of go-for-it-ness in the air.
• Retry something you used to like as a kid, like trampolining, baking, or shoplifting playing piano.
• Barrage yourself with the following positive emotions—one emotion per week will do: joy, love, gratitude, hope, serenity, interest, pride, amusement, awe, and inspiration. Vitality often emerges with the pleasure of these emotions. Which one jumps out at you first?
• Consult your “Things That Make Me Happy” list. Commit to doing at least one thing—big or small—on your list each week, like texting a long-lost friend or dancing in your jammies at night.

That image above is blank because you are supposed to fill it in. What are the ways you plan to widen your life in extraordinary, vivid color? You get one go. Don’t you want it to be astonishing? MAKE IT SO, BABE.