Predict Your Future
Create your future with this activity I learned about and adapted from a Tim Ferriss Podcast episode with Debbie Millman, a writer, educator, artist, curator, and designer who is best known as the host of the podcast Design Matters.
This is an activity Millman has her students complete that she calls a 10-Year Plan to a Remarkable Life. She says it is like magic in helping you to create the future you desire. So many of her students report back to her years later of how eerie it is that so much of what they wrote down actually came true!
To begin, close your eyes and focus on your breath for a minute or two.
Now, imagine it is 10 years in the future and everything in your life has turned out exactly as you wanted it to.
Ask yourself the set of questions about what that future looks like below. Answer those questions silently and visualize your answers as if they are happening to you right now. Make the images in your mind as detailed as possible. Include as many of your senses as possible during this exercise as well as the emotions you feel in this remarkable life.
What you are doing?
Where you are living (small town, big city)?
Who are you living with?
What kind of place are you living in?
What kind of furniture do you have?
What kind of clothes are you wearing?
What hairstyle do you have?
Provide details on your pets, if you have any?
Do you have a significant other and/or children..what are they like?
What are your friends like?
Do you have a car, a boat or another vehicle of transportation? What does that look like?
What are you doing for your career?
What things have you accomplished so far in your career?
What hobbies do you have?
What recreational activities are you participating in?
What are you reading?
What are you creating?
What excites you?
What is your health like?
Imagine a typical day in your life from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep?
You now may wish to write out what you imagined in full paragraphs. Describe what this remarkable life of yours looks like in as much detail as possible.
Millman says to, “Dream big, dream without any fear..Put your whole heart into it. Write like there is no tomorrow. Write like your life depends on it, because it does.”
Once you have this all down, read it once a year and see what happens. It’s like magic!