Do you daydream about your future self? What your life may look like in 5 or 10 years from now? Visualizing your best future and capturing it on paper can help turn your dreams into a reality.
Studies show that writing about your best future self not only helps to improve your happiness, but it can also make your dreams and goals become a reality. Think of musicians who say that they visualized themselves playing sold out arena’s creating a vivid scene using all the senses. Imagining the roar of the crowd, the feel of the lights.
The principal of imagining or dreaming about your future may subtly affect your thinking in ways you may not consciously be aware of and help your dreams become a reality. Writing is a great way to cogitate on your future self. It’s also a great way to let go of any anxieties that may be standing in the way of you and your goals.
Try this exercise to move steps forward toward your best future self.
If you have dreams that feel hard to reach or are filled with fear about what might go wrong write it all down without censoring yourself, even the negative and the scary stuff. Then take about 5-10 minutes to clear your mind before moving to the next part. Burning those pages or throwing them in the garbage can be a great way to release the negative thoughts and prepare yourself for your best future self.
Then, give yourself no less than 20-30 minutes to imagine your best possible future self. Visualize yourself using all 5 senses. You could answer the questions below or any other things that may come to mind to really bring it to life. If the steps you need to take get there start to take shape in your mind, make not of those too.
What is your career?
Who is with you?
Where do you live?
What are you doing for hobbies or with your free time?
What do you have with you?
When you’re done sit with yourself for a few more minutes and take a listen to your intuition. Do you feel more positive about your future? Do you find that you’ve thought of more ways to get to where you want to go?
You can come back to this exercise whenever you feel the need to refocus or maybe even for shorter or longer term goals.