What will you be doing? What will you be feeling happy about? What sort of work will you be doing? What will you be proud of? What will you be excited about?… Do you ever wonder?
The truth for most of us is we’re generally so busy each day doing what we need to do for our families, our jobs, our health and so on, that we don’t take much time to plan for the future. We probably all have to do lists in various formats but do you have a plan for achieving your hopes and dreams over the next few years? Have you ever written down those hopes and dreams?
Knowing what is important to us, being able to express what we hope for and dream about doing and achieving, helps us to recognise our values and experience greater meaning in life. This is important because feeling a higher level of meaning is linked to higher levels of well-being and engagement.
Let’s do an exercise in the guise of a fortune teller – writing your own “Letter from the Future”. The exercise is relevant in the principal of Positive Psychology, which is all about discovering and acknowledging your hopes and dreams. Your dreams for the future can give you the impetus to set some more concrete goals for yourself and help you to notice opportunities in your daily life that might help you achieve what you wish.
Choose a date some months or years ahead. Then imagine that life has gone rather well. Things have turned out the way you wanted them to. You have generally been able to do the things you want and have behaved in the way you would prefer. You’ve achieved goals that are important to you.
Now, write yourself a letter telling yourself about the developments in your life. Try to imagine how your life would feel if you were successful and fulfilled.
As you write, try to relax and simply record your stream of consciousness. You could treat yourself to a piece of chocolate or a glass of wine to kick start your thoughts, or do some exercise and then get writing while you enjoy the adrenaline boost.
You might find it useful to devote different paragraphs to different aspects of your life. Here are some questions you could answer:
As you write, try to avoid letting self-doubt creep in. The aim is to boldly write the scenario you would love to have come true.
I know that not everyone enjoys writing so please don’t be turned off by the concept of a letter. This activity can be done in various ways. One of my clients recently recorded a “voice message from the future”. She found chatting into her phone felt much more natural. Drawing, painting or collecting images are also great outlets.
The important thing is you’re finding a way to express your vision of how things are at a specific moment in the future.
Once you’ve created your letter, allow yourself some time to ponder it. Are there any surprises in it? Did you find yourself writing passionately about things you hadn’t thought much about before? Your letter is there to give you clues about how to build your most personally satisfying future and inspire you to start putting concrete goals in place to make your vision become reality.
I hope you find your letter enlightening and encouraging!
About Kate
Kate Wilkie has a Masters in Applied Science (Coaching Psychology) from the University of Sydney, and her particular coaching interest is in working with women to increase well-being, boost resilience and guide positive action.
Evidence from the science of Positive Psychology shows that boosting overall well-being can help women to increase their resilience to stress and help to avoid depression and anxiety. This can be particularly important in the early years of motherhood and as their children become more independent.
Over the past twenty years, Kate has worked and consulted across a range of industries and different sized businesses in the public, private and not for profit sectors. This varied experience has given Kate a strong understanding of, and clear perspective on, the challenges and opportunities that each individual and organisation faces.
FlexCareers offers a free 30-minute introductory meeting with our FlexCoaches, to help you establish if coaching is right for you. You can contact Kate through FlexCareers here, and you can find out more about their practice, Flourishing Mothers, here.
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