Future Vision

Start getting in touch with what you want in life in your free time.

By Hara Estroff Marano, published on November 16, 2002 - last reviewed on March 12, 2009

Here's how to start getting more of what you want in your life:

Decide to enjoy this process. Give yourself a space and carve out some time, 5 to 20 minutes, when you will not be disturbed and when you can explore your own imagination.
Remind yourself that you can't fail at this. The skills you need are already built into your brain. Your job is just to get to know what's already going on in your head, so you can direct it.
Knowing that you are going on a fun journey to visit a wonderful future, let yourself relax. Take three deep breaths, making it easy by inhaling and exhaling through your mouth. Imagine that it's a summer day and you're sitting in a comfortable chair in a beautiful place. Inhale, filling your chest and your belly, then just let the exhale simply fall out, and let go.
Recognize that about 70 percent of your brain's capacity is consumed by processing visual information. By closing your eyes you can free up brainpower for imagining, so gently close your eyes and take three more full, relaxing breaths.
Imagine or pretend that you are in a lovely spot in nature, looking out over a vast horizon where a wonderful future awaits you. Let yourself enjoy the feeling.
Is it close in or a long way off? Clear or fuzzy? If all you sense is darkness or fog, just pretend that what you want is on the other side of it, like the sun behind the clouds, and imagine leapfrogging to the bright future beyond the clouds.

Let your bright future come in closer, close enough for you to see yourself living a wonderful life. How does that feel? What do you sense? What do you see? Now imagine you were pulled right into that future by the fun and love, and, as emotionally and enthusiastically as you can, let yourself experience how it feels to live the life you really want.

As you do this, choose one moment in the future that is filled with the feelings of joy and love that you want. Keep it in mind so that when you finish the exercise, you can write about that moment. Keep those notes to refer to as you move ahead in your life.

Give yourself the gift of doing this visualization each day for the next two weeks, and watch what happens.