How to predict your future

"The best way to predict your future is to create it" Abraham Lincoln. Read on to get some ideas for to predict your future by creating your Personal Vision Statement. It will take a little time and a lot of imagination. All of my clients who have completed this exercise have had lots of fun with it and you can too!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• paper
• pen
• large piece of cardboard
• old magazines
• scissors
• glue
• coloured markers
• your imagination

1. Set aside some time for yourself in a place where you won't be interrupted for at least half an hour. Make an appointment with yourself in your diary if you have to. Remember scheduling it makes it real and an appointment that you need to keep just like any other appointment in your diary.
2. Decide which method you will use to create your Personal Vision Statement, Letter from the Future and/or Vision Board. See tips for both of these methods below. Prepare the materials you will need.
3. Create an ambience that will stimulate creativity with music, pictures, candles or scents. Make sure your environment is safe, private and quiet.
4. Choose a date in the future, one year from now is a good start, or perhaps a special date like a birthday or anniversary. This will be the end date for your Personal Vision Statement. You are beginning with the end in mind.
5. Start imagining what you want in your life, what you want to create, where you want to be, and what you want to be doing. Utilise all of your five senses so imagine what you are seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.
6. Start writing. Go for it, be creative and imaginative and have lots of fun with it. Create a picture of the ideal life you want to live knowing there are no obstacles in your way.

Tips & Warnings

• A vision statement is a picture of what you want your life to look like in a designated time frame, whether it is a year from now to ten years from now. It represents a dream that is beyond what you think is possible and it takes you beyond the present. It’s a road map of your future and outlines the direction you are headed.
• A vision statement can take many forms. It can be written down on a piece of paper, it can be a collage of pictures and words on a piece of cardboard, it can be an audio or visual recording you have made of a collection of images and/or sounds.
• Just like a street directory clarifies the direction in which you need to drive your car to get to your desired location, a vision statement clarifies the direction in which you need to move to get to your ideal place in life. It is like beginning with the end in mind - if you know where you are going you will be able to get to your destination much more quickly and easily. Would you try getting to a location you have never been before without a street directory?
• Letter from the future You will need a blank piece of lined paper and a pen. The letter from the future is a letter that you write to yourself one year from now (or the special date you chose). You write a letter outlining all that is happening in your life. Write it in the present tense as is it is happening in your dream life. Be as descriptive as you can.
• Vision Board You will need a big piece of cardboard, scissors, glue, coloured pencils and old magazines. Using pictures, letters and words from the old magazines cut them out and glue them on the cardboard to represent your dream life.
• Whichever method you choose to create your personal vision, put it somewhere you can see it daily and use it as a constant reminder of where you are going. You can review it on your special date and reflect on all that you have achieved in that time.
• Vision statements create a vivid image in your head that will provoke emotion and excitement. It creates enthusiasm and poses a challenge that inspires you to take action, achieve yours goals and move forward.