#46: Choose Your Future

When embarking on a journey, it helps to know what direction to take, what to pack in your backpack and when to make the important first step. So how do we come up with right plan?

I listened to Dan Sullivan’s talk about the Freedom Cycle some time ago. The way he connected the future with the past and the present immediately made sense to me. It got me thinking about my own path in life.

I have since reflected on it, added a pinch of fool’s wisdom and customized my own version of the framework.

Choose your future.

Decide on your past.

Move now.

Today, I will cover the first step, which is about choosing your future. There will be more on the other two steps over course of the next two days.

The future hasn’t happened yet. Its outcome is uncertain, which is where your imagination comes in handy. It comes from the inside and hasn’t been imposed on you from an outside force. Your own imagination is actually your biggest limiting factor in choosing your future. What you can’t imagine isn’t real enough to aspire to.

Let yourself be guided by what you want, which immediately opens up a world of abundance, and not your needs. That would be the world of scarcity. It is easy to opt for abundance, isn’t it?

Now add the positive emotions that you recall from past life events. I am not talking about your victories and resulting successes. Instead, I want you to dig into the emotions you would love to relive. What emerges slowly but visibly is the picture of an imagined future with a set of associated positive emotions. That is worth striving for.

My future is a place where everyone contributes who they are and what they have got. People care for each other and the world around them. The question is not «what’s in it for me?» but «what can I contribute to positive change?». I see my role in bringing people together and creating a shared sense of possibility. The emotions I associate with such place are joy, love, trust and optimism.

I have been there before. I already experienced my future in moments of the past. All I want is more of the same going forward.

I can imagine it.

I know what it feels like.

Most importantly, my chosen future forms part of my new story.

The story I tell myself and others. Whoever wants to hear it.

Me becoming the narrator of my own story.

Blurring the line between reality and fiction, the past and the future.

Welcome to my story.