Think Yourself into Future Happiness

I want to discuss a topic that is a little bit esoteric – not many people really know what I mean when I speak of “future-thinking”, but I wanted to explain because it has helped me so much that I feel I must. I’m not talking about literally predicting the future, although if you work your plan well enough that’s pretty much how it turns out. I really mean that you should not only plan for the future, but mentally project yourself into the future, envisioning what your life will look like after you reach all of your major goals. Some people call this dreaming, but there’s a bit more to it than that.

In order to do that you must first have a list of goals, which I assume you already do. (If not, please make that list right away, it’s one of the most important things you’ll ever do to achieve success). Look at your list and then think about what it means to you – what are doing five, ten, twenty years from now? Where will you live, in a nice 5-bedroom home in a nearby-gated community? Or maybe in that mansion by the edge of town where the millionaires live? Who will be with you, the woman/man of your dreams? Your family, if you have one already? How happy will you all be? What kind of routine will you have, perhaps working from the house for a few hours a day, or maybe in a high-rise office building that can accommodate the most prestigious firms in the state? Also, are there things you definitely do not want to have in your life? We all have some things we wish we were rid of, make sure you rid yourself of them once and for all time.

All of these details must be made clear in your mind, in order to make “future-thinking” work for you. Not only must you think of these things in great detail, you must emotionalize them, get excited about them, every day or even several times a day if possible. These are you dreams! Make them come alive, make them as real as possible for you. Use your imagination to believe that these things are happening now in your world. Then once you are clear on your goals in detail, the next step is to put your detailed plan into action.

This is one step many seem to forget about, the action and how important it is. You can have the most creative, detailed, well thought out plan ever devised but if you don’t take action it is useless! So take that plan, and think about every little thing that you must do to make it work, every day. Even with my current plan I usually sit down several nights a week and review everything in my plan, and decide what is working and what isn’t. Am I on track to reach my goals? Some and not others, possibly? What do I need to do tomorrow, next week, next month to reach these goals. That is what you ought to be asking yourself every day. Make sure the actions you are taking are working, at least getting you in the right direction of your goals. If they aren’t, then make the necessary changes now, and take the next step. See if those changes work. If not, make some more alterations in your actions, then reassess again to make sure you are making progress. I’m sure you have heard the expression “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. That is how you must think, to take that long journey.

Just remember the goals that are in your future, if you can still keep those dreams alive every day they will feed your hunger for success and keep you motivated to continue. Think how fantastic your future will be! If you don’t get excited about that, you need to do some serious thinking about what your dreams mean to you, because they aren’t getting you very far.
I know you can do better! We all can, if we just look into the future and see how great it can be.

To your continued success and happiness!