Take yourself into the future. You’re 80. It’s your birthday and you are spending it in a place you love with the people that you love, doing what you love.
During the day you take a quiet moment to reflect on your life and in particular your life from 2023 when you started to really design a life for yourself that you loved.
Close your eyes for a moment and imagine yourself there. Open your eyes and start writing:
Where are you?
Is anyone else there, if so, who?
What can you see?
What can you hear?
What can you smell?
You look back on your life with such gratitude for all that you have lived through and all that you have experienced and been able to achieve in your life, particularly since 2023 when you began to flourish more than ever before.
Looking back on your life what are you most proud of?
What was your life filled with that made you so happy?
What were the places you lived in?
What were your homes like?
What did you spend your days doing?
What did you love about the work that you did?
When you weren’t working, what did you spend your time doing?
What were some of the adventures and travels you went on?
What dreams did you make happen?
What has your approach to your career been that has made it such a success?
What has your approach to your life been that has brought you so much happiness?
Finally, looking back all those years ago to yourself as you were in 2023...
What words of encouragement would you like to give to yourself as you embark on making positive changes to your life and work?
Take a trip into the future and look back on the dream life you've lived since 2023...
DREAMING
Back to the Future
This is an exercise that I have been giving clients for over fourteen years, to do when they first embark on a coaching journey with me. If you are someone who loves to imagine the future, this will be one for you. If you're more into the here and now, Your Year of Freedom will be a better one for you
Congratulations! You have just won a year's worth of your salary so that you can take 12 months off and spend a whole year doing whatever you want!
You could go on holiday, go travelling, have a go at living in another country, learn something new, try out a business idea, go volunteering...the choice is yours!
Your year of freedom, starts in 3 months. So let’s plan what you’re going to do in those 12 months.
What would you love to do in those 12 months?
What simple activities would you choose to spend your time doing? (reading, walking, swimming, cooking, writing etc)
Is there anything that you would STOP doing?
Who are the people you would choose to spend time with?
Who/What places would you like to visit?
Would you stay where you are or would you try out living somewhere different?
Would you like to spend some of your year learning something new? If so, what?
Is there a business idea or creative project you’d like to have a go at?
Would you like to work on transforming an area of your life? If so what area(s)
Now take a look at those answers and answer the following:
What in that Year of Freedom plan would you love to turn into a reality now in your life?
What can you do to make that happen or start to make that happen this week?
What specific steps can you schedule into your calendar to make sure you do that?
Whoop! Now off you go and start bringing that dream to life!
What would you do if you were given your salary for a year and told not to work?
DREAMING
Your Year of Freedom
This is an exercise that I have been giving clients for over fourteen years, to do when they first embark on a coaching journey with me. It helps you to tap into what it is you really want to do in life if you're feeling stuck.
Imagine your dream life in the future. You can choose to dream of your life 1, 3, 5, 20 years from now - whatever feels right for you.
Close your eyes for a few moments and take a few deep breaths to settle into that dream life. Start with the part of your dream life you are most clear on: that might be what your career or business looks like, what your home-life looks like, the relationship you're in or where you live in the world.
Start there and work your way out, describing each area of your life, using the prompts below as a guide.
As you travel into your dream life in the future, where do you find yourself?
What are you wearing?
What is going on around you?
What can you hear?
What can you smell?
How do you feel?
Where do you live?
What does your home look like?
You love how you spend your days: what are the activities involved in your day to day that you love?
Who are the most important people in your life (this can be friends, family, colleagues, community)
You spend time with those people doing things you love: what are those things?
What do you get up to in your spare time that you love?
What do you love about this dream life of yours?
When you compare this future dream life of yours with your life today, what are the biggest differences that you can see?
What does that tell you about the areas of your life that need your attention?
What changes can you see you need to make in your life, starting today, to make sure that that future dream life of yours can become your reality?
What is a first step you can take THIS WEEK to take a big step towards that dream life?
Imagine we can see into the future. Everything you dream of now has come true. What does that dream life look like?...
DREAMING
My Dream Life
This is a great exercise if you love to imagine into the future and dream of things that don't yet exist. It helps you to get into the detail of what that dream life looks like. The clearer we are on what we want, the easier it is to design that life.
(If you don't find that easy, don't stress - some personality types simply aren't future-trippers - Your Year of Freedom might work better for you
a great exercise to do next is the planning your project exercise that helps you to turn your dreams into reality, one project at a time
Imagine you are living your future dream life and opening up your journal to take a moment to reflect on all that you are grateful for. Write down three things, in the present tense, that you are grateful for in this future dream life of yours.
Practicing gratitude for the things you dream of having in your life (as if you already have them)
DREAMING
My Future Gratitude List
The power of this exercise is that it has you practicing gratitude for things you hope to have in the future, as if they already existed...
If you have no idea of what your future dream life would look like, come and do the My Dream Life exercise over here
I'm grateful for...
Read these back out to yourself regularly so that they start to feel more and more familiar. The more familiar they feel, the more possible they will start to feel and the more possible they feel, the more likely they will come true ✨