The biggest reaction I had once I got to this exercise was “Wait… where is the action items? Where is the strategy?”. If you were paying attention, Vision Day isn’t at all about strategy or implementation. It is about intention and clarity.
Finally, we have arrived to the future!
The biggest reaction I had once I got to this exercise was “Wait… where is the action items? Where is the strategy?”. If you were paying attention, Vision Day isn’t at all about strategy or implementation. It is about intention and clarity so that when it comes time to act, you are putting effort toward things that have high impact where it matters, rather than blindly following what culture or your gut tells you.
Once you have reflected on the past, took inventory of the present, and asked what you want in the future, then you are fully equipped to start strategizing on what it takes to have a growth year.
If you haven’t read my introduction to what vision day is, read the intro post here.
Here are the two previous parts as well:
It isn’t required to read either of these first, but important to do first if you are following along in the exercise.
The future exercise has two parts:
- Future Projection: Write a narrative of where you are a year from now if everything went according to plan
- Theme Extraction: What is the theme throughout your narrative that you can extract?
At the end of this entire exercise, you should have a theme you can rally around that will drive you toward your goals and toward your ideal life one year from now.
You can follow the guided meditation on the Vision Day Replay as well.
Here we go!
Future Projection
The future projection exercise is just meant to be a stream of consciousness exercise. The idea is to really get you to think about what you want and what you want your life to look like.
Rather than dealing in abstracts like “I want to be healthier” it goes to the heart of the issue. It looks at the transformations you are actually seeking as a result of being healthier, such as “I want to be able to hike Mt. Tam”.
Imagine your ideal self one year into the future. Go forward from this exact moment in time and imagine everything you wanted to happen, did happen. Really go into depth into what you look like, who are you with, what are you doing, etc. Explore who you are a year from now and just start writing about yourself from the perspective of your future self, so everything you want to happen is in past tense because it DID already happen.
I recommend following along in the replay, but I’ll drop my own projection below as an example.
One Year From Now: My Future
I am more confident in my risk taking now and have started a few side projects in an effort to generate income outside of just consulting. One of them even turned a bit of profit! My consulting career is still going strong as well and I’ve expanded my expertise to keep it interesting. I’ve even hired a part time personal assistant to help deal with the day to day operations of my business and social life. My work is still remote and it allows me to travel as needed.
I have little debt and my income has broken 150k/yr. I’ve been funding my retirement consistently and have saved enough liquid cash go without money for 3 months.
I had a few months of fun dates until I found a beautiful, fun, intelligent women who I travel and explore with. She has a healthy balance of career, social life, and hobbies. We do a lot of stuff together, but make it a point to maintain some autonomy too. We are silly together and maybe just a bit childish at times. She helps me plan social events so we keep busy. We don’t live together, but we have talked about the possibility of moving in together in the future.
Once I found my girlfriend, it became easier to focus on my health. We are accountability partners and make sure we are on track for healthy decisions. I was already losing weight and becoming more fit before I met her, but afterward it became a more enjoyable routine to go with her to a class or for a hike. She’s even taken up dancing with me! It wasn’t a struggle anymore to get in activity.
I am not in perfect health yet, but I am making good strides and recognize I’ve come a long way. My positive outlook also helps my emotional health a ton: I no longer feel less than or lonely. I am more confident overall and my friends have noticed how much better I feel. Without the negativity weighing me down, many of my relationships have improved.
I’ve taken steps to get a little closer to my brother and sister, made visits to Visalia, South Bay, and Phoenix regularly. Because my emotional health is in a better place, the tension that existed in some of my familial ties is less strenuous now. I’ve also gotten closer to a few of my cousins by chatting with them more and visiting them.
I still make it a point to spend time with friends here in California and abroad. My improved emotional state has had the side benefit of becoming closer with friends and in the past year we’ve take a few trips together or met up with them abroad. I really continued to work to maintain strong social ties.
The biggest change was in some new friends I made. I found a group that really enjoys traveling, most of which live a digital nomadic lifestyle. Among them, I forged bonds with a few that are a bit more entrepreneurial and they are the ones that pushed me to start a few more projects and gave me confidence to pursue multiple income streams. They’ve become a big support when I am traveling and in my career.
Theme Ideas: Runner-ups
After going through that exercise, I re-read the narrative a few times and extracted a few themes I saw throughout. Here are a few ideas I had:
Year of Love and Adventure
A lot of the above narrative is around my future girlfriend and traveling, which makes sense since it combines some of my favorite activities and improvement in an area I really wanted to work on: intimate relationships.
Love in general goes beyond just intimate relationships though, it extends to all relationships, which is ultimately probably the most important category to me.
Year of Courage
2018 was very characterized by fear, loneliness, and scarcity. In opposition to that, this narrative tells a story of courage: following ideas, venturing out, pushing boundaries, etc.
So I thought maybe naming the year the “Year of Courage” would be appropriate.
Year of Stability
I initially wrote this down because when I read sections around my intimate relationship, it felt stable and felt overall nice. Many people talk about stepping outside your comfort zone, and I think that is necessary. At the same time, sometimes you need stability in one area to get truly risky in others.
So I imagined 2019 being the year of building that stable foundation before using it to launch into a powerful and bold 2020.
Year of Strength
Similar to courage, a common theme I saw throughout the narrative was strength or grit. But this somehow felt generic and uninspiring since I closely associated it with physical health and not anything else. I wanted something that was more aligned with more important areas of my life.
After iterating on this a bit though, I eventually came to the theme I chose below that really captures what I was looking for.
2019: The Year of Fortitude
I ended up picking this theme because it really encapsulates a lot of the themes above and more. I liked it because it comes from courage in the face of adversarial forces and evokes emotions of endurance and power that resonate with me.
The reason I chose fortitude over something more drastic or evolutionary is around the meaning of it: inner strength. I don’t feel I need to completely change who I am – I mostly love who I am. What I do think needs to happen is a strengthening of certain areas and build upon what I’m already good at.
A few examples might be:
- Be bold with love and intimacy – take risks
- Show grit when it comes to health and fitness
- Have the tenacity to chase a work style that works for you
- Be fearless when it comes to entrepreneurship, ideas, and failing
- Fortify relationships with Family, Friends, and my Network
- Persevere though external pressure and self-doubt
What’s Next?
Now that we have a theme, an idea of areas we’d like to improve, and armed with highlights and lowlights from last year, its time to get strategic with the upcoming year.
The next post will be much more concrete and action-oriented in how we want to approach the first quarter of the year.
When it is available, you’ll be able to check it out here:
Vision Day: 2019 Q1 Strategy: Coming Soon!
In case you landed here first, this is part of a larger series.
Thanks for reading!
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