Future Me
I’ve been staring at my cursor for a while. This is tough.
Last week, I wrote about the “Inspiration List.” This week, I planned on sharing a helpful next step for Leaping: envisioning your “Future Me.”
But I’ve recently received news that my dad is really ill, and it’s been hard to think about the future. Things seem bleak. I’m actually posting this note while making an unplanned trip home to see him and my family. I’m nervous, sad, and kind of scared.
What in the world should I share today??
But if there was ever a time to encourage you to envision your future, it’s now – when life seems especially short and valuable.
It’s easy to get caught up in daily routines and usual rhythms. Every so often, you need to be jolted out of those regularities in order to re-calibrate and make sure you’re heading in the right direction.
What do you really hope to know? Feel? Do? And, are you spending your days getting there?
Future Me is your chance to answer those questions before you Leap. It’s a way to place the sketches of yourself on paper. As you design your Leap, it will offer a different sort of motivation – not just inspiration for why you’re starting, but direction for where you’re going.
Keep in mind a few things:
- Drawing can be helpful as you envision your future. There is a lot of research about how sketches help you think differently, generate a variety of ideas quickly, and foster deeper discussion with your community. Don’t worry about being perfect. As you can see in my own images below, anything goes. These are yours.
- Try timing yourself so that you focus, but don’t over-think it. In the Field Guide, we suggest that you set a timer for 15 minutes and write/sketch anything and everything that comes to mind. The more the merrier.
- At the end of those 15 minutes, pick the most important ones, the ones that seem most true to you, and attach them to your Map.
- If you need help getting started, try finishing any one the following sentences:
Know:
A topic or industry I hope to know more about is…
Someday, I hope to be able to teach or write about…
Do:
A group/team that I’d like to work with is… (Imagine what they’re doing, and the role you’d play on that team)
Someday, I will have created or made…
Feel:
In the future, people will describe me as more…
I will describe myself as…
Here’s a glimpse of a few things I envision myself doing in the future.
Alright, your turn…
