How we change what others think, feel, believe and do

Future Focus

Techniques > Willpower > Doing > Future Focus

Description | Example | Discussion | See also

Description

When you are trying to do something you know you should do and are finding difficulty starting out or sticking to it, turn your attention to the future.

Think about the outcomes that you want. Stand there in the future. Notice how good it feels to have persisted and achieved what you wanted to achieve. See other people respecting and congratulating you. Look back towards now and examine the steps you took to get where you are. See how determined you are and how you overcome obstacles, both inner and outer.

Then return to now and look out into that future. See what you will do today, tomorrow and each day as far as you need to see. Feel the motivation and drive that is already propelling you forward. Realize that this is now an inevitable path.

Example

A person wants to get out of their dull job and into a more interesting place. They imagine a future where they are running their own delivery business. Looking back from that future, they see all the difficulties in setting up and staying in business. And they see their persistence and amazing willpower, realizing that they can do it. So they do.

A teenager who is not working well at school has a conversation with a parent who talks about their possible future, painting it brightly and powerfully. They then look back together, with the teenager talking about each step, getting back to tonight's homework. Seeing the connection now the teenager sets to work with a new will.

Discussion

We are so often anchored in the present and dragged back by the past that we do not focus enough on what may be and what we want to happen. By taking time to really have a good look at the future and what it can bring, the vision of possibility can become like a magnet, pulling us forward.

While a vision of the future can be very helpful, it can be made more powerful by connecting the desirable future with the present, particularly looking at times when willpower is needed and used. When a person sees themself, perhaps as in a movie, they begin to experience in anticipation what it is like to use the will to overcome obstacles and drive oneself forward. That imagined scene, especially if made to seem very real, then appears like a 'memory of the future', giving confidence in the way a real memory can do.

See also

Memory