Future Forecasting

Last week, I had 21 of my clients do this exercise and provide feedback. Although some were reluctant to do it, in the end they found it incredibly valuable. Some of the words they used were: Grounding. Inspiring. Eye-Opening. Made-me-cry, in a good way. Transforming.

Did you know that putting something in writing increases the chances of it really happening by 37%?

Go ahead and copy and paste, or print it out. Have fun with it, and most importantly, go for the life you want!

TheLast Year's Life Lessons

Read This Carefully! This is a different approach and is not really “goal setting”. 

Write the answers to the following questions in the past or present tense – as if you had completed them by the end of 2017:

(i) What I Accomplished

1. A particularly satisfying achievement that I’m proud of this year was …

2. What wasn’t on my list last year but was this year was … 

3. I loved acquiring this skill and/or getting back into this hobby … It brought me joy because …

4. A dream or big goal that I realized this year was …

5. The risky, generous acts I accomplished this year were … 

6. The obstacles I overcame this year were …

7. My single biggest business building success this year was …

(ii) What I Learned

8. Imagine your future self 20 years out looking back at the habits you have today, having experienced two more decades of accumulated impact from those habits. What would your future self appreciate about your habits? 

What would (s)he beg and plead with you to change?

9. New or different beliefs and behaviors I adopted were …

10. The biggest challenge I handled this year was …

11. What I said NO to this year was …

(iii) What Experiences I Had

12. What I created time for this year was …

13. A daily spiritual practice I am grateful I made time for this year was …

14. How I took better care of my body/health this year was … 

15. A new place I thoroughly enjoyed discovering/exploring was …

16. I finally made time this year for … One way I held myself accountable was to …

17. One way I contributed/gave back this year was to …

18. What really added joy to my life and well-being this year was …

(iv) What Relationships I Nurtured

19. Current relationships I chose to nurture this year were … 

20. New relationships I chose to nurture this year were … 

21. The relationships I chose to let go of this year were … 

22. I am so glad I got to meet ... They really impacted me by ...

(v) Interesting Questions

23. My “What Scares Me” list this year included … 

24. The difficult questions I answered this year were … 

25. What was missing from my life last year? How did I keep it out? And how I did I make time for it this year? 

Geraldine Anathan, Inner Guru Coaching www.innergurucoaching.com