What did you want to be when you grew up? Think back to when you were a child or adolescent. How did you imagine your life when you were an adult? Where did you think you would live and work? What type of family would you have? How did you predict you would spend your time?
How well does your current life match those dreams? If you could talk to that child now, yourself at ten or twenty years old, what would you want to tell yourself? Would you have listened to your older selves when you were young? Probably, not. I don’t think I would have. Now, however, I am sure most of us would welcome some insight from our older selves. How will everything turn out?
There is an exercise I have done with many of my coaching clients in which I lead them through a visualization of their future self. They imagine having a conversation with themselves twenty years into the future. Through this exercise, my clients realize what is really important to them and what will make them happy in the future.
You can imagine your future self as well. Imagine you are at a family gathering or community event held in honor of you. What will you want your list of accomplishments to be? What will you want those who know and love you to hold in their hearts about you? Then imagine yourself on a regular day ten to twenty years in the future. Where are you and what is making you happy? Who are you with and what are you doing?
Only by knowing where you want to be can you start moving in that direction. What do you need to start doing now for your emotional, physical and financial health long into the future?
Karnia Coaching 