The Future Store

Imagine walking into a store with a sign that says Your Future.

Inside are possibilities for your life: careers, homes, relationships, adventures, purchases, and qualities you could develop.

You can look at anything. You can pick it up, try it on, and put it in your cart.

You never have to check out.

That is the Future Store, an exercise I created while revisiting my own goals and vision.

It gives you a way to discover what you want without immediately requiring yourself to change your life.

Think of your future as something you can create within

Dan Sullivan taught me the idea that our future is our property.

Thinking of it that way gave me a sense of ownership.

I pictured land ahead of me that I could build on. It helped me think differently about my own power.

As I worked on my vision, I began imagining that property as a store.

If I could go in and choose, what would I want to have? What would I put in the bag?

The metaphor helped me get curious instead of only repeating goals I had already set.

Begin as the person you are now

You do not have to justify your desires to anyone in this exercise.

You do not have to base them on what you wanted in the past.

Ask whether you still want what is in your life now. What would you choose again? What might you leave on the shelf?

Do not make a previous choice into a permanent obligation to keep wanting it.

You can consider the possibility from the perspective of who you are today.

That does not mean you must abandon what you have. It means you can choose it consciously rather than assume it is the only option.

Give yourself room to reconsider the vision

When I recorded this episode, I was reflecting on my fiftieth year.

One change I was working through involved separating my personal vision from the vision of The Life Coach School.

When I began, the business was mostly me, so it made sense for the two visions to be the same.

As the company grew, that no longer seemed like the only way to approach it.

I wanted the School to have a vision that included the people who worked there and their values, separate from my personal goal.

That separation gave me room to think more deeply about what I wanted in my own life.

I was also exploring patience and time instead of always being in a hurry.

Reconsidering something that once worked does not mean it was wrong before. It may mean you are ready to look at the next version.

Look beyond the first few possibilities

Close your eyes and imagine yourself entering the store.

Look around before deciding what belongs in your future.

Many of us consider only three or four possibilities. I want you to consider hundreds.

Where could you live? What kind of home and lifestyle might you want? What adventures could you have? What kind of work or personal qualities could you explore?

Pick something up and consider it.

Does it feel like you? Does it fit? What do you like about it?

Spend time with the possibilities rather than rush to the first familiar answer.

You do not have to make it permanent

One thing that came up for me was a need to remain loyal to what I already had.

I would begin considering something new and then think about what I should do or what was already happening.

Remember that this is an exercise.

If you decide you would love to live on an island, you do not have to move to one.

You are learning about your own desires.

It is like trying on clothing. You can find out whether something feels comfortable and right without purchasing it.

You can also put something on layaway. A possibility may belong much further into the future rather than in your life today.

Do not mistake someone else's desire for yours

You may get the idea for an item from another person's life.

That is fine. But their enjoyment does not tell you whether you would enjoy it.

I can watch large groups having adventures together and see how wonderful it looks for them.

When I imagine myself surrounded by that many people all the time, I know it is not what I want.

I need to try the possibility on with me in it.

Do not fill your cart only by watching what other people buy. Ask what the experience feels like to you.

Notice identity pressure

You might pick up something that people do not associate with you.

That can create pressure to put it back.

When we moved to Texas, my son Christian wanted boots, a flannel shirt, and jeans from a Western store.

It did not match how we had seen him. We were surprised.

He knew it felt like him and embraced it anyway.

Other people may prefer you to stay familiar because sameness feels comfortable. A new possibility can make them uncertain.

Notice the emotion that comes up for you without using it as proof you should not want the thing.

You are allowed to learn what you want even if someone else has not pictured you that way.

Let the future be larger than the next year

How far ahead do you usually think?

A year? Two years? Ten?

There may be things in the store for the next twenty or thirty years, too.

For my own visioning, I considered the decade from fifty to sixty.

What did I want to create, accomplish, experience, and explore during that time?

A longer horizon gave me room for possibilities I might reject if I thought everything had to happen immediately.

Give yourself enough time to imagine something extraordinary.

If the store seems empty, stay curious

You may look around and feel blank.

Notice whether you are afraid to consider possibilities because of what they might mean for your current life.

Again, you do not need to make a change to explore.

You can look at every shelf without taking anything. You can put something in your cart without cashing out.

I recommend spending at least an hour with the exercise and making a list of the possibilities that appeal to you.

Compare that list with the life you already have. Notice what is the same and what is different.

Knowing is valuable even before doing

Not every available possibility belongs in your future.

I found many things I could have but did not actually want. That was useful to discover.

I also found possibilities I did want, and those were exciting to explore.

You do not have to do everything you desire. But knowing your desire gives you a different relationship with your life.

Walk through the store. Try things on. Allow the uncertainty and curiosity.

First, be willing to know what you want.