I used to ask my clients where they see themselves in 5-10 years. I stopped asking this question
because I now find it irrelevant and generally unhelpful for the vast majority of people.
I don't believe in perfect predictability. What if something changes? What if you reach your goals more quickly? What if you change course? Have you failed? For me, a 5-10 year plan feels quite rigid. I don’t want to limit people.
What I have found more helpful in my practice (and in my own life) is a classic exercise; it still works and is unchanged after many years because it works so well.
I have now replaced the question “Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?” with “Tell me about your perfect day.”
Your perfect day.
But, one, single, solitary day cannot possibly give you any insight into your future… or can it?
Here is how the “Perfect Day” exercise goes. You think about what you want a day in your life to look like. You don’t put your focus on the how or the when. Instead, you focus on the what.
Write about the perfect day. Visualize this perfect day. You can even play around with your brain a little bit because our brain doesn’t realize if this is a real experience or an imagined one. We can rely on its ability to look for and find patterns.
You can also customize this experience. For example, a client of mine mentioned that she actually has extremely different expectations from her working days and weekends. She wants to see her weekend differently and so we separated the two and she identified her ideal days for each.
Another client shared she was in the process of using this exercise. She was looking around and stumbled on a chair and she immediately had the thought: This chair is a part of my perfect day. I asked her whether she had a picture of this chair and we created a folder with this picture. All of this helps increase the effect from this visualization work.
The beauty of this exercise? You don’t have to wait 5-10 years to get what you want. You already have some things from this day in your current day. By looking at these things you can complete this picture in your head.
But, writing and visualizing are not the end. They are merely the beginning. The real exercise is when you regularly read what you have written about your perfect day. This enables you to frequently remind yourself about your vision, purpose and reason. And, this imagined day is organic and flexible and always relevant. If something changes in your life, you can change your day.
This is your instrument to play.
I, personally, like this exercise because it helps me - and my clients - to navigate through uncertainty and complexity. There is a comfortability and an ease in thinking about the future in this way. It helps you stay motivated and encouraged.
So, to the question “Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?” you now have an answer... living out my perfect day!
Try your own Perfect Day exercise. What do you learn? What surprises you? What’s something you can change today to help get you one step closer?
P.S. Click HERE is you want to get some tips and questions from me to create you OWN PERFECT DAY