Thinking About the Future Helps Us Live Well Today
End of the year planning and plotting and future casting.
I love the end of the year planning and plotting for the months ahead. It’s a good time to step back, enjoy our successes, make peace with our setbacks and determine who we are now and how we will live going forward.
A few weeks ago, I interviewed Veronica Llorca-Smith on the Simply Write w/Polly Podcast and she talked about the importance for writers to know their brand, to identify what they want to be known for.
I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately, on a personal and professional level. What do I want to be known for? I don’t care much about the grand, history-making events that we read about long after people are gone. But what do I want to be known for now, while I’m alive?
I’m thinking about the small moves we make every day to live well. To be kind and compassionate. To do our best. To love well and laugh often and grow and explore our lives and ourselves. To be resilient.
What do you want to be known for? How do you want to live today?
We don’t have to wait until the end of our lives to start thinking about the mark we want to leave on the world. Legacy is about how we choose to live right now. It’s about how we approach our relationships and our goals. It’s how we take care of ourselves, the energy we give and the daily actions we take–during good times and bad—to work hard, love well, create.
How do you show up? And is that how you want to?
Setting Your Own Future
This is about intentional living. To move with self-awareness, optimism, compassion. To be deliberate in how we connect with others and offer grace and compassion to ourselves and the people we encounter.
One way I like to start thinking about this is called “future casting." It’s not just about thinking ahead— it’s about acting ahead.
Future casting requires us to imagine the future we want and work backward from that end goal to figure out what steps we need to take to get there. Think of it like creating a roadmap: You set your destination and then map out the route that will get you there. The key here is to be proactive, not reactive. Rather than just hoping things will turn out a certain way, you get intentional about it.
Here’s how you can use future casting to start living the legacy you want:
1. Envision Your Future Legacy – Take some quiet time to really imagine what you want to be known for. What qualities do you want people to remember you for? How do you want to have impacted the lives of others? Dream big.
2. Identify the Steps – Once you have that vision, break it down into practical, actionable steps. What can you do today to start moving closer to that future? Start with small, daily actions that align with your desired outcome. It could be as simple as being more kind, taking better care of your health, or taking more initiative at work.
3. Anticipate Challenges – Now, look ahead to the obstacles you’re likely to encounter on your way, and consider how you’ll deal with them. Knowing what might trip you up will help you stay focused and keep going.
4. Track Your Progress – Future casting isn’t a one-time activity; it’s a living, breathing process. Revisit your vision often and check in with yourself. Are the actions you’re taking getting you closer to your desired future? If not, get creative and adapt.
It’s fun to think about what’s possible and empowering to get clear on who we are and what we want to be known for. To take stock of our values and things we want to improve.
It’s not uncommon for us to outgrow our values, or change our goals. Life is fluid. But it’s worth knowing what your values are, what you care about, and what your goals are so that you can live close to those things. When we behave in alignment with our values, we feel more satisfied and begin living our legacy today.
Be well, friends,
-p
