Why do future possibilities open your mind?

Originally published 26 November 2013

My headmistress at school used to say ‘If you can imagine yourself achieving something you probably will’. It sort of stuck with me over the years and has led to some bold choices in my life.

Recently I’ve been spending some time working with scenarios – a way in which businesses create possibilities of how the future might transpire that open our minds to notice the little pockets of the future that are already here. And, in doing so, set ourselves up to make better decisions, earlier decisions. To seize opportunities that make a business stand out.

There’s a sound psychological grounding behind this type of scenario planning work. Our minds are bombarded with millions of bits of information every second. To cope we filter, delete, generalise – mostly based on our current paradigm of the world. We’ve all experienced this – if you start thinking about buying a red car, they suddenly seem to be everywhere. Your mind now knows this is relevant data and notices it.

And I wonder if this is why it works at a personal level too. As Vita Sackville West explored in All Passion Spent, looking into our present and past to see who we really are, what our purpose is, is often obscured by our experiences and memories. We don’t always see the glimpses of who we can be nor spot the chances to be that person. Yet when we create stories of the possibilities for our future it puts us in a place to notice what we have now that could lead us to create that future.

What stories of possibilities for your future do you have?