My background is in Engineering. I know how to get stuff done. I build a structure based on what I know to get to a result I know is possible by using the tools I know, am familiar with, or that I know exist and are accessible to me. I am good at it. I have made a good living at that kind of problem solving for a long time.

The only trouble is, this way of doing things is not the way to write an adventure story.

“Our bold hero saw the chasm ahead, and doing some quick calculations went to the store and assembled readily-available components into a serviceable, sturdy ladder that carried he and his companions off to safety.” I don’t know about you, but I do not think it would sell many copies.

An adventure needs a goal, the larger and more dramatically unattainable the better. An unpredictable goal. The kind of goal that a linear mind cannot grasp. Let’s say, for sake of example, you want to get on stage in front of 1,000 total strangers and run a transformational seminar. Just saying. Let’s say you want to do it next year.

You could start from now and see what venue you could book, start writing what you are going to say, figure out how the hell you are going to market it. Who you need to talk to, persuade, cajole. You know – do all the things you know to do right now that might just create that result. You could get really busy. It might work.

Let’s say – you want to do it in March next year.

Damn – that means working even harder. I will have to…

I could continue this, however overwhelm, ‘This is f***** impossible.’, drama, tantrums, burn-out are waiting close by. You might get to the result. By March?

Re-imagining

It is a really natural human thing to do; to get somewhere, start from where you are. That leads to using the tools you know how to use to create the future you want. The trouble is, any future that is accessible in that way tends to be a predictable extension of the present. That is generally what we humans play for. With a BIG goal, this needs some tweaking.

Imagine the amazing future you want is a hundred feet up in the air. You could jump, you could grab a ladder – but you still will not be even close. You can go grab all the furniture you can find and pile it up, and then climb up the pile. You might get some of the way, however that pile is mighty precarious… You could go grab some scaffold and make a pile of everything you can find and the scaffolding to get you closer. A hundred feet? Perhaps you make it a good way towards it before the pile beneath you gives way and you slide back down towards the ground. ‘Hmmm…’ you think, ‘this might take a little longer than I thought.’. You try again. Or you choose another goal that is a little lower, or is on the ground close by and leave this one, concluding it is not for you.

There is another way.

Inhabiting the Vision

Imagine what it is you want – your future vision. Really create it. Look at it as vividly as you can; the sounds, the voices, smells. Your body, how you feel. How you are holding yourself and talking. What are the conversations you have in this space. Who is there? What do they look like. What does it taste like? Is it warm outside? What is it like to tread out onto the stage, into the bright lights. To hear the audience applauding, then you silencing them with a wave on your hand, crying out; “Hold on! I have not said anything yet!”, inviting laughter and further clapping before you begin…

Hold it. Practice imagining it. Create it in your mind as real as you can. You are now inhabiting your future. You are also a hundred feet in the air.

The thing is, ‘now’ down below does not look like where you are. You have an integrity issue to deal with; bringing your circumstances into alignment with the future you are inhabiting. The ground needs to come up to meet you.

From the future, a hundred feet in the air, you kick a rolled-up rope-ladder over the edge. It descends and unwinds, with the last rung appearing just five feet off the ground. You call to your present self to grab the rung and start climbing…

I have missed a step about your future-self building that ladder. For the next post…

TO BE CONTINUED…