Today I talked to my dear friend Lainie. We have been friends since kindergarten, and she is one of my dearest people.

We were catching up on many areas of life—work, love, business, and personal growth—and she mentioned the power of painting a crystal clear picture of the future so that a new future can actualize.

Her words reminded me of one of the most powerful aspects of the Being a Leader course I did in Kenya: creating a future and standing in that future to inform action and inspire integrity.

Here’s what that means:

We all have a past, yes? We have a collection of experiences that come together to make us who we are today. We take actions consistent with who we think we are, and we often create future goals that are an extension of our past. This is normal for the human brain, and all human beings are prone to do it.

But Landmark says: Hold up. It’s actually not our pasts that make us who we are today. It is our future that makes us who we are. It is our future that gives us being in the present.

Say what?

They give us this example:

You’re at your office. It’s Friday morning. You have TONS of work to do before you leave for the day, but you have a plane ticket to go to Hawaii, and you leave tomorrow morning. How are you? You’re excited, happy, and even relaxed. You’re at work. You have tons to do. But you’re excited, happy, and free. You have Hawaii in your future.

Fast forward 6 days. You’re on the beach in Hawaii. You have one of those little drinks with an umbrella in it. The sun is shining, the scenery is beautiful, and you still have a full afternoon of fun on the island. However, you have a plane ticket that’s taking you back to the fluorescent lights and business of the office, and you leave in the morning. How are you? You’re sad and disappointed. You’re in Hawaii, but you’re totally poo-faced (ok, poo-faced is my term). Your office is your future.

Who you are today, right now, in this moment, Landmark says, has nothing to do with your past, but instead the future you’re living into. The future of your mind’s eye actually contributes to how you feel, what you think, and what actions you take today.

 So why does it look like the past? Landmark asks. It looks like the past because the past is not in the past where it belongs, it’s in the future.

 We project our experiences of the past into our future, and our future becomes mired in and designed by the past. Our lives—the collective of our feelings, thinking, and acting—begin to look eerily like the past, even if they are slightly better versions of them.

And that’s crazy, yo!

There is so much more possible for us as human beings. We can be exactly who we create ourselves to be, and we can align our actions and integrity with our created selves. Lovely, eh?

This weekend, I’ll be creating futures for myself in numerous areas. I’ll share them next week and also give you some tips for creating your own!

Until then!

In love and liminality,

Annie Rose