It all started on a gray afternoon in Minnesota…

A few weekends ago, I got the opportunity to go on a retreat with my boss. I was honestly pretty skeptical at first. I thought the weekend would be full of “Do this, not that... Follow your dreams... Just do it…” without any concrete steps to actually do anything. Sure, I thought talking through things could be helpful, but I was expecting to come out the other side with what I went into it with.

I was so wrong.

I actually loved the weekend, starting from the very first night. I teared up several times over the course of the few days. I learned a ton about myself. I had to live with a roommate (no one will ever top you, though, third-year college roommate 😘). I had yummy food. I gained the most clarity that I’ve ever felt about my professional future.

The exercise I’m sharing here is from The Designing Your Life Workbook by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, and all credit goes to them.

The Plan for Making the Plans

Basically, you’re allowing yourself to have a bit of fun and be creative with what the next five years could look like. I picked a specific domain of life (work) to focus on. You could try to map out everything, but I think it may be more effective to focus on one domain at a time (i.e. work versus personal life).

5Draw three diagrams like so (sans doodles I found on Canva):

Set a timer for ten minutes and fill out ALL of the plans. Don’t think too hard about it.

• Plan #1: What do the next five years look like if I continue down the path I’m on?

• Plan #2: What if Plan #1 could no longer exist?

• Plan #3: What if I had unlimited money?

After ten minutes, take some time to reflect on what you’ve written or drawn down. Are there similarities between all plans? Big differences? What keeps you going in each?

When I did this, I found that I kind of ended up in the same place in all three plans. I want to travel and eat good food, stay connected with nature in different ways (yay, growing up in a tree company family has its charms), and just make things. I discovered my theme for the weekend was creativity. In all three plans, I find some sort of happiness and satisfaction in making tangible things for myself and others.

I wouldn’t be surprised if your three plans look completely different from one another, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if there was a common theme in each.

Long story short, I would highly recommend trying this exercise.

Seriously, like right now. Yes, you. Go find a pen and piece of paper like your life depends on it. Well, maybe after you finish the blog.

Say [email protected] to tell me how it went!

So what else happened?

I had coffee. I walked around. I didn’t touch my computer once. I kept my Duolingo streak. I figured out what I want to do with my life at this point in time (for the most part, life is always subject to change).

How does making plans slow time down?

I’m not counting on this singular exercise to make or break my future. I know that we can’t predict the future and that many things are out of our control. However, when I say making these plans revealed something about myself that I had never known, I mean it. It may be the same for you, it may not. It doesn’t hurt to try.

By allowing yourself to theorize about the future and think about what you would do if money was no object, you’re giving yourself a breather. You get a break from the present you to think about the future you. You’re also giving your present you a rough outline on how to get to where you want.

Give yourself those ten minutes to slow time down and live in the future. Give yourself permission to do what you can to make that future happen. Give yourself permission to put some goals on the sidelines for right now. Make the future you want, and give yourself grace when life just happens and you can’t do anything about it.

Okay, enough with the philosophical Ana. I expect several emails/facetime calls/text messages/comments by the end of this week on what you thought about this exercise 😘 

Until next week, stay green, stay clean, and go touch grass. Stay tuned for my thoughts and stories surrounding getting outside.