3 Problems with Future Scripting
Future Scripting is a manifestation technique. Even if you haven’t heard of this exact method, you’ve probably tried it in some form or fashion at a point. This isn't a topic I'm passionate about, it's not one I know all that well, and maybe that makes it not the greatest first topic to write a blog post about. Or maybe it does? There's something to be said about being naive. Ignorant. Or, to put it a bit nicely "Beginner's Mindset." That's something the books on Buddhism talk about - approaching life (and meditation) with the curiosity and interest of a beginner. In the book The Alchemist - if I'm remembering correctly - this comes up, too. Maybe I should re-read that book. It's a good one, one I recommend to my uber drivers and pretty much everyone, when I think of it.
what is Future Scripting and why is it
so hard for me to do?
Future Scripting is a method of manifestation. A tool for mindfulness, for deliberate and strategic planning for your future life. Or so the freebies from happy-looking, seemingly-successful people online tell me.
Why is it so difficult for me?
If it's not clear from the first paragraph, focus is a struggle for me. I'm reminded of Michael Scott in The Office, “Sometimes I’ll start a sentence and I don’t know where it’s going. I just hope to find it somewhere along the way."
Here's the problem: My brain is convinced I'm doing it wrong. And not just Future Scripting... just about everything. Am I sitting correctly? Am I taking up too much space in this Starbucks? Am I wasting time by sitting here, typing about books I haven't read in years, and my problems with manifesting? When I could be out there, doing something important, something meaningful, something that makes SENSE right now. The problem is, I don't know what that important, meaningful, sensical thing is.
And I'm trying about everything I can to find it.
Going back to Buddhism:
My deep infatuation with fixing myself, my love affair with the Self Help section of every bookstore I enter, it's kind of problematic. At least according to the Buddhists. In meditation one of the key things is acceptance of yourself. Entering the meditation practice knowing that you're not doing this to change yourself. But it's kind of odd, isn't it? To take on these practices lauded for the efficacy in creating change, like journaling, mindfulness, or meditation... without the aim to actually change? It's a result of our achievement-oriented culture, I'm sure.
I guess the problem with Future Scripting is... I feel like there's an expectation to get it right. And in order to get it right, we have to know what's going to happen.
I'll be totally transparent here: I, for one, do NOT know what the future holds.
The idea of scripting it out then... it feels so unnatural, it just doesn't compute.
To use a metaphor I gave my husband yesterday —
Well, you should know I'm not a long-story-short person, so much as I am a long-story-long person.
I've been talking about reorganizing my office/desk space for about a week and decided it was time to do it. I picked up a stack of books to put back on the bookshelf, and in the process decided... while I'm here, I'll just go ahead and reorganize my entire bookshelf. By color. It should only take a minute.
I began organizing, and in a few minutes I was breathless. Standing up, bending over, sorting books by color and then carefully stacking them so they wouldn't topple, it took the breath out of me! I sat down surrounded by stacks of colorful pink and yellow and blue books. Thinking about my inhaler, my "constellation" of symptoms as my doctor recently described it, about asking Krisztian to get me a glass of water, or to finish this project I began and have run out of steam to finish... And I thought again of this idea of Help Yourself. Not entirely sure what all that might be just yet - the thoughts run together so fast and so intensely. Of course there's also my inner critic to contend with - begging for attention and doing every down and dirty trick she knows to get it. Still I heard something - this idea of just sharing tools I've learnt through years of reading, therapy, talking with friends, etc. I don't know that the name is decided but I think the name could be Help Yourself. A take on Self Help; a call to action; kind of snarky but kind of hospitable and friendly. It also could be Help Your Fucking Self. But part of me thinks that may be too close to "Do You Fucking Mind?" and I definitely don't want to do anything too close to that because goddamn, I love Alexis Perez and her podcast so fucking much! She's an inspiration. But then, maybe, if it is from inspiration, and I produce very clearly different content... I think it could be done. Maybe.
I begin organizing my books again, rallying. My headphones are blocking out the noise of Krisztian's anime, the dogs — it's just me, in the zone, with my books. A good place to be really. 10/10 recommend.
He waves at me and I nearly topple a stack of books. I struggle to put them down before taking off my headphones. He asks me,
I actually can't remember what he said right now. Was it about lunch? Banking? Our dog's healthcare? I have no fucking clue.
Whatever it was, it caught me so off-guard, I couldn't respond for a second.
When I did respond, I said -
That question, I did not see coming.
It's like you just interrupted a baseball game, holding your arms and clipboard up to an irritated and confused crowd, walking past the umpire and other ball players because right now you just HAVE to ask the pitcher - you just HAVE TO ASK HIM RIGHT NOW - if he'd like dark meat or light meat at the chicken fundraiser next week.
Krisztian laughed, complimenting my way of not only using a sports metaphor but somehow turning it into a food one actually. I said it was never about sports, it was always about food. Clearly!
He was surprised at how that story ended. Nearly as surprised as I'd been moments before, as he interrupted my beautiful moment with my books and music and epiphanies about life.
Which was kind of the point.
I've re-read the beginning of this story, and I honestly have no idea where I was going in relation to future scripting. Sorry.
I guess maybe this post serves as a case study for my focus into the future, about not really being sure where I'm going even in a conversation (in this case, with myself!). So the expectation for myself that I'd be able to see, with any degree of clarity, into my FUTURE?!? That won't come easily.
Don't get me wrong - I want to see the future. I want to be able to fill in the lists of what Future Me wears, how She acts, how She spends time & money, what Her friendships are like. I want that so, so badly. I'm so jealous of folks that can read those types of questions and immediately come up with answers.
As someone who sees opportunity everywhere (read: gets distracted insanely easily and struggles to commit to a path) I need more details on this future bit. For some I know that adding more details kind of goes against the point of opening up your imagination. But I need a combination of structure and nonsense! Maybe it's because my imagination is fucking ENORMOUS. I can imagine up anything, anywhere, good or bad. If the world of thought equates to being in "the quantum realm," as Dr. Joe Dispenza called it on the episode of School of Greatness with Lewis Howes I listened to this morning... well, change my address to 123 Quantum Realm Lane because I practically have taken up residence.
The problem is I'm often thinking of things I don't want. Conversations that felt unpleasant, insecurities in my relationships, past struggles and disappointments. There are definitely times when that's not the case, but it's fair to say that imagination absolutely a double-edged sword for me.
When I read future-scripting prompts like,
"Imagine your future self. What does she wear? How does she spend her mornings?" It's not that I imagine a dark, dreary future OR one that's dizzyingly bright. It's that the Future is anytime after... now. And now it's after... now. And now. And now. Then all I can think about is how quickly time passes; how unconscious we are most of the time; how things happen so spontaneously and strangely and unpredictably.
With a little structure I do better I think.
First: a reminder — this isn't your self that the world happens to. This isn’t your current self, picked up from this exact moment and space and transplanted to a different one. This exercise is about (I think) envisioning your best possible future self. I’m going to note this as problem 1.
This is a version of you who isn't in pain. She isn't pulled down by the reality of whatever current situation she is in now — that's in the past. She healed from the sadness, trauma, frustration, hopelessness.
She feels hopeful and optimistic about living a full, rich, dynamic life. She sees life as an adventure and knows that along the way there are ups and downs, unexpected victories and hard-won failures — the kind you work so hard to avoid, and end up running yourself upside down by complete surprise. But she’s resilient and knows that there’s fun to be had in figuring it out.
So maybe the issue is that I'm trying to bring present Me into the future in a telescoping kind of way, rather than Future Me meeting me where I am. Let’s call that problem 2; accepting and understanding that changing will take time and it’s not meant to be instant.
Now for problem 3: I guess for a lot of folks, Future Scripting is clear enough that it provides some sort of inspiration, not only visualizing a clear picture of how you’re being that future, best version, but it’s also clear enough that it provides a roadmap of sorts. There’s an insinuated path that for most people apparently, is obvious. This is not the same as understanding the telescope mechanism above! Like I mentioned before - structure and details can be key! Problem 3 with Future Scripting is that it doesn’t always include a plan for achieving those things. Think of it this way: you are told to “see yourself winning the basketball game.” I’m not sure how that plays out for most people, but for me, it’s just the end. If that is my description, I’m envisioning a scoreboard and a cheering crowd! But just seeing a winning score doesn’t really tell you how to win the game. And if that’s all I’m being advised to worry about, I can fill out a box or circle a few answers like anyone else. But the next day, will I get up to do those seemingly-obvious tasks of preparing for the challenge? No. Because the script didn’t include that, and the exercise didn’t require me to think about that. So in my brain, I’ve completed the exercise… now what?
The idea of the unknown bothers me, particularly in the category of career. Because I don't know what it is I want to DO I feel uncomfortable. Probably (definitely) another issue we can attribute to Western ideals and capitalism.
I've heard in other cultures, there's less drive for having a defining purpose in life, they equated it to nature, like being a tree. I like this idea, that maybe we can appreciate and be appreciated, just for being here. Not trying to change THE WORLD but just being part of it. And if we change our world in the process, well that’s not such a bad thing anyways.
Maybe we're not meant for the sole purpose of providing shade.
Instead we're a little bit for swinging on and a little bit for climbing up. Between our roots children gather to build small a-frame homes and lean-upons for families of roly polies. Our branches offer homes to birds and squirrels and bugs. Our leaves shade the ground and when the weather cools they drop, signaling the passing of time and the changing of the seasons. Fallen branches provide firewood, or hiding places for small critters on the ground to take refuge. The flowers that bloom call to bees and butterflies, providing them with nourishment. Growing taller and taller, branches reaching longer and longer, trunk becoming sturdy and strong with age. Maybe late in life, all we can do is offer shade to others. Maybe things stop blooming quite the way they used to — but there's nothing wrong with that, and it's important to know we're capable of so much change and wonder in this life. And because we've spent decades sharing the best parts of ourselves - the parts that will live on, long after we're gone - with others... we know that we're capable of so much in the next life, too.
Fearing the future doesn't stop us from growing older or changing but it does make us miss out on the smell of leaves after a fresh rainfall or the beauty of a magnolia bloom in the spring. So if you can trust a tree for advice - and I think you can - I’m pretty sure she’d say: be here, now.
The strategist in me (the one who's built a successful photography business and excelled in SEO research) says this shouldn't be posted. This should be revised, pieced apart, stretched for use across platforms with a content marketing campaign.
But that part of me has been... not very present lately. I'm not sure where she is, but maybe she's just napping. Maybe she got too distracted in those ketamine dreams of godzilla pizzas and looms weaving the fabric of our lives. More on this later. She's not gone, for sure, but she's dormant when I'm alone I think. She comes out with great ideas for others, often hogging the zoom microphone at brainstorm sessions with other business owners.
Anyways, since she's dormant for now, and since this website exists only in my own imagination (not another soul knows it's even a thing)... I'm just gonna post it.
Why not?
Maybe it'll stay here untouched, or maybe I'll come back to it later. But no matter what having it here may make me feel different. And I'm chasing that - in the same way future scripting might make me feel different too. Maybe having a "first post" up on this website will be the cure. Even if it is rambling and let’s be honest, incredibly unclear.
Only one way to find out!
