Does imagining a good future help?
· Source: King, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2001
Imagining a good future is more than daydreaming when it’s specific. Students who did it felt better weeks later.
Does imagining a good future help?
Picturing your best future lifted well-being. In a 2001 study, students who wrote about their best possible future self for 20 minutes, four days running, felt better three weeks later. It upset them less than writing about trauma. Picture it in detail, then take one step. A few years ahead, after things went well: where you live, a normal Tuesday. Then one small step this week. Say the future you’re working toward. Halflight keeps it by date, so next year you can read back what you hoped for.