Have you ever heard yourself say:

“Nothing exciting ever happens anymore.”

I think there comes a point when life can become very… predictable.

We know what we’re doing tomorrow.

We pretty much know what we’re doing next week.

We have our routines. Our favorite restaurants. Our usual shows. Our errands. Our appointments.

And there’s nothing wrong with any of that.

In fact, there can be something wonderful about a comfortable life.

But every once in a while, I think we need something that makes us wake up in the morning and think:

Oh! That’s coming up.

Something we’re looking forward to.

When Did We Start Waiting for Excitement?

When we’re younger, exciting things seem to happen all the time.

First dates.

New jobs.

New homes.

Vacations.

Weddings.

Babies.

Promotions.

Milestones seem to arrive one after another.

Then life settles down a bit.

And without realizing it, we can start waiting for the next exciting thing to happen to us.

An invitation.

An announcement.

A surprise.

Someone else making a plan and asking us to come along.

But what if we don’t have to wait?

What if we can put something exciting into the story ourselves?

Give the Future Something to Work With

This doesn’t have to mean booking a flight to Paris tomorrow.

Although I’m certainly not opposed to that.

It can be much smaller.

Book dinner somewhere you’ve always wanted to try.

Buy tickets to a show.

Take the class you’ve been looking at.

Plan a weekend away.

Invite someone over.

Wear the dress that’s been waiting for a “special occasion.”

Go somewhere you’ve never been — even if it’s only an hour away.

Put something on your calendar that makes you smile when you see it.

Because sometimes excitement begins long before the thing actually happens.

It begins with anticipation.

Looking Forward to Something Is Part of the Fun

Think about the last vacation you really looked forward to.

The enjoyment didn’t begin when you arrived.

It started weeks — maybe months — earlier.

You imagined where you’d go.

You looked at pictures.

You decided what you’d wear.

You made reservations.

You talked about it.

You pictured yourself there.

In other words…

you started experiencing it before it happened.

That’s one of the things I find so interesting about creating Future Memories.

You’re deliberately giving yourself a picture to look forward to.

Make It a Future Memory

Suppose you decide you want to go somewhere you’ve never been.

Don’t stop with:

“I’d like to do that someday.”

Make the picture.

Imagine yourself there.

What are you wearing?

Who’s with you?

What’s happening around you?

What would make that particular moment worth remembering?

Then create your Future Memory as though you’re looking back on something that already happened.

Suddenly, “someday” has a scene.

And once you can see the scene, you can start asking:

What’s one thing I could do to move toward it?

Maybe you research the trip.

Maybe you buy the tickets.

Maybe you call a friend.

Maybe you put a date on the calendar.

The Future Memory isn’t the action.

It’s what gives the action somewhere to go.

It Doesn’t Have to Be Extraordinary

I think this part matters.

Your future doesn’t need to be filled with bucket-list adventures to be exciting.

Maybe your Future Memory is learning to paint.

Planting the garden you’ve always wanted.

Going to a concert.

Taking your granddaughter somewhere special.

Wearing something fabulous to dinner for absolutely no reason.

Starting a little business.

Finishing a project.

Hosting a party.

Seeing the ocean again.

Or simply doing something you’ve caught yourself thinking:

“I’d love to do that someday.”

Someday gets much more interesting when you give it a date.

Put Something on the Calendar

So if you’ve been thinking:

“Nothing exciting happens anymore…”

maybe don’t wait for the universe to send an invitation.

Give yourself one.

Choose something.

Picture it.

Make the Future Memory.

Then put one little piece of it on your calendar.

Because perhaps the problem isn’t that nothing exciting happens anymore.

Maybe we’ve just forgotten that we’re allowed to make plans.

And sometimes the future simply needs us to give it something to work with.

What Would Make You Smile When You Saw It on Your Calendar?

Think of one thing.

It doesn’t have to be sensible.

It doesn’t have to impress anybody.

It just has to make you look forward to something.

Then picture yourself there.

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FutureMemoryMaker.com

The KARA Effect

See it. Remember it. Become it.

Karen carries pictures of where she’s going. Kara carries memories of where she’s already been.

It started with a water bottle.

I found one that could be personalized with photographs, and immediately thought:

What if those photographs weren’t memories from the past?

What if they were memories from the future?

So Karen got a new accessory.

And, as usual, Kara had something to say about it.

Karen Discovers the Future Memory Bottle

Karen is delighted with her creation.

Wrapped around her water bottle are little photographs of experiences she hasn’t actually had yet.

There she is doing yoga by the lake.

There she is horseback riding.

And there she is playing with Kazi—her future cat.

They aren’t photographs documenting where Karen has been.

They’re pictures of where she imagines herself going.

Suddenly, an ordinary water bottle has become a portable collection of Future Memories.

Karen doesn’t have to remember to sit down in front of a vision board. She doesn’t have to open an app or pull out a journal.

She picks up her water bottle…

and there she is.

Apparently the Future Needed a Straw

When Karen proudly shows her creation to Kara, Kara has to admit that it’s rather clever.

In her words:

“Well, that’s one way to solve the vision-board problem. Apparently all it needed was a lid, a straw, and somewhere to put the future.”

Karen, naturally, takes this idea one step further.

She takes a drink.

“I’m literally drinking in my future.”

Kara gives her the look.

“Let’s not get carried away.”

But underneath the joke is an idea I really love.

What if reminders of your future simply became part of your everyday life?

Not something you have to remember to practice.

Something you naturally encounter.

Your Vision Board Doesn’t Have to Be a Board

We’ve been taught to make vision boards by collecting pictures of things we want and putting them somewhere we can see them.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

But I keep wondering why all those pictures have to stay on a board.

A Future Memory could become the wallpaper on your phone.

It could sit in a frame on your desk.

It could be tucked into a notebook.

And yes…

It could be wrapped around the water bottle you carry everywhere.

The object isn’t important.

Seeing yourself in the picture is.

Instead of looking at a photograph of a beautiful lake and thinking, I’d like to go somewhere like that someday, you can create an image of yourself standing beside that lake.

Instead of looking at someone else riding a horse, you see yourself in the saddle.

Instead of imagining the pet you might have someday, you see yourself playing with your future cat.

The picture becomes personal.

And the future becomes just a little more familiar.

But Kara Doesn’t Carry a Water Bottle

Of course she doesn’t.

Kara has other ideas. 😉

At the end of Karen’s little water-bottle discovery, Kara looks down at the elegant clutch she’s carrying.

And suddenly I realized something.

Karen and Kara are both carrying memories.

They’re simply carrying them in opposite directions.

Karen has her Future Memory Bottle.

It holds pictures of experiences she is imagining and creating.

Karen carries reminders of where she’s going.

Kara has her Keepsake Clutch.

Kara is Karen’s future self.

So perhaps Kara doesn’t need to carry pictures of things she hopes will happen.

As far as Kara is concerned…

they already did.

Inside her little clutch are keepsakes from those memories.

Maybe there’s a ticket from the Broadway show she attended.

A hotel key from Paris.

A photograph.

A seashell.

A cocktail napkin with something scribbled on it.

Something from an awards ceremony.

We don’t really know yet.

And that’s half the fun.

Because Kara’s Keepsake Clutch is beginning to develop a suspiciously Mary Poppins-like quality.

I have a feeling we’re eventually going to discover that considerably more fits inside that little bag than physics would suggest.

Two Women. Two Ways of Remembering.

This is what I love most about Karen and Kara.

They’re the same woman viewed from two different places in time.

Karen looks forward and says:

“I can see myself there.”

Kara looks backward and says:

“Oh, I remember that.”

Karen’s bottle contains pictures of a future she’s learning to see.

Kara’s clutch contains keepsakes from a future she believes she’s already lived.

And somewhere between the two of them is the present.

The place where those memories actually get made.

What Could You Carry With You?

You certainly don’t need a personalized water bottle to create Future Memories.

But I love the idea of finding little ways to put images of your future into your everyday environment.

Create the picture.

Then don’t hide it away.

Put it somewhere you’ll stumble across it.

Let yourself see that woman again and again.

Not because looking at a picture magically makes something happen.

But because every time you see her, you have another opportunity to ask:

What could I do today that moves me a little closer to her?

Karen may carry hers on a water bottle.

Kara prefers a rather fabulous clutch.

The question is…

Where will you keep yours?

✨ Create your first Future Memory free at FutureMemoryMaker.com

See it. Remember it. Become it.

— The KARA Effect

There’s a saying I’ve always loved:

“There’s a reason your rearview mirror is much smaller than your windshield.”

Think about that for a moment.

When you’re driving, you need the rearview mirror. You glance at it to see where you’ve been and what might still be behind you.

But most of your view is through the windshield.

Because that’s where you’re going.

And maybe life is supposed to work the same way.

The Rearview Mirror Has a Purpose

I don’t believe we should simply “forget the past.”

Our past matters.

It holds people we loved, things we accomplished, mistakes we made, chances we took, chances we didn’t take, heartbreaks we survived and wonderful moments we’d happily experience all over again.

It helped make us who we are.

So yes, look in the rearview mirror.

Just don’t stare at it.

Because there’s a difference between remembering where you’ve been and letting where you’ve been decide where you can go.

Sometimes We Let the Past Drive

I think this becomes especially easy to do as we get older.

We have more evidence.

More experiences.

More things that worked — and things that didn’t.

We know ourselves better.

Or at least we think we do.

So when a new possibility appears, we don’t always look through the windshield first.

We look in the rearview mirror.

I’ve never been good at that.

I tried something like that once.

I’m too old to start over.

That’s just not who I am.

I should have done that years ago.

Without realizing it, we’re asking our past for permission to create our future.

And our past can only answer based on the person we used to be.

Your Past Can Show You Where You Were

It can’t show you everywhere you could still go.

That’s what I love about the windshield metaphor.

The windshield is enormous compared with the rearview mirror.

There’s so much more ahead of you than you can see in that tiny reflection.

There are roads you haven’t driven.

People you haven’t met.

Places you haven’t visited.

Things you haven’t tried.

Versions of yourself you haven’t had a reason to become yet.

You don’t have to know exactly where the road leads.

You just have to be willing to look forward.

What Do You See Through Your Windshield?

This is where Future Memories have become so meaningful to me.

Instead of only asking:

“What has my life been?”

I can also ask:

“What could my life look like?”

And then I can make a picture of it.

Maybe it’s somewhere I want to travel.

Maybe it’s an experience I’ve always wanted to have.

Maybe it’s something wonderfully ordinary — a morning, a home, a hobby, a celebration, a new friendship.

Maybe it’s a version of myself I haven’t met yet.

For a moment, I get to stop looking at the evidence behind me and create an image of what might be ahead.

That’s a Future Memory.

You Don’t Have to Erase the Past to Create a Future

I think that’s an important distinction.

Moving forward doesn’t mean pretending difficult things didn’t happen.

It doesn’t mean forgetting people or experiences that mattered.

And it certainly doesn’t mean that every decision you’ve ever made was wrong and now you need to reinvent your entire life.

The rearview mirror stays right where it is.

You can look at it whenever you need to.

But then…

look forward again.

Because the past is a reference.

It isn’t a destination.

And it definitely shouldn’t be driving the car.

Try This

Think about something you’ve been telling yourself isn’t possible because of your past.

Then, just for a moment, take the past out of the equation.

Don’t ask:

“Have I ever done this before?”

Ask:

“Would I like to experience this?”

Don’t ask:

“Is this who I’ve always been?”

Ask:

“Is this someone I’d like to become?”

And don’t ask:

“Why didn’t I do this sooner?”

Ask:

“What could I do next?”

Then picture it.

Give yourself something new to see through the windshield.

Because maybe the best part of your story isn’t disappearing in the rearview mirror.

Maybe it’s somewhere up ahead.

What’s Through Your Windshield?

Ready to stop looking only at where you’ve been and start picturing where you’d like to go?

Create your first Future Memory FREE at:

FutureMemoryMaker.com

The KARA Effect

See it. Remember it. Become it.

There’s a question that sounds ridiculously simple:

What do I want?

Not what does my family need.

Not what should I be doing.

Not what would be practical.

Not even what did I used to want.

What do I want — now?

And sometimes, especially after 50 or 60, that can be a surprisingly difficult question to answer.

When Did We Stop Asking?

For much of our lives, there’s a built-in next step.

Finish school. Find a job. Build a career. Get married — or don’t. Raise children — or don’t. Buy a house. Pay the bills. Take care of people. Make dinner. Remember the birthdays. Keep everything moving.

There’s always something that needs our attention.

And somewhere along the way, “What do I want?” can quietly get replaced with:

“What needs to happen next?”

Then life changes.

Children grow up. Careers shift. Retirement gets closer — or arrives. Relationships change. Our bodies change. Our priorities change.

Suddenly, for perhaps the first time in decades, there may actually be room to ask:

What would I like the next part of my life to look like?

And our minds go completely blank.

Maybe the Problem Isn’t That You Don’t Know

I don’t think we necessarily lose our ability to dream.

I think sometimes we just get out of practice.

If you haven’t asked yourself what you want in a very long time, expecting yourself to suddenly produce a detailed five-year plan is asking an awful lot.

So don’t.

Start smaller.

Where would you like to wake up one morning?

What would you like to wear somewhere?

Is there a trip you’d love to take?

Something you’ve always wanted to learn?

A room you’d like to walk into?

An experience you’d love to have?

Who would be there with you?

How would you feel?

You don’t have to decide whether it’s practical yet.

You’re just remembering how to imagine.

Don’t Ask for a Plan. Ask for a Picture.

This is one of the reasons I love creating Future Memories.

Instead of sitting down and trying to answer the enormous question, “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?” I can create one little scene from a future I’d enjoy experiencing.

Maybe I’m dressed up for opening night on Broadway.

Maybe I’m sitting beside a lake.

Maybe I’m traveling somewhere I’ve always wanted to see.

Maybe I’m celebrating something I haven’t accomplished yet.

For a moment, I don’t have to figure out how I’m going to get there.

I can simply see myself there.

And sometimes that picture tells me more than a list of goals ever could.

Your Future Doesn’t Have to Look Like Your Past

There’s another part of this question that I think matters:

The answer is allowed to change.

What you wanted at 30 doesn’t have to be what you want at 60.

The dream you put on a vision board ten years ago doesn’t have to stay there simply because you once chose it.

You’re allowed to change the picture.

In fact, maybe that’s the whole point.

We spend so much time looking backward for evidence of who we are that we sometimes forget we can also look forward and ask who we might still become.

Try This

Instead of asking yourself:

“What do I want?”

Try asking:

“What is one future moment I would love to remember?”

Don’t worry about whether it’s impressive enough.

Don’t worry about whether anyone else would understand it.

And definitely don’t worry about whether you know how to make it happen yet.

Just picture the moment.

Where are you?

What are you doing?

What are you wearing?

Who is beside you?

And what does the future version of you already know that you’re only beginning to discover?

That’s your first Future Memory.

And perhaps the answer to “But what do I want?” doesn’t arrive as a five-year plan.

Maybe it begins with one picture.

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Ready to Make a Future Memory?

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FutureMemoryMaker.com

The KARA Effect
See it. Remember it. Become it.