Once you have your vision, the following exercise can help solidify your intentions and put you in the mindset to make your vision a reality.

Take a postcard and write it from the you of the future—the one who has achieved the visions on your vision board—whether they’re three months, six months, or five years in the future.

Write the card to the current you, telling yourself how it feels to be where you are, having achieved your vision. Once you’ve written your postcard, take a step back and think about what you need to do to get to that future point.

What did the future you do to get there? What did it take? What sort of changes did you make across your four keys to achieve that life? This is a simple but illuminating exercise that provokes real thought and insight.

Here’s an example of a postcard from a future self:

1 October 2022. You would so want to be here right now! We have an apartment in Prague, and we decided to head to the Czech mountains. I’m looking out at the mountains right now. I took a walk before breakfast and am feeling fitter and stronger than ever. It’s so wonderful to have everyone here together. Izzie has a great career and is thriving; we went on a hike together yesterday. I spent the afternoon playing ball with Harry and Freya, and tonight is my favourite night of the week – date night with my wife. Lucie’s business has really taken off and is thriving. Oh, and Get Fit To Win has made a difference to over one million business leaders worldwide. We have a Get Fit To Win conference planned next month to celebrate the success. Anyway, wish you were here.

P.S. When are you getting here?

Take the Exercise One Step at a Time

Keep the postcard simple by breaking it down into four easy steps.

Step 1: Set yourself an imaginary future date from which you’ll be writing your postcard.

Step 2: Describe the achievements under the headers on your vision board, such as business growth, your role, weight loss, and so on.

Step 3: Write the postcard from your future self. Make sure you include words that describe what you see, hear, and feel. This is your untold story that hasn’t come to pass yet, so make sure you describe your emotions and your achievements too.

Step 4: From your future point of view, look back at the steps you had to take to get to this point. What were the key events, decisions, and challenges you faced? How did you overcome the hurdles? What type of mindset did you have to adopt to achieve this vision? This is a good time to consider the non-urgent projects and tasks that you seem to put off because you’re busy with whatever needs to be done at the moment. These non-urgent activities are critical to your progress and will make the greatest difference in your future. Write down some of your non-urgent tasks.

The point of this exercise is to get clearer about your purpose and to prompt you to think about how you’re going to connect your current self to your future self. The more you’re able to define and envision your ideal future, the better prepared you’ll be to set events in motion to make it happen.