Sketch Out Your Future

[August 13, 2026]  I recently came across a classic Prof. Jordan Peterson lecture on the Daily Wire as he discussed the power of writing about your own future.  I found that a fascinating idea; to sketch out your future in writing and about where you might be in the near future.

One thing we all know is that we have never been asked to write our own stories.  As Prof. Peterson notes, we could write a story about who you’ve been, and you can write a story about who you are now.  And this is where I thought he had an interesting piece of advice; write a story about who you could be.

”Look, here’s the deal.  You can have what you want and need, assuming you’re taking care of yourself.  Assuming that you’re starting out with the proper attitude towards yourself; that you’re worthy of care and respect, and there’s something to you that’s valuable that could be developed.  Give yourself some credit.”

Yes, you can have what you want, but that must be specified.  Peterson asks a few questions to help us hone in on things we can consider:

1. What would you like from your friends?
2. What would you like your friendship network to look like?
3. What would you like to do? How would you like your career to shape itself?
4. How are you going to take care of your family, your children, and a long-term mate?
5. What are you going to do with your time outside work that’s useful and engaging and productive?
6. How are you going to take care of yourself mentally and physically?
7. How are you going to withstand temptation, so that it doesn’t take you down?

Write a few sentences answering these basic questions.  Don’t be obsessive about it, but sketch it out like a bad rough draft.  Answer these questions like you’re looking three to five years down the road, and you have what you need and want to make your life what it needs to be.  And that you can be a good person in the face of the suffering of life.  What does it look like?

Next, do the contrary to this exercise.  This can also be useful.  Consider your faults, and the direction those faults could pull you in.  Everyone knows that.  Everyone has a sense of how they would fall apart in their own manner, with their own particular weaknesses.

It’s three to five years into your future, and you’ve let that part of your character dominate.  What particular corner of hell is it that you’re now occupying?

So now, you have something to aim at.  You have a purpose.  And that’s motivating.  People need a purpose in life.  Without a purpose, you don’t have any positive motivation or positive emotion.  This positive emotion is linked to our pursuit of valuable goals.  That is the way we are set up.

That set of positive goals also stops you from being unduly uncertain and anxious because nothing is specified enough.  Plus, you need something to run away from, to run away from the worst in you.  You can escape from the worst and move towards the best in you.

Too often we put this action off.  And that is to be expected because it’s hard.  It’s also more than that.  We also believe that we cannot write down our future because I would do a bad job of it, or I would have to do it perfectly, or I don’t have enough time.

Just do it.  Do it poorly.  Do it haphazardly.  Do it a tiny bit at a time.  You might just be a terrible writer.  That does not matter one bit.  Write it.  Then you have something that you can improve upon and fix the poorly written parts.  This bad draft is most valuable, and that is what you need as a beginning.

Be willing to be a fool, to be embarrassed, to be awkward and stumbling.  That’s how you sketch out your future.

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).