Alright, so I gotta share what I did the other day. Heard about this thing called a ‘futures mugshot’. Sounded kinda quirky, but I was feeling a bit stuck, y’know? Like, where am I even heading with this project, or just… generally? So I thought, what the heck, let’s give it a whirl.
How I Went About It
Didn’t get fancy. Just grabbed a blank piece of paper and a pen I found lying around. Could probably do it on a computer, but sometimes pen and paper feels more real, less distracting. I sat down, took a breath, and tried to think about, let’s say, one year from now. Yeah, that felt like a decent timeframe. Not too close, not too far.
The idea, as I understood it, was to create a sort of snapshot – like a police mugshot, but for your future self or a future state of something you’re working on. Weird comparison, maybe, but it kinda clicks. It’s about capturing the essential details.
So, I started thinking: If things go well, what does ‘future me’ look like in a year? Not literally, I can’t draw for crap. More like:
- What’s the main thing I would have achieved? Like the ‘charge’ on the mugshot board.
- What skills would I definitely have picked up or gotten better at?
- How would I generally be feeling? More confident? Less stressed?
- What would people maybe say about what I’d done?
It wasn’t easy at first. Felt a bit silly, staring at a blank page trying to predict the future. My first few thoughts were super vague. Like, ‘be successful’. Useless, right? So I pushed myself a bit. Okay, successful how? What does that actually mean in practice?
I started scribbling stuff down. Crossed things out. Rewrote them. Tried to make it concrete. Instead of ‘be better at coding’, I wrote something like ‘confidently built X feature’ or ‘finally understood Y concept’. Instead of ‘project finished’, maybe ‘Project Z launched, first users happy’. Kept it really simple and to the point.
I ended up with just a few bullet points and maybe a key phrase at the top summarizing the main goal achieved. Like a title for this future snapshot. Didn’t fill the whole page. Just the essentials. The ‘mugshot’.
Did it Work?
Yeah, surprisingly. It’s not a magic wand or some detailed roadmap. But having that simple ‘mugshot’ written down? It’s like a quick reminder. When I feel like I’m drifting or getting bogged down in tiny details, I can just glance at it. Oh yeah, that’s the main thing I’m aiming for.
It made the future feel a bit less like a big scary fog and more like a specific destination, even if the path isn’t totally clear yet. It’s just a simple picture, a profile, of where I want to land.
So yeah, that was my little experiment with the ‘futures mugshot’. Took maybe 20 minutes? If you’re feeling a bit directionless or overwhelmed, maybe give it a shot. Costs nothing. Just you, some paper, and a little imagination. Might help clear things up a bit.
