How Do You Feel About the Future?

"I'm not a good futurist - the future scares me."

This is something I heard recently from a brave young woman, who was open enough to share. Fear of the future is super common, and something I experienced for most of my life.

Did you know that FORESIGHT has been shown to decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety?

How?

It helps people feel more HOPEFUL, build RESILIENCE and feel like they have more AGENCY to influence the future.

When we think about the future alone, we often default to a pessimistic view. We are evolutionarily programmed this way to anticipate threats. However, this can lead to rumination or avoidance, as was the case with this young woman. We tend to focus more on avoiding loss and threats rather than maximizing opportunities for gains.

On the other hand, positive future thinking is often dismissed as unrealistic or fanciful, likened to fairytales, rainbows, and unicorns - “woo woo” manifestation. This makes it hard for analytical individuals who love data to engage in.

However, dismissing futures thinking as pointless results in a massive opportunity loss.

Exploring scenarios based on real uncertainties helps business owners uncover blind spots, prepare for any future, and build adaptability and resilience both in themselves and their businesses.

Scenarios provide a container for ambiguity, concerns, and uncertainties. They allow us to work at the edge of knowing and not knowing, uncovering both unexpected challenges and opportunities in seemingly bleak scenarios.

And it is best done in the company of others. The power lies in the sharing of responses and opening the aperture to see the world from different perspectives. This shared understanding creates social proof and turns fear into a catalyst for deeper insight.

I would love to see more business owners and organisations do this work - it can be scaled and incorporated into any discussion related to the future.

This is what drives me and why I love this work so much.

Get in touch if you want to experience the power of scenarios thinking.