This seemed like a good topic for the New Year when many of us may be setting goals or making resolutions.  I first thought of this topic when studying the minor prophets who are not minor at all, but that is a topic for another blog.  In my study I learned that prophesies were not diachronic, (consecutive), they were instead, synchronic, that is with events happening simultaneously.  That makes sense when prophecies are of God and not bound by our temporal constraints.    Wanting to know more about synchronicity, I searched Wikipedia and found the definition, “Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance and that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner.”  That just made my head hurt, but more interesting to me was a quote Wikipedia included from Through the Looking Glass in which the White Queen says to Alice, “‘it’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards”.

For those of you still reading, it is this Lewis Carroll quote that is the motivation for this New Year’s post.  How do we overcome a poor memory that only works backward?  It seems our great thinkers and innovators have been those they could rise above this human weakness.  Ted Kennedy quoted Robert Shaw in his eulogy to his brother Robert saying, "Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not."  The writer of Hebrews tells us, “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”  Sounds a little like some have the ability to envision the future with the same or greater certainly that most of us reserve for the past.

Here is an approach that might help.  Remember yourself a year from now.  What are you wearing (jeans, suit, swimsuit), what do you look like (healthier, rested, wiser), what are you doing (running a marathon, playing with the kids, praying), where are you living, who are you with, where do you work, what do you do there and what matters most. You get the picture and that is the point—the picture.  Bill Hybells in Courageous Leadership said a vision is a picture of the future that inspires passion.  I’ve focused a lot previously on the passion, but this is about the picture or pictures.  Fix it in your mind. If you have even the slightest artistic ability—draw it.  If not, write the word picture.  Put it in your wallet on your bathroom mirror, in your car. 

Next, take the element you see or remember most clearly and study the details. This is remembering your preferred future.  If you picture yourself in jeans and not a suit, what does that say about your desired job, hobby or lifestyle?  What are the steps to get there and when will you start and, very specifically, what will you do?   More than a list of goals, a list of daily, weekly and monthly actions will help you achieve a future that more closely matches your preferred vision.  (Note:  actually doing the things on the list helps even more.)  Remember things happen rarely by chance and then only by accident.   If your memory of the future differs from the present, you can change it, exchange it and invent a new one.  I dare say it works ever time it is tried.