A shared universe › Blog › Imagining your best future · Español
The best possible self exercise means imagining your life some years from now, supposing that everything has gone as well as possible, and describing it in writing in detail. Studies that have tested it find that, for a while, it lifts mood and optimism; the effect is moderate and does not replace other kinds of help. It is a simple writing exercise that fits into a quiet half hour.
The psychologist Laura King tried it out in 2001, in a study with 81 university students. She asked them to write for twenty minutes a day, on four consecutive days, about one of these: the most traumatic event of their life, their “best possible self” in the future, both, or a neutral topic. The best possible self meant imagining what their life would be like if they had worked hard and their goals had been achieved.
Writing about their goals turned out to be far less upsetting than writing about trauma, and three weeks later those students showed an increase in well-being. Five months later, according to the university health centre’s records, those who had written about trauma, about their best self or about both had visited the doctor for illness less often than the neutral-topic group. It was a small group, and that last finding should be taken with caution.
Other researchers have repeated it since. In 2019, a team of researchers brought together 29 studies with almost three thousand participants in a meta-analysis. The exercise improved positive mood moderately, and optimism and well-being somewhat less. Its effect on negative emotions was small, and on depressive symptoms very small and based on only three studies.
The authors also pointed out limits: no study met all the quality criteria they reviewed, and for positive mood there may have been some bias, because results that work out are more likely to be published. In other words, it helps, but less than is sometimes claimed, and it is not a treatment.
In the studies, the exercise lasted from a single day to several weeks, with a total of between twenty minutes and almost three hours of practice. A simple way to start:
You can repeat it on a few consecutive days, or come back to it now and then, looking each time at a different part of your life: family, work, health, friendships.
Writing it down makes clear what really matters to you, which is not always what you thought. And seeing that future in detail makes it seem more possible. It is not magic, and it does not come true just because you imagine it: it helps you know which way you want to walk.
If a specific wish comes out of it and you want to turn it into steps, from wish to way explains why dreaming is not enough and what helps you take the first step.
Sometimes, when you imagine your best future, what appears is the distance more than the hope: everything that is missing, what did not work out. If that happens, there is no need to carry on. You can try a shorter timescale, a year or a few months, or just one part of your life.
If the future feels completely closed and that feeling lasts for weeks, do not carry it without company. Telling your GP or a psychologist can help you find a way through. Hope according to psychology has more on how to look after it when it is hard.
If a clear wish appears as you write, you can light a star with it in A shared universe, with “What I hope for”. Other people will keep it company.
A few lines are enough, with no name or anything that says who you are. It will shine for seven days, and if one day it turns out well, you can say so and thank those who kept you company.