TWO NOTEBOOKS
DOCUMENTING OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS is something many of us do. Whether it's a framed race photo, or race numbers with medals on the mantle...
... if it matters, keep it memorable.
What about the future?
Do we document that?
Each morning I bust out two notebooks...
- just after reading something uplifting
- meditating on it
- before all else
... one for imaging the future, one for the todos.
The dumb ideas get axed,
the good ones have a shot at life.
The tasks get completed and crossed out,
the survivors either get done or killed.
What does that have to do with racing, life?
Everything.
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Deeper Dive
To image the future is to deliberately build a picture of what has not happened yet so that picture can shape what you do now.
It is not fortune-telling and it is not daydreaming. It is the constructive work of taking pieces of memory, observation, values, and desire and assembling them into a scene, a feeling, or a story of a possible tomorrow.
How the mind actually does it
Your brain uses the same machinery for remembering the past and picturing the future. It pulls familiar people, places, objects, and emotions out of storage and rearranges them into events that have never occurred. Neuroscientists call this constructive episodic simulation. People who lose the ability to recall personal memories often also lose the ability to vividly imagine their own future.
There are at least four related modes:
- Simulation — constructing a specific scene (“I see myself finishing the climb, breathing steadily”).
- Prediction — estimating likelihood.
- Intention — deciding what you want.
- Planning — laying out the steps.
They usually operate together.
Why the pictures matter
Sociologist Fred Polak argued that the images a person or a culture holds of the future are a driving force of history. A living, attractive image of a better world pulls people forward; a decaying or purely catastrophic image produces paralysis or decline. The pictures are not just reflections of reality—they help create it by directing attention, effort, and courage.
That is why practices such as writing a “best possible self” letter, running scenario workshops, or simply sitting still and seeing a concrete good outcome in detail can change mood and behavior. The image becomes a reference point you can steer toward.
Two common mistakes
- Treating the image as a rigid prediction instead of a working sketch that can be revised.
- Only imaging disaster. A mind that rehearses only collapse has less material with which to invent alternatives.
Imaging the future, then, is the act of making the not-yet visible enough that you can start living toward it today.
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162.6 lbs/12.4%
9ish hours sleep
480ish anti-oxidant level
Upper Body: 0 push ups, 0 pull ups, hand gripper, shoulder press, curls
Lower Body: 0 box jumps (24"), Bulgarian split squats with 25lb dumbells, nordic curls, heel and toe raises
87/98/-12 per Strava Power & Relative Effort (whatever that means)
What I'm reading: Black List, Brad Thor
What I'm studying: The entire works of Neville Goddard, all kinds of marketing, Old Testament