Today, we will write down real questions to give you examples of how to work with “Ideal Future Technique“. If you want to refresh your memory; you can take a look at the original post where you will find more posts with real questions to apply different techniques: “Coaching Session – Real Questions”.
Ideal Future Technique
This technique asks the client to conceptualize their ideal future or the best possible outcome, and then work backwards to the present. Sometimes we get stuck in our session, we start talking about the present and we are not able to get any future insight. Going to the future and working directly with the individual/team, dream or ideal situation takes us out of this trap.
Step 1: Identify the goal/dream or ideal situation
- “Where would you like to be with this in three to six months?”
- “What is the best possible outcome you can envision?”
- “Would you like to explore this dream and see if it is a real possibility?”
Step 2: Go to the End
- “Imagine that it is 90 days (or six months, or a year) into the future and you’ve archived this goal. Take me there and tell me about it”.
- “Let’s say you pursue this dream and describe what you reach … does it become a reality. Take me to that point in the future and describe what it looks like to have reached this dream”.
- “If you pursued this dream (goal/situation), what would your life look like in 30 days (or 90 days or a year or five years)?”
Step 3: Visualize the idea
- “Imagine you are in that future right now. Envision it in specific detail! What do you see and feel?”
- “Visualize your typical day in this new future. What will your surroundings be like? Your schedule? Your team? The work you are doing? What are you enjoying?”
- “Be more specific. What kind of setting are you in? Where are you sitting? Who are you meeting with? What are you going to talk about?”
- “What does it mean to you to reach this goal? What difference does it make?”
- Paint me a picture: What emotions would you experience if you reached this goal?”
Step 4: Work Backward
- “Where is your motivation to pursue this goal now, versus half an hour ago?”
- “What difference does that make as you consider the obstacles to reaching this goal?”
- “What one step could you take now to start moving toward your ideal future?”
That’s all there is to this technique/approach. As you can see, it is very simple and it could be very useful. In 4 steps we get from the team/participant one “dream”, we go to the future, we go through it, we realize the success and we come back to the present to take one action. It works very well for teams and individual coaching.
Feel free to share your experience or your comments. Did you try it?
Thank you,
Omar