How To Get Excited For The Future

I’ve spent so many years of my life struggling with depression that being uninterested feels like my default state.

Lately, I’ve been really working on getting excited for the future.

Feeling excited and optimistic kind of shakes me out of my default numb state and helps me feel better throughout the day.

I hope these tips help you get excited for the future.

Get Clear

It’s hard to be excited if you don’t even know what you want the future to look like.

I’ve been spending a little bit of time each night imagining what I want my life to look like.

Here are some questions to ask yourself if you feel stuck:

• What does my perfect day look like?
• If I could get paid for anything what would it be?
• If I could travel anywhere where would I go?
• What is my dream group of friends like?
• What is my dream relationship like?

Ask yourself questions about your dream life and then journal it out to get really freaking clear about exactly what your dream life looks like.

These journaling exercises have really helped me figure out where I want to go and now I feel inspired to take action to start achieving some of the things I wrote about.

Dream Bigger

My depression crippled my self-esteem and has programmed my brain to want to play small.

For years thoughts like “I’m not good enough”, “I’m not smart” and “no one likes me” played inside my head on a loop.

Thinking those kinds of thoughts over and over again made my brain hesitant to believe that I can achieve big things.

Honestly, that’s one of the reasons this blog has been such a blessing.

The fact that so many people visit my website has made me believe that I can achieve big dreams and do something useful in the world.

Dreaming bigger has made me more excited about the future and has inspired me to go after bigger goals.

To shake myself out of the habit of dreaming small I have been regularly journaling about questions like these:

• What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?
• What would I do if someone gave me a billion dollars?
• If a genie appeared and gave me unlimited wishes what would they be?

Visualize It

Visualizing is another way to help you get even more clear about what you want your future to look like and get even more excited about it.

I use Pinterest to create a digital dream board and regularly add new things to it.

My dream board is private so I don’t have to worry about people judging what I am pinning.

I allow myself the freedom to pin anything that inspires me and it has everything from luxury travel to inspirational quotes.

Every few days I go scroll through my board and imagine myself living the life in the images.

I mentally insert myself in the beautiful locations I have on my board and it makes me so excited to travel more in the future.

I also have a corkboard by my door where I print and pin images that represent my goals for the next three months.

If you’re interested in learning more about creating a vision board check out this video by Jordan Cheyenne or watch the training below by Amanda Frances and Adrea Cordar.

Get Inspired

It’s hard to be excited for the future if you’re feeling uninspired.

Once you’re clear about what you want your future to look like get inspired by following people on social media that are living the lifestyle that you want.

Thinking about future trips and traveling really gets me excited so I follow a lot of badass ladies that travel all the time on Instagram.

Seeing them traveling on their own gets me excited for my own future adventures.

Don’t follow anyone that gives you FOMO or makes you feel bad but try to find people that make you feel inspired.

If social media is not your thing try finding some inspirational podcasts or listen to some inspiring audiobooks (check out my favorites here).

Make a Plan

Once you have a clear vision for what you want for your future to make a plan to start building the life that you want.

I like to set 90-day goals because 90 days is long enough to get stuff done but short enough to create a feeling of urgency.

Here is my process for setting goals.

1. Figure out what you want to have achieved a year from now. On this date, next year what do you want to have done?
2. What do you need to get done in the next 90 days to move towards your yearly goal?
3. What do you need to do this week to move towards your 90-day goal?
4. What are the things you need to do TODAY to move towards your week goal?

Having a good plan helps me stay excited for my future because I know I am always moving towards the vision I have for my life.

Research has shown that writing down your goals can help you achieve them. I write my goals down in my journal all the time because it helps me to stay focused.

I also reference my yearly and quarterly goals when I’m writing my to-do list each night.

I always want to make sure I’m moving towards creating the life that I actually want to live.

I hope this post helps you get excited for the future. If you’re looking for more dream life inspiration check out my podcast episodes about living your truth and my extreme gratitude practice. I also have tons of posts about depression if you’re looking for some mental health resources.

Want to remember this article? Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board!