Any idea that connects with the future grabs my attention. It’s there in the aspirational urgency of Saatchi & Saatchi’s belief that ‘Nothing is Impossible’, as well as in the famous statement by Alan Kay, “The best way to predict the future is to invent it”.
With a brand new grandchild, I guess I am particularly focused on the future. I often find myself thinking about the world Stella will step into. I intend to post some thoughts on what I call ‘Stella’s Future’ over the year. I’ll be starting next week with some Trend Dreams. To give you a taste, here’s a site that draws together the Past, Present and Future that I talk about in Lovemarks in a very direct and personal way. FutureMe allows you to write an email to yourself in…the future. That’s it. You write your email, choose a date in the future for delivery and then send it. Later, on the date you selected, your FutureMe will receive the email. If you want to see what people write you can check out examples on the site. This simple idea has kept tugging at me. It draws on the fundamental human desire to connect with the mystery of what is to come and to secure some instant of attention in the future for the passions and aspirations of today. There’s another practical reason it appeals. Focus. The discipline of writing to your future self is the perfect way to crystallize your ideas and, even better, when you read these ideas in a couple of months or years, to assess how your thinking has changed, whether goals that were important at the time were achieved and what’s next. Give it a go.
