Future-mapping: A practical way to map out the future and achieve what you want

Career Development International

Volumn 1, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 10-18

  Phillips, Bill ^a  

^a The Phillips Consulting Company   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 84986173640     PISSN: 13620436     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/13620439610114298     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. This notion of using your imagination in this way was described in [2] as early as 1960.
2. Maltz, M., Psycho-Cybernetics, a New Technique for Using Your Unconscious Power, Wilshire Book Co., Hollywood, CA, 1960, pp. 36-9.
3. Beginning with these headings is unique to future-mapping and is a central part of the process which helps us to map out and articulate an ideal future. They provide a framework within which to organize our detailed achievements, just like drawers in a filing cabinet into which we can place our files of information and data.
4. In Chapter 3 of [5], the authors describe how verb tenses alter or affect our perception of events in time. These perceptual shifts result from subtle changes in our internal (usually subconscious) pictures, sounds and feelings. The use of the present and past tenses to describe our idealized achievements is capable of fooling our subconscious into thinking this is real.
5. Andreas, S. and Andreas, C., Change Your Mind and Keep the Change, Real People Press, Moab, UT, 1987, pp. 25-36.
6. Ostrander, S. and Schroeder, L., Super Learning, Sphere Books, London, 1981, pp. 145-77.
7. Autogenic conditioning and Timothy Gallwey's Inner Game of Tennis are tried and tested techniques using relaxation and “living” the action mentally in advance. The evidence shows that such mental rehearsal is as effective as “real experience” in preparing the body for skilled action. Future-mapping utilizes a similar approach using language as the guide to the inner experience.
8. Gallwey, T., The Inner Game of Tennis, Random House, New York, NY, 1975; Jonathan Cape, London, 1977.
9. O”Connor, J. and Seymour, J., Introducing Neuro-linguistic Programming, the New Psychology of Personal Excellence, Mandala, London, 1990, pp 96-8.
10. When linked to the use of the present tense, this addition of sensory evidence can make our state of mind and our bodies undergo subtle changes. They begin to operate as if this state of success were really happening. This is because, in order to produce the words or understand their meaning, we have to have the sensory experience internally.
11. Festinger, L., A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Row, Peterson & Co., Evanston, IL, 1957.
12. The research in [11] showed that when forced to make a difficult choice between things we value, a feeling of anxiety or dissonance is set up in our mind. The results also showed healthy minds to have a built in process to quickly reduce this anxiety, which we demonstrate by emphatically justifying our choice as the best one under the circumstances.
13. Alder, H., “Seeing is believing: the natural way to success”, Management Decision, Vol. 29 No. 1, 1991.
14. Alder[13], commenting on progress from visioning to achievement, says: “So what happens during the five-year period - apart from the habitual revision and practice of the new self-image?”
15. Haynes, M.E., Project Management - from Idea to Implementation, Kogan Page, London, 1990, pp. 30-7.
16. Cameron-Bandler, L., Gordon, D. and Lebeau, M., Know How: Guided Programs for Inventing Your Own Best Future, Real People Press, Moab UT, 1985, pp. 61-70.
17. Phillips, B., “Future-basing explained”, unpublished manuscript, Industrial Training Service Ltd, Leeds, 1991.
18. Kotter, J.P., “What leaders really do”, Harvard Business Review, May-June 1990, p. 107.