Your Personal Epilogue — A Simple, Fun Creativity Exercise With A Dose Of Goal Setting

A few days ago I wrote the epilogue of my novel. I’m only a third of the way through the story. Why write it so early? No doubt, I’ll rewrite it when I finish the book.

I wrote it to focus my story towards an ending I had in mind. This exercise pushed me through a lull in my story.

That experience gave me an idea.

I started on a second epilogue. This one has nothing to with my novel.

It has everything to do with my own future.

At the end of each year, “experts” recommend you write down your goals for the next year. That never works, at least not for me. In fact, I cannot even recall what goals I set for 2017.

I’ve been searching for a better way to use goal setting techniques. I always set goals and forget about them. For the last two years, I’ve focused on daily practices, doing a set of activities every day.

That practice works. But…

What if I can combine traditional goal setting with my daily practice?

The Personal Epilogue

Here’s the what if question I posed.

What if I could write an epilogue of 2018 from the perspective of my future self in 2023.

First, I imagined myself in the year 2023. Next, I pretended I just wrote an autobiography of myself for the year 2018.

I wrote about all of the outcomes that occurred as a result of the actions I took in 2018. Does that make sense?

Let me give you an edited snippet of my personal epilogue to give you a better idea.

… After closing my first big deal in November ($144,500), a string of other deals followed. Positive word of mouth spread the word. A successful campaign in June, 2019 led to requests for speaking engagements. I declined most of them. I still feared getting up on stage. After shopping around my novel to fourteen agents, I finally…

Notice how I used specifics and details. Specifics help with visualization. I also added minor struggles. Creating a perfect vision of the future feels unrealistic. I included business goals as well as personal and family goals. Let’s dig in a bit further.

How To Create Yours

Pretend it is now 2023. Use 2028 if you want to project further out. Write down your goals and dreams for 2018. Next, pretend you did all those things. Now, from the perspective of five or ten years later, write about the results of those accomplishments.

I suggest keeping this to yourself. Sharing it inhibits your writing. You’ll leave out things that feel too personal. Make this a private endeavor. This allows you to write without fear of embarrassment or criticism.

Start on your own epilogue for 2018. I suggest writing one thousand words without interruption. Write whatever comes to mind. You can edit or rewrite later.

Here are the steps, summarized.

1. Pretend you just wrote an autobiography of 2018.
2. Write down the accomplishments.
3. Picture yourself in the year 2023 or 2028.
4. How did your accomplishments from 2018 steer your life in the years that followed? Write at least one thousand words, without interruption.
5. Use specifics wherever possible.
6. Include minor struggles.

Good luck.

Before You Go…

I write about marketing, creativity and writing. I’m giving away guides on creativity, bullet writing and editing checklist? Click here to get yours.

If you enjoyed this story, please click on the clap button below. It helps others find it. Or, share it on social media. Let’s connect on Twitter or linkedIn.