See yourself two years from now.

Where would you be then? What would you imaging yourself doing?

Would you be at the same house?Live at the same city?

Would you have the same job or something different? Would you be married by then? Would you have kids? Would you look the same as now? What do you see?

I know it’s hard to imagine ourselves in the future, it takes time and practice but it’s sooo powerful if you dedicate time to do it. 

I’ve been thinking about the pandemic we are going through and how the future will be.

And, if imagining your future is already hard, it’s even harder to imagine it now because there is a lot of uncertainty.

We’ve never lived through a situation like this, so how can you even start to figure out how will the world look like in two years? 

You can’t even guess if you’ll be allowed to be out of the house next week, forget about thinking about the future? Right?

In our lifetime, there is nothing similar that the whole world has experienced that we can relate to in helping us foresee what’s coming. 

But, even if you cannot guess how the future will be, why don’t you play with your imagination? Why don’t you visualize your future?

If you were in the future, two years from now, what would you be thinking when you are looking back to this time?

What do you think you will remember most of the time spent at home during this pandemic?

For me, I think I will look back at all this time with a positive feeling. I think I will be remembering all the great things that were created because of this time. 

And if you think I am being very naive, I’ll explain to you why I think this way.

15 years ago I lost everything with hurricane Katrina. I know the comparison of a hurricane and the current pandemic is not the same, but from a personal experience where all that you had is taken suddenly from you, where your world is changed forever and where you don’t know what the future will look like…they are very similar events. 

As I said, I lost all I had in that hurricane, I am an immigrant from Spain, I didn’t have family here, it was just me and my now husband. He is also an immigrant and didn’t have family close by either. I was still a student doing my PhD and he was just hired at a company and didn’t have his green card yet. We were suddenly uprooted, we didn’t have any economic help, we didn’t have any place to go, we didn’t know what to do. 

And yet, we figured it out. We were ok. We moved to Houston and found a way to move forward. We not only survived, we ended up in a better position.

When I look back, I don’t remember the hard times, I remember the good ones, I remember the people that helped us, the friends that were there for us and how our families supported us as best as they could. I still remember the sadness of seeing all we had moldy and underwater, but the overall feeling is positive. 

Back then I wouldn't have been able to see the future either, I wouldn’t have been able to predict where would I be two years later. So much easier to look back, right?

But if I take that experience and use it now, that's what helps me see that whatever it is that will happen two years from now, I know it will be ok. I know I will be at a better place.

I know this going on right now will help me being a better person and I believe that this is the same for you and all of us. Whatever it is, we will be OK.

When I see the news, there are two very different faces, the negative news that are pushed all over the place and then, there are all the positive news that you have to look for.

I look for the positive news and what I see gives me hope for the future. 

I see people caring for people, caring for animals, caring for the world. I see the world getting less polluted with less driving, less humans contaminating the environment. I see people that are positive and hopeful, people that are very creative, people that are doing funny videos that lift others up, people smiling despite the circumstances…

So, when I look at the future based on all of this, I have hope. 

Think about it, how would the world be if we all remembered the lessons we learn during this pandemic? What would happen if we remembered that the world was less polluted during this time?

How impactful would be if we remembered that we love to be with our love ones more than we admit it?

What would happen if we decided to adapt our jobs to spend more time with our kids?

What would occur if we changed the economy to support more local businesses?

How would we impact others if we learned to keep in touch with our families more often?

What would you do different based on what you’ve learned about yourself during this time?

There are so many lessons that we are learning now, and if we were to take some of them into the future and not forget them, wouldn’t the world become slightly better? 

Think about what is it that this is showing you right now. 

Did you learn anything new about your finances? Do you need to save more for the times where unexpected events happen? Do you need to reassess how you spend money to ensure you don’t rely on credit so much?

Did you learn anything new about how you prefer to spend your time? Did you learn how do you like to exercise? Did you learn what time of pass-time you enjoy more?

How about your relationships with others, what is this time of quarantine showing you? 

Did you learn that you miss your siblings? 

Did you learn that you like to hug others more often?

Just, visualize the future for a second. Think how would you feel then. Now imagine, how would the world change if we were able to apply all that we learned these days?

Wouldn’t it be a great future? 

Let me know what do you see in your future, how do you think it will look like for you? 

Share below your thoughts, I’d love to hear from you! 

xoxo,

Sofia