Visualizing the future?

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I've recently realized that if I can't visualize the future, it seems to not exist for me and I can't imagine being alive. Since I don't know what I'll be doing, at, say, 40, I just assume I won't live that long. Little freaky. I'm assuming this is an autistic thing, although it could very well just be me. Can anyone else relate to that?

I'm not sure if my anxiety is the same, but sometimes I'll be looking at a calendar that shows the next few years on it and it scares me to look at it. I wonder "what will I be doing then? Will things be going ok or will I be going through a hard time, or what if something happens and I'm not even here at all?" Kinda seems silly but I'd rather not look ahead on calendars.

When I was FIVE, I imagined what my future would be like now. I am in a business CLOSELY associated with what I wanted(The situation changed a LOT around 1980), using the talents I thought I would use, and making the kind of money I thought I would. STILL, I thought I would be married, have a child, and vacation more.

So even when you CAN imagine, things may end up different. So don't feel like the lack to imagine means you will have NO future.

heck, I can't remember being 40...

the younger you are, the more possibilities. Life trips you up when you're a grampa...

Doing the viz thing is good for you if it helps you prioritize your life NOW. If it doesn't, it can often get in the way of living NOW.

So start small: What will you be doing tomorrow? How might tomorrow be different than today? (Don't focus on the ridiculous and improbable, e.g. 'a meteor could crash in to earth', 'the damn terrorists will attack', 'Fox will cancel The Simpsons') just stick to the small things that change every day. That burger joint closed. That baby has her first tooth. I used the last Q-tip in the box.

Then work up from there. At some point you will find that you are imagining a future extrapolated from your present. And that means that what you choose to do now will change your future. What type of future do you want? Make that change (or what ever part of it you CAN do today) NOW to get the outcome you want then.

And smile. You're asking the right questions.

I'm not scared about it, but I can't imagine the future as well.

I really don't have any image about where I could be in 5 years. Or even just next summer, now that I'm free to roam the world after graduation. I have many visions and countless idea about what I may do, but it's rare that I come to conclusion that I'll most definitely do something. Discussing my 'plans for the future', I realised that I have these many ideas and dream about them, but that's not a real plan.

It should scare me - clinging to routines and plans and all - but it doesn't. And I think it doesn't scare me because to my mind, the future is far far away.

I can only think about this here and now. I can't see myself or feel myself in 5 years from now. I feel that I only exist here right now. And thus that's all I can really get into my mind: the present.

Hello;

I'm not far off 50, and I've always been wrong about the future, though I've often tried hard to plan it.

as far as I can tell, the only thing I've can be confident about in regard to the future is that it will turn out diferently from how I imagine it.


I've never understood the job interview thing about "where do you see yourself in 5 years?".
Especially these days, when technology changes things so fast. I may be doing something in 5 years time that's not even technically possible now.

Sometimes this worries me, but I've come to find it reassuring on the whole. Surprises are usually interesting. I try to look for opportunities to learn in the unexpected, though this is often difficult.

I think Eisenhower said something like "planning is essential, but plans are useless".

I can't visualize where I'll be, in five years. That was the first question that my shrink asked me, 10 years ago. "Where do you see yourself in five years?"