In my Dream Mapping and Goal Setting Workshops (and also in my book) I teach how to create a Future Imagined Memory (FIM) as a key technique to create what you want in your life and manifest your goals.

Briefly, a Future Imagined Memory is a story, in the present tense, of the ‘outcome’ of your dream or goal. This is an imagined and made-up story of a future event with you in it in which your goal has become a reality. This story should be written clearly, describing the experience in detail and, most importantly, in terms of all five of your senses.

After you have created your story, every day for the next 30 days, spend 10 minutes in the morning or 10 minutes in the evening jumping into your Future Imagined Memory. Lie down, get comfortable, close your eyes and relax. Imagine yourself in the scene. While you are doing the exercise, get excited about it: feel the positive feelings, listen to the sounds, enjoy the sensation of having what you want in your life. Do this every day for 30 days and then stop. Thirty days is long enough to turn the Future Imagined Memory into a desire fully felt and understood by the body and the mind.

In the last few months I have received a number of emails from Daring Dreamers with questions about the Future Imagined Memory Technique… so here are 5 additional tips and tricks for you to apply.

Tip 1:  Keep the story exactly the same

Keep the same story for the 30 days; don’t add bits or take bits away.  With the daily repetition the mind will often be tempted to change the story.  It is important to keep the same story so that this becomes ingrained in the mind and to create a vivid future memory.

Tip 2: Make sure it is the outcome not the how

When you develop your FIM story, make sure that the story is an outcome i.e. that you goal or dream is complete. It has happened.  Don’t try to create a story around the process, the ‘how’.  As an example if you have a goal to write a book, don’t imagine sitting behind your computer and typing because that is the process. Rather create your FIM about the book being done eg. being at your book launch, seeing the book in a store or being interviewed on TV about the book.

Tip 3: Sensing rather than vivid

A comment from one of my daring dreamers recently was
“what I find is sometimes I do my FIM it goes really well, most of the time I struggle with hearing, tasting & smelling the others are okay”

In NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) there is a theory that one of our senses is slightly more developed than the others. Your primary senses are visual, auditory and kinesthetic, and normally one of these will be your most prominent sense. You may be a highly visual person. When you close your eyes and imagine your future memory you may be able to ‘see’ all the details reasonably clearly, but the hearing may be a little more difficult. You may be a highly auditory person, which means you are more attuned to sound. When you imagine your future memory you can hear all the sounds clearly but may not be able to conjure up the sense of touch with such clarity. Or you may be a kinaesthetic person, which means emotions and tactile sensations are easy for you to imagine and feel but pictures are a bit hazy and sound not as apparent. Whichever is your primary sense, be aware that it is through this sense that you will primarily experience your Future Imagined Memory. However, focus on the other senses too.

Even though you will be imagining your FIM with your five senses, please note that your FIM will probably not be in Technicolor, Dolby sound with which you experience life.  Doing the FIM is more like sensing things than necessarily seeing, hearing or feeling things in crystal clear clarity.  If it is not sharp and clear don’t worry, just keep doing it.

Tip 4:  Distraction

During the FIM process you may find that your mind begins to wander or gets distracted.  This is very normal.  When you realise that your mind has wandered, gently bring it back to where you were in your story and continue the process.  You may need to do this many times during the process.  Some days you may find you are more distracted than others.

Tip 5: Narrate yourself through the story

For some people it helps to narrate yourself through the story.  You may want to do this silently in your head as you go through the story or a few of my Daring Dreamers like to talk it out loud to themselves, while their eyes are closed and they are imagining it.  An idea is to record yourself narrating your FIM and then listen to the narration every morning – this is particularly useful for two reasons.
1.    The story is always exactly the same as it has been recorded
2.    It is easier to stay focused and not get distracted

Good luck with your FIM and doing it for 30 days – you will be AMAZED at the results.

To practice creating a FIM, here is a Free FIM Download to create 2012 as your best year yet

If you have any further tips or tricks or questions about the Futurre Imagined Memory technique or visualisation, please leave a comment below.