The 10 year plan
A simple exercise to accelerate your dream career
Debbie Millman is an iconic designer & professor at SVA.
She revealed a legendary exercise from her class — a visualisation method to design one’s dream life in 10 years. Here’s how it works:
Step 1
Grab a pen and paper. Give yourself at least 30 minutes.
Step 2
Imagine it’s 28th August 2023.. or 10 years from today if you’re reading this later :)
Write down exactly what you’re doing from the moment you wake up. Dream very big and in detail. Imagine your life if you could achieve anything you wanted. Zero fear of failure.
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Get extremely specific.
- Where are you living? Who are you living with? What kind of house are you in?
- What time do you start working? What is your role? What is your salary?
- What’s your health like? What’s your mindset like?
- How often do you travel?
Keep writing until you have nothing left to write.
Step 3
The important part. Re-read what you wrote 1x a year. Continue to add more detail to it, as you learn more about yourself.
“Write like your life depends on it. Because it does.” - Debbie Millman
When you envision the life you want in HD, crisp-enough detail… you’ll subconsiously move towards it.
You make micro decisions over time that consistently nudge you in that direction.
Listen to Debbie on Tim Ferriss’ podcast here







