The visual framework shown here provides a way of mapping how we think about and deal with the future. It represents the future as a mental space, a ‘psychological landscape of the future’. It was developed as a simple and memorable checklist of what we need to hold in mind as we navigate in time.
It also serves as a step towards thinking differently about time and causation in futures work.
The way organizations anticipate the future is based on prevailing cultural beliefs about time and causation. Currently popular futures methods rely on assumptions derived from Newtonian physics, yet these were superseded in twentieth-century physics and biology. As a result, management thinking about the future tends to overemphasize a mechanistic approach.
Our response to the future is psychologically complex. We freely imagine futures of all kinds and respond with ideas, feelings and attitudes towards them. This array of psychological material includes hopes, fears, ideals, ambitions, intentions, expectations, images. All this is projected into the conceptual space we call the future, usually in a jumble, and in turn it shapes our actions in the present.
It therefore makes sense to become more clearly aware of our mental future content by sorting it into the different areas of the future landscape. This enables a progressive refining of future awareness, clarifying expectations and improving choices and goals.
While the conscious mind is in the dark about the future, depth psychology suggests that the unconscious mind can have access to it. The unconscious also appears to be involved in the process of shaping the future, through the ‘acausal connecting principle’ which Jung called synchronicity. Hence it is possible to become aware, at least in part, of what the unconscious mind knows about the future, and even to work with it to influence aspects of our personal or collective future.
Through introspective and constellation work we can discern future potentials and anchor our focus on ones we choose. We can also, so to speak, tap the power of synchronicity by resetting our personal ‘expected future image’ in different areas of life. The exact scope and effect of this ‘inner work’ gradually becomes clear from experience.
This activity and approach to the future could be thought of as future mindfulness, which has the potential to bring us much closer than previous futures methods to an active relationship with the future, and to the meaning it holds for us. This then becomes an important means of navigating our future path.
We are not at the mercy of the future, despite appearances. Our personal future is ours to shape within the boundaries set by the big picture. It is important to understand how the landscape is changing, but our actions should not be ruled by predictions, projections and scenarios. These can only help us see what potentials lie ahead. Our future ultimately depends on our willingness to choose freely and creatively, shaping our future focus based on our own preferences and aspirations.
