RULE #10: Answer the Call to Adventure. Treat every future scenario as an invitation to imagine yourself doing something important. Ask yourself three questions to better understand the opportunities for action: What will people want and need in this future? What kinds of people will be particularly helpful in this future? How will you use your

Scientists call this form of imagination episodic future thinking, or EFT. It’s the mental ability to transport yourself forward in time and pre-experience a future event. EFT is often described as a kind of “mental time travel” because your brain is working to help you see and feel the future as clearly and vividly as if you were already there.

When you take a mental time trip ten years into the future, your brain starts to think with a different point of view. This isn’t a metaphor—it’s a literal fact. Scientists describe this as switching your imagination from first-person to third-person perspective.

Many of the scenarios that you’ll play with in this book will be significantly more dramatic-sounding than the actual futures you might need to prepare for. This is by design. When we face more extreme circumstances, we are more creative in our responses and more willing to consider doing things differently. The drama helps boost the brain’s

There’s another future scenario lurking underneath this one that is much more likely to happen—in fact, it’s almost inevitable, according to most climate scientists. It’s the possibility that many cities and nations will need to relocate their entire populations over the next fifty years, because of the growing climate crisis. If you change

WHEN PLAYING WITH A FUTURE scenario, keep in mind two important rules: Rule #1: Suspend your disbelief.

Urgent optimism is knowing that you have agency and the ability to use your unique talents, skills, and life experiences to create the world you want to live in.

To imagine dramatic change in the future, it can help to remind yourself just how much has already changed in your life. When you’re ready, I want you to picture in your mind’s eye a day more or less ten years ago today.

“If the future is a time when many or most things in your life will be different than they are today, how long from now does that future start?”