SKIP TO: Header | | | Navigation | Main Content | Footer

Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

Happiness Articles & More

Tuesday Tip: Imagine Your “Best Possible Future Self”

One thing you can do today to be happier.

By Christine Carter | August 16, 2011

Practice thinking optimistically about the future by taking some time to write down your hopes and dreams for yourself in 5 or 10 years. Where will you be living? What friends and family will be in your life? What type of work do you imagine doing? How would you like to be spending your time? (Check out Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book, The How of Happiness, for more about this exercise, or read about how to do it with your kids here.

© 2011 Christine Carter, Ph.D.

Become a fan of Raising Happiness on Facebook.
Follow Christine Carter on Twitter
Sign up for the Raising Happiness monthly newsletter.

Advertisement X

About the Author

Christine Carter

Christine Carter, Ph.D. is a Senior Fellow at the Greater Good Science Center. She is the author of The New Adolescence: Raising Happy and Successful Teens in an Age of Anxiety and Distraction (BenBella, 2020), The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less (Ballantine Books, 2015), and Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents (Random House, 2010). A former director of the GGSC, she served for many years as author of its parenting blog, Raising Happiness. Find out more about Christine here.

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus

MEET THE GREATER GOOD TOOLKIT FOR KIDS

28 practices, scientifically proven to nurture kindness, compassion, and generosity in young minds

Order Now
Related Articles
- When Is Divorce Good for Women?
  April 22, 2024
  Recent research and memoirs have a message: Ending bad marriages can dramatically improve women’s mental and even physical health.
- Your Happiness Calendar for April 2024
  April 1, 2024
  This month, play and find joy.
- Who Finds Joy in Other People’s Joy?
  March 27, 2024
  Who feels good when a good thing happens for someone else? Our GGSC sympathetic joy quiz results suggest it has almost nothing to do with…
Take the Sympathetic Joy Quiz

Do you notice joy in others and share in their happiness?
Take the Quiz
Are You the A*Hole?

Worried that you might be wrong in that argument you're having? Intellectual humility can help.
Are You Remembering The Good Times? (The Science of Happiness Podcast)

Thinking about happy memories activates reward centers in our brains, and can help us feel more connected and accepted. Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye discovers the joy-bringing power of recalling her good childhood memories.