Hello Reader!​ ​

To say I'm optimistic about our future would be an understatement. Some days I'm so excited I can hardly wait for the future. Cars that will drive me around while I read! 3-D printer ovens cooking lasagna! AI that will delve further into research and connect the dots we're missing to end brain cancer! You know, just all human potential 10x!!!

And, yes, I know that there are problems and pitfalls with each of these scenarios: water to cool the servers for AI, electricity for the cars, jobs for the people the technology replaces. But I also know that there are millions of people with open minds and creative new ideas that are ready to tackle these problems.

I used to be so scared of the future. But what did that get me? Nothing but hours of unproductive worrying and endless doomscrolling.

Now, I'm all in. I'm ready to learn and help where I can. I'm ready to ask the hard questions. I'm ready to push for the ideas that will solve the problem of safe housing and plentiful food for everyone. I'm ready to support new ideas that might sometimes fail but will always move us forward to a better future.

What about you?

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Feel

How to Feel More Positive About the Future

1. Process the fear and anxiety about the future instead of suppressing it.

• Your negative feelings about the future aren't predictions. They're unprocessed emotions creating a filter through which you see what's ahead.
• Take 90-seconds when anxiety about the future arises: hand on heart, hand on belly, feel the fear fully without being consumed by it.
• Once the emotion completes its cycle, your brain can actually access hope and possibility instead of being hijacked by fear.

2. Distinguish between intuition and anxiety when thinking about what's ahead.

• Intuition about the future feels calm and knowing (even if the message is to change direction); anxiety feels urgent and spiraling.
• Clear the emotional static first: when fear, worry, or dread are running, you can't access your actual intuitive sense about what's coming.
• Ask after processing your emotions: "What do I actually sense about my future?" vs. "What am I afraid might happen?" These are different signals.

3. Allow yourself to feel hope without immediately shutting it down with "realistic" thinking.

• Notice when positive feelings about the future arise (excitement, anticipation, optimism) and give them the same 90 seconds of full feeling you give to fear.
• Your protective patterns will try to kill hope before disappointment can ("Don't get your hopes up"). Recognize this as fear of feeling, not wisdom
• Practice feeling hopeful for 90 seconds daily: imagine your desired future and let yourself feel the positive emotions without editing them with "but what if..."

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Change

How to Change Your Future Through Your Thoughts

1. Transform the protective thought pattern: "The future will probably disappoint me."

• This pattern developed to protect you from disappointment by managing expectations low, but it also prevents you from creating what you actually want.
• Use bilateral tapping on your shoulders to raise awareness to shift it: Left hand - "This pattern protected me from hoping too much." Right hand - "I now choose: I can hope fully and handle disappointment if it comes."
• Replace "Don't get your hopes up" with "I'm allowed to want what I want and work toward it regardless of guaranteed outcomes."

2. Shift from fear-based future thinking to possibility-based future thinking.

• Protective pattern: "What if everything goes wrong?" (scans for danger, creates anxiety, leads to avoidance)
• Expansive alternative: "What if things go better than I expect?" (scans for opportunity, creates motivation, leads to action)
• Both are unknowable predictions. Choose the thought pattern that serves your growth rather than your fear, not because it's "truer" but because it creates forward movement.

3. Change "I don't know what I want" to "I'm discovering what I want through exploration."

• The thought "I don't know" keeps you stuck in analysis paralysis waiting for certainty before acting.
• Reframe: Your future desires become clear through trying things, not through thinking harder about them from your current position.
• New thought pattern: "I don't need to know the entire future; I just need to know my next aligned step, which becomes clear through action."

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Build

What Steps to Take Towards a More Positive Future

1. Take one small action this week toward your desired future (not "when you're ready.")

• Building your future starts with micro-movements now: 15-minute research session, one conversation, signing up for one thing, spending $20 on the first step.
• Stop waiting for clarity/permission/perfect timing/enough money/the right feeling; start building from exactly where you are with what you have.
• The future you want doesn't appear fully formed; it emerges from accumulated small actions taken consistently from today forward.

2. Design your life around your desired future self, not your current limitations.

• Ask: "What does the version of me living my desired future do daily?" Then start doing 1-2 of those things now (morning routine, boundaries, creative time, relationship standards.)
• Stop building from "What's realistic given my current situation?" and build from "What's required to become who I want to be?" Close the gap through action.
• Make one decision today as your future self would: What would she choose about this job/relationship/opportunity/boundary? Then choose that.

3. Build your future support structure now (don't wait until you "arrive.")

• Your better future requires better relationships: identify 2-3 people who are building futures you admire and increase contact with them this month.
• Stop spending time with people whose vision for your future is smaller than yours; they're building their comfortable present, not your transformative future.
• Join one community/course/group where people are building futures similar to what you want, your future accelerates in community with people on the same path.

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Key Insights

When you feel hopeless about the future:

FEEL: Process the despair for 90 seconds (it's temporary)

CHANGE: "This feeling isn't a prediction" → "Feelings pass, actions accumulate"

BUILD: Take one tiny action toward what you want today

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When you catastrophize about what's coming:

FEEL: Feel the anxiety fully without believing its story

CHANGE: "Everything will go wrong" → "I can handle what comes"

BUILD: Prepare for one specific thing you can control

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When you don't know what future you want:

FEEL: Feel the confusion without making it mean something's wrong with you

CHANGE: "I should know by now" → "Clarity comes through exploration"

BUILD: Try one new thing this week and notice how it feels

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When you want to change but feel paralyzed:

FEEL: Feel the fear of change AND the longing for something different (both valid)

CHANGE: "Change is dangerous" → "Staying the same has its own costs"

BUILD: Change one small thing today (your morning, a boundary, a conversation)

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Your future isn't something that happens TO you. It's something you're creating through what you feel, think, and do today.

Start now.

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Have a lovely day! - Kate

​feelChangeBUILD.com​