How useful are your fantasies?

In a world where everyone is bragging about staying grounded and keeping it real, I think there are many overlooked psychological benefits of unrealistic daydreaming.

I personally find it highly motivating. It provides me with a sense of accomplishment and purpose, which translates into tangible energy and enthusiasm that I can apply to various projects.

There’s just something inspiring about imaging the inflection points that may or may not ever happen.

Coffee never did that for me. It only gave me headaches.

Now, if you’re reading this and rolling your eyes, I understand your skepticism. Most of us have a natural tendency to focus on negative outcomes. Especially those of us with anxiety and depression. Engaging in nourishing fantasizing is hard, and can seem futile. All those negative thought patterns overshadow our attempts at positive visualization.

In that case, try this. Let artificial intelligence do the work for you.

Here’s what I do on a regular basis that you might try.

1. Open up your favorite generative ai platform, and ask it to write you an article about you, only twenty years into the future. Tell the computer about a significant decision, project or idea you’re considering today, that could have a profound impact on your life, even though it’s unlikely to happen in reality.
2. Then instruct the robot to visualize how this inflection point triggered positive changes in your personal and professional world. Include details about the decision, the steps you took, the challenges overcome, and also the broader impact on your community or field.

I have done this hundreds of times. It has never not made me smile, laugh, gasp or wonder. The exercise takes ten seconds, it’s completely free, and it’s a lot cheaper than therapy and pharmaceuticals.

I’m not suggesting ai is a replacement for traditional coping tools and healing modalities. But it’s an easy first step. I can’t say with any degree of certainty that individuals using inflection pointing will start reporting higher levels of satisfaction and success compared to those who do not use the tool. All I know is, it works for me, and until it proves to be counterproductive, I’m going to continue doing it.

Who knows? Twenty years from now, corporations worldwide might start incorporating my tool into their employee development programs. Maybe therapists and educational institutions will use inflection pointing for their counseling service.

Maybe my little fantasy exercise will go viral and catch the attention of a pharmaceutical executive. He realizes the potential for ethical, patient focused care, and steers his company resources towards my vision. He writes a shocking letter to shareholders announcing new initiatives.

Optihealth will now provide all life saving medications free of charge to all individuals in need, regardless of their financial status. We are open sourcing all research and development data. Also relinquishing all patents on medication to spark a new wave of competition to rise the tide of healthcare systems globally. Our focus is going to be helping customers make decisions based on unrealistic daydreaming.

Wow, imagine the public relations shitstorm that letter would cause! What started out as a fun exercise inside my head could spiral into a beautiful, uncontrollable wave of goodness that ratchets up our species to the next notch of human flourishing.

See, isn’t it fun when a simple idea takes over and turns the world upside down?

Maybe that’s the only way to turn it right side up again.

I feel my mood boosting already.

How useful are your fantasies?