Use Backcasting To Build An Abundant Life

Backcasting is a method for identifying strategies to build your abundant life. Backcasting moves backward in time, step-by-step, from a desirable future outcome to your present circumstance to reveal the mechanism to reach your future desired outcome. Backcasting uses a long-term perspective methodology to identify available paths for your success, the obstacles that may impede your progress, and the actions you should take to reach a desirable future. It frees your mind from day-to-day activities so that you can consider big life goals and the steps necessary to reach your desired future.

Backcasting Is Not Forecasting

Forecasting is the common planning method that starts with your present situation, relationships, and resources. It then attempts to predict your future success based on your short-term actions. Forecasting is typically focused on near-term goals because it is impossible to account for the complex challenges of unexpected events that will happen over your lifetime. The near-term perspective of forecasting is not the best method to optimize your results over a lifetime, and it can stifle your creativity as you plan significant future goals. Forecasting often constrains the scope of a person’s vision for the future because it is anchored to current conditions and resources.

Start With Your Life Stories

The first step in backcasting is to imagine an ideal abundant life as your desired outcome. This can be done individually or you can use a group to help you develop the details of your future abundant life. Backcasting encourages a Go Big or Go Home mentality with dreams unconstrained by your current situation.

Write Life Stories

An abundant life plan includes stories that describe the main components of your life at a time in the distant future, say i.e., when you are forty. Consider your desired future filled with abundant relationships, a thriving career, deep spiritual connections, emotional and physical health, and leisure time focused on adventure and fun. It is important for you to define success and the future endpoint you are targeting. We suggest you write a story about where you want to see yourself a few years from now. Jolt down clear milestones that will be necessary to achieve your targeted successes.

Study Successful People

If you do not have a specified future in mind, you can use a search process focused on people that you admire to find many potential desired futures.

You may find that you admire people with successful careers or people who have a gift for making others feel comfortable and accepted. Deep spiritual connections are often found in religious figures or in people who dedicate their lives to service. Emotional and physical health can be important factors in your desired future as well. Perhaps you would like to be physically active and participate in a wide variety of activities, or you may prioritize having a calm and stable emotional life.

Adopt life stories lived by those you admire and use backcasting analyses to determine the actions and resources required to realize your goals.

Dream Big Dreams

No matter what specific components you include in your abundant life dream, it is important to remember that this is YOUR dream. You get to decide what success looks like for you, and what kind of future you want to create for yourself. So dream big, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box!

What would an abundant life look like for you? What are your dreams and goals for the future? Take some time to sit down and really think about what you want out of life. Once you have a good understanding of what you are striving for, you can begin to take steps to make your dream a reality.

Identify The Key Drivers Of Your Abundant Life

Once you have a clear picture of the future you want, the next step is to identify the key drivers that will move you from the state of your current life to your future abundant life. These drivers can be based on ambitious goals, improved capabilities, mindsets, habits, technologies, important stakeholders, and your future financial needs. If you are not clear on the key drivers you will need to have in place to reach your specified future you can use a search process to identify people who currently live the abundant life you are planning. Identify the key drivers they used to obtain the particular future endpoint you are seeking.

Examples Of Key Drivers

Examples of the key drivers that are necessary for an abundant life include:

Setting Ambitious Goals

People who live abundant lives typically have ambitious goals that they are constantly striving to achieve. These goals keep them motivated and driven to continue moving forward in their journey.

Improving Capabilities

One of the key ways to improve your chances of achieving an abundant life is by continuously improving your capabilities. This could involve learning new skills, improving your existing skills, or keeping up with the latest trends and technologies.

Developing Positive Mindsets

Another important driver for abundant life is having a positive mindset. This means staying positive and optimistic even when times are tough. People with a positive mindset know that they can overcome any obstacle and eventually achieve their goals.

Creating Positive Habits

People who live an abundant life typically have positive habits that help them stay on track. These could include things like exercise, eating healthy, and spending time with loved ones.

Using Technology

Technology can be a great driver for an abundant life. People who use technology to their advantage can automate tasks, stay connected with loved ones, and access information quickly and easily.

Building Relationships With Important Stakeholders

People who want to live an abundant life typically build strong relationships with important stakeholders. These could include family members, friends, mentors, and business associates. Finding important stakeholders helps you build a sustainable society around you, full of people who want to see you succeed.

Planning For Future Financial Needs

One of the most important drivers for abundant life is having a solid financial plan. This means saving for the future, investing in assets, and being smart about spending.

If you are not sure where to start in your journey towards an abundant life, identifying the key drivers that are most important to you is a good place to begin. Once you have a clear understanding of what it will take to reach your desired future, you can start taking steps to make it a reality.

Develop Strategies For Personal Growth

After you identify the drivers of your abundant life, the next natural step is to develop strategies for implementing the actions necessary to develop the key drivers that will be necessary for a successful future outcome. Determine the particular future endpoint for each key driver and create a checklist of actions that are necessary to develop the drivers.

Develop Tangible Action Plans

Convert what you want to achieve into tangible actions that can be observed, measured and completed. The key is to make your action items specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). These tangible action sustainability principles provide a proven method to reach short and long-term goals.

Some people prefer to develop their capabilities through formal education and training programs. Others find that they can learn the skills they need by reading books or articles, taking courses, or attending workshops. There are many different ways to develop the capabilities you need to achieve your abundant life plan. The important thing is to find a method that works for you.

Strategic Sustainable Development For Your Desired Future

Strategic sustainable development will be required to maintain your discipline over long periods of time. When you combine your key drivers with your action plans, sustainable development toward your specified future is established. Backcasting reveals the mechanism through which that particular specified future can be attained. Backcasting is also an important aid in determining the direction technology development should take in the creation of your plan, and how you can handle environmental change. Keep in mind that you want sustainable development to help you achieve the outcomes that you desire. Strategic sustainable development will help you maintain your adherence to your action plan and help you reach your future success.

Now Do It!

Once you have developed a plan for implementing the actions necessary to develop your key drivers, it is important to take action and get started. Remember, it is not enough to simply know what you need to do. You must also take action and DO IT! Only by taking action and implementing your plan will you be able to develop the capabilities you need to achieve your abundant life goals.

Most traditional planning processes ignore the drivers that will be required for your future abundant life. The backcasting analyses will use your required drivers as a focal point to develop plans to reach your specified future.

Work Backwards From Your Abundant Life Dream To The Present

The final step is to work backward from your desired future to the present, identifying actions and milestones required to develop the stages in your life plan. This requires establishing the description of a specific future situation and then performing an imaginary moving backward in time, step-by-step, in as many stages as are considered necessary, from the future to the present to reveal the mechanism through which that particular specified future could be attained from your starting point in the present. This may require a development process that changes mindsets, uses strategic thinking, implements new technologies, changes your planning method, or starts a sustainable financial investment plan.

Powerful Transformational Change

The backcasting approach can be used for personal change, organizational change, or to solve complex problems. It is a powerful tool for making transformational change because it forces you to think about what you want in your ideal future, and then encourages you to develop strategies for making that ideal future happen. It is a good tool for creating an abundant life because it starts with the ideal future you want and works backward to the present. It uses the freedom of dreams to imagine possibilities without getting caught up in the clutter of a busy, hectic life. Identifying future desired conditions in your life can be an important aid to generate alternative solutions to reach ambitious goals.

Backcasting VS Forecasting

The major distinguishing characteristic between the scenario planning tools is that backcasting approaches a very particular and defined future end point from a future perspective. It then involves an imagined backward journey, step-by-step, from the future desired endpoint to your current life. It explains how you may reach your intended abundant life by using your present position as a springboard for growth.

Forecasting involves predicting your future based on current trends and merely continuing the use of your present methods into the future. It does not break free of the limitations of your present situation and often is stifling your creativity. It projects the current trend analysis into the future and is typically a linear extrapolation of the past into the future. Your abundant life is likely not possible with your current capabilities. Without significant development of your capabilities, you will hit a performance ceiling and your future success will plateau.

Career Performance Ceiling Example

As you develop new skills and knowledge, you will be able to advance your career and increase your earnings potential. However, if you do not continually strive to improve your skillset, you will eventually reach a limit in your ability to grow professionally.

There are a few things you can do to avoid hitting a performance ceiling in your career. First, make sure you are continuously learning new skills and knowledge. Read books, take courses, and attend conferences. Second, take on new challenges at work. Volunteer for projects that are out of your comfort zone. This will help you to stay sharp and avoid getting bogged down in the day-to-day. Finally, be proactive about your career growth. If you feel like you are not being paid what you are worth, or if you are not getting the opportunities you deserve, have a conversation with your boss.

Remember that performing at a high level for each job will be important for your progression toward your life planning goals.

More Problems With Forecasting

Forecasting is often difficult and fraught with uncertainty. This is because it involves making predictions about the future, which is inherently unpredictable. There are several common problems with forecasting. One problem is that people tend to be overconfident in their forecasts. They often believe that they know more than they actually do and that their predictions are based on trend analysis that is not accurate. This can lead to poor decision-making on how desirable futures can be achieved.

Another problem with forecasting is that people often base their predictions on current trends. This can be misleading because trends often change over time. Rather than taking steps that are merely a continuation of the present methods extrapolated, you should consider how desirable futures can be obtained using backcasting approaches.

Finally, forecasting can be difficult because there are often many variables outside of your control that can affect the accuracy of a forecast predicting the future. For example, let’s say you would like a career focused on urban planning, an unexpected change in government policy focused on a sustainable future could affect your action plan for growth in this career choice. Or a technology development breakthrough could greatly change how urban planning projects are completed. Forecasting requires predicting the future to be successful while backcasting keeps you focused on an end goal and helps you adapt to the inevitable changing circumstances with limited disruption.

Backcasting focuses on a stable long-term perspective designed to give you a clear compass pointed to an abundant life. This stable long-term perspective will not change when unexpected short-term obstacles occur. Your long-term perspective will keep you focused on the important actions that will be necessary to overcome short-term obstacles and to maintain your trajectory toward your long-term goals.

Why Backcasting Is A Powerful Technique For Growth

Backcasting analysis helps to improve the feasibility of realizing a rich, plentiful life in your future. It is not concerned with predicting the future, it takes a transdisciplinary approach to create a better way to reach your abundant life goals. Backcasting is both an important aid to the development of your life planning vision and a future-based method to help you create a plan of action to reach your goals.

As you experience disruptions in your life, you can use the envisioned abundant life plan to guide you back to the pathway that will build your ideal life. Backcasting looks far ahead to create bridges toward desirable outcomes for the future. It requires looking at the world as it could be and not just as it is. This is an important natural step in achieving an abundant life, which often requires breaking out of our current patterns of thinking.

When you look at the future through the lens of the backcasting approach, you are essentially asking yourself, “What would have to happen now, for the future I want to become a reality?” This is a very different question than the one most of us are used to asking, which is “What will happen in the future?” The answer to the latter question requires you to predict the future, while the answer to the former question is a set of actions or steps that you can take in the present to make the future you want a reality.

The backcasting process can be used as an individual development process to create an abundant life for yourself or you can expand its use to design an ideal family life or even to design a strategy for an outside organization like your side hustle or business.

One application is to use the backcasting approach to align a team’s focus on a big goal for a successful future. It is a powerful tool for making transformational change because it forces you to think about what you want, and then develop strategies for making that future happen.

Backcasting Can Be A Valuable Tool

Backcasting is valuable when:

• The future is uncertain since it provides a way of investigating and expanding the space of possible desired futures.
• Multiple people (important stakeholders) need to be involved in the planning process, as it can help them understand how their actions contribute to the attainment of the desired outcome, i.e a married couple plans to purchase their future dream home.
• You want to develop transformative change, as backcasting can help you imagine and plan for a particular future endpoint that is different from the status quo.
• Technological development is necessary to reach your desired future.
• Your long-term goals are complex and difficult to achieve.

How To Use Backcasting – 4 Easy Steps

The backcasting approach can be completed in four easy steps.

Detailed Vision Of Your Desirable Future

The first step in using backcasting is to develop a detailed vision of the desirable future you wish to create. This first step is important to ensure that your actions will be taken in alignment with your vision.

Start by writing detailed descriptions of the future abundant life you desire. Decide on what the particular future end point has in it for you For example, when considering your career, write a detailed description of your position at age 40. What credentials will you need to be hired in that role? What capabilities will be necessary to effectively manage the position? What type of company offers the role? What kind of network affiliations will you need? Is there a technology challenge you will need to overcome to reach the position?

A good way to identify the details you will need for your envisioned life is to study a person already living the life you seek. What did they do to get where they are? What do they know that you don’t? Can they offer you alternative solutions to the obstacles preventing your abundant life? Do they exhibit a major distinguishing characteristic?

LinkedIn can be used to identify potential mentors. Mentors can be both an important aid and a supportive sounding board when scenario planning life goals.

Determine Milestones

The next step is to work backward from your envisioned future, developing a series of steps or milestones that you will need to accomplish to make your vision a reality.

For example, if your goal is to be hired for the position you described in step one, some of the milestones you may need to complete your aspiration would be completing the necessary education and/or training, developing the required skills and experience, and making the right network connections. You should lay out a career progression plan identifying the jobs you likely will need to reach your desired future job. There may be many jobs in your progression to a senior job. Knowing a normal job progression can help you develop a long-term skill development process that will help you achieve your career goals.

As you develop your milestones, it is important to keep in mind that they should be SMART goals – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This will help to ensure that you are taking timely, actionable steps that are aligned with your overall vision.

It is also important to note that the timing of the milestones you need to reach is not likely to be linear. There may be some overlap between milestones, or you may need to attain certain prerequisite milestones to be eligible for future milestones. For example, you may need to be hired for a junior-level position to gain the experience you will need to be hired for your desired senior position. While in the junior role you can develop additional drivers that will also be a pre-requisite for your desired future senior position, i.e. an advanced degree, specific technological development or closely related experience.

Create A Plan Of Action

Once you have developed your milestones, the next step is to create a plan of action for achieving each one. This will require some research to identify the resources you will need and the steps you need to take to achieve each milestone. What are the future developments you will need to reach your milestones?

As you develop your plan of action, it is important to consider the potential roadblocks that you may encounter along the way. What can you do to mitigate these future roadblocks? How can you overcome them if they do occur? Are there any new solutions you will need to develop to overcome the roadblocks? Is there a technology development that can be used to overcome a roadblock?

Once you have identified the steps and actions necessary to complete your goals, you can begin working on a plan to implement them. This step-by-step plan should be designed to help you overcome any obstacles that you may encounter along the way.

Remember that life will be filled with challenges that will disrupt your abundant life development. Think of them as speed bumps that will slow your journey and don’t let them disrupt your overall desire to reach your abundant life. Making progress toward your future abundant life is what is important.

Take Action

The final step is to take action and begin working on your plan. Remember to celebrate each milestone you achieve along the way, as this will help to keep you motivated and focused on your ultimate goal.

Reaching desirable futures requires an action orientation focused on the daily habits and routines that align with your long-term perspective. Small misalignments of actions over long periods will take you significantly off course and away from your desired abundant life. It is important to remember that the future based backcasting approach will require an iterative process to reach a successful outcome. As you take action and achieve results, you will need to revisit your abundant life vision and reassess your backcasting analysis to ensure that your action plan remains on track.

As you live your life and develop higher-level drivers and capabilities, it is common that you will envision a bigger desired future. Growth mindset-oriented people continue to enhance their aspirations throughout life. This step-by-step pattern of growth will bring abundance and joy to your life and your future developments.

Key Takeaway – The Benefits Of Backcasting

The backcasting approach can be an extremely powerful tool for achieving transformative change. It can help you:

• Develop a vision of your abundant life.
• Identify the drivers necessary to bring about your future abundant life.
• Create an action-based orientation to managing your daily life.
• Plan out a strategic approach to build resilience and grit mindsets to overcome future obstacles and challenges.
• Monitor your progress and make adjustments as needed to overcome complex challenges.

When used correctly, step-by-step backcasting can help you achieve what may seem impossible. Your desired outcome is waiting, so what are you waiting for? Get started today!