(By the way, I’m a long-form writer. Video/audio coming soon, if that’s more your thing.)
Or, here’s a TL;DR:
→ We don’t usually talk about daydreaming in systems change work. But future visioning isn’t fluff—it’s a leadership practice. This post explores why anchoring in your 30-year vision changes how you lead today, and includes a free guided meditation to help you or your team reconnect to the long game.
Let’s Talk About Daydreaming
We don’t usually talk about daydreaming in systems change work.
Daydreaming sounds so frilly and floaty, doesn’t it? Like something 9-year-old girls do when they are supposed to be focusing on…chores. (Just kidding, it’s my firm belief that a child’s work is play, play, and more play. Some chores are fine though, as they teach “responsibility” and “productivity.”)
Why don’t we talk about daydreaming at work?
Because we’re too busy holding the container. Managing funder expectations. Translating complexity into soundbites. Responding to another staffing shift. Picking up where someone else left off, mid-crisis. Again.
The truth is, most of the leaders I work with rarely have the space to pause—let alone imagine. They’re deeply committed to the long game, but their calendars are ruled by the short game. And I get it. That was me, too.
But here’s what I’ve learned:
Daydreaming is a leadership practice. It’s not a distraction.
This is true especially when the work you’re doing will take years–or even decades–to bear fruit.
Because when you don’t make space to reconnect with your long-game vision, you lose clarity.
You lose energy.
You lose your ability to prioritize.
You lose the sense of why this work matters at all.
Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash
Why Future Visioning Matters (In Systems Work and Real Life)
In systems change work, it’s easy to fall into the trap of reacting instead of reimagining. You spend so much time responding to immediate needs—showing up at partner events, writing a grant proposal for a recently-announced RFP (due in 30 days), updating data for this year—that you forget you’re building something for the long haul.
But systems don’t transform because we get through the next 30 days.
They transform because we stay anchored in what could be true 30 years from now.
The leaders I support are often the ones carrying the long-game vision for an entire community. That’s a beautiful responsibility—but also a heavy one. And without space to reconnect with that future, it’s easy to start chasing outputs instead of outcomes. Mistake urgency for clarity. Or prioritize the funder’s timeline over the community’s transformation.
This isn’t your fault, by the way. Our culture does everything it can to make everything feel urgent. And evolutionarily, cave(wo)men only had to think about the next day or two (what will we eat today?), not multiple years into the future. And, while our brains have evolved to process more complexity, our world has evolved faster than we ever could.
Photo by Aleksandr Isaev on Unsplash
Future visioning is powerful in your work. But it’s also powerful in your life.
Two and a half years ago, I was going through an intensive, seemingly never-ending job search and set up a call with a career coach. I knew I probably couldn’t afford her services, but she came highly recommended and worked in the sector I was trying to break into.
On that call, I shared what I was looking for (I thought), my strategy, what I had done so far, where I thought I could improve. Then, she asked one question that made me stop in my tracks.
“What’s the long game here?” She wanted to know where I wanted to end up. Like, in life.
I blinked a few times, a little annoyed.
Photo by Ethan Richardson on Unsplash
“Well, since 2011, my end goal has been to move abroad again as soon as I could. And I just want to do work that is meaningful and won’t burn me out.”
Cough, cough. Blink, blink.
I knew that all of the work I was doing in that job search was not going to get me to that goal. It was like I was a hamster on a wheel seeing myself in a mirror for the first time–realizing that I was still in the same spot. But I was doing a lot of work.
My lesson? Future visioning isn’t only about strategy. It’s also not about creating a vision and then returning to the same everyday routines you’ve always relied on (been there too!).
It’s about creating the current conditions for you to keep going, and connecting your current-day actions to that envisioned goal.
When I finally gave myself permission to zoom out and imagine my own life 10, 20, 30 years from now, it changed how I made decisions today. I could see what needed to be protected (my health, peace of mind, and relationships with others). What needed to evolve (my strategy for what “work” looked like). And what I wanted to walk away from altogether (burning out because I felt undervalued in toxic organizations).
And it’s the same with organizations, partnerships, and systems.
The more clearly we can imagine the future we want to shape, the more wisely we can lead in the present.
Photo by OpenAI
A Practice for Visionary Leadership (That You Can Start Today)
If you’ve been nodding along so far—maybe a little too hard—here’s something for you:
I created a short exercise called “Thirty Years From Now: A Guided Meditation for Systems Leaders.”
It’s about 10 minutes long. Available on YouTube, with calming background music. Just you, your breath, and your imagination.
It invites you to step out of the noise and ask:
What does your community actually look and feel like if the work you’re doing leads to transformation?
What had to be protected, prioritized, or healed to make that future real?
And who did you—and your partnership—need to become to get there?
I’ve used this with backbone leaders, cross-sector collaboratives, and folks brand new to this work.
⚠️ WARNING: The energy in the room will shift. Your energy will shift. ⚠️
You can listen to it now on YouTube:
🎧 Watch/Listen Here
And if you want to bring this to a group—your team, a coalition, a board retreat—
there’s a full facilitator version available, with the script, an intro, and debrief prompts:
📥 Download the Facilitator Guide
This meditation won’t just help you pause. It will help you remember:
Why you started. What’s at stake. And what future you’re here to help shape.
Photo by Salah Darwish on Unsplash
How to Use It (For Yourself—or the Groups You Support)
You can use this meditation anytime you need to reconnect with your long-game vision.
Maybe you’re preparing for a strategic planning session. Maybe your team is feeling stuck and needs a reset. Maybe you just need a quiet moment to remember why the work matters–or what your personal “end game” is.
This is a tool you can return to again and again—alone or with others.
If you support teams, partnerships, or coalitions, I also encourage you to think about:
Who else might need this kind of space?
Who’s deep in the work and hasn’t lifted their head in months?
Who’s leading others but hasn’t reconnected to their own vision in a while?
The facilitator guide makes it easy to bring this into:
And if you want support integrating this kind of future-back strategy into a larger process—facilitation, reflection, team alignment—I do that too. 💁🏼♀️
(You don’t have to hold the whole vision alone.)
👉 Let’s set up a call.
Photo by Astrid Schaffner on Unsplash
🧶 Bonus: For the meditation skeptics
If you work with people who push back on meditation, they’re not trying to be difficult. They may have anxiety about slowing down. I know this firsthand—I resisted it for a long time.
In fact, when a grad school class I was taking in 2007 decided to start every session with a meditation, I pushed back hard. I couldn’t imagine sitting with my own thoughts with nothing to do.
The middle place I found?
I crocheted as my meditation. That was the only way I could stay present.
Here’s a great list of meditation alternatives if that’s where you—or your team—need to start.
You’re Already Shaping the Future
The truth is, your work is already shaping the future—whether you name it or not.
The meetings you hold. The values you model. The pace you set. The strategies you choose (and don’t choose). It all ripples forward.
That’s why this kind of visioning matters.
Not just for “someday,” but for how you lead today.
So I hope you’ll take ten minutes to pause. Listen to the meditation. Use it with your team.
Share it with someone who’s carrying more than their share.
And if you want support anchoring your team—or your partnership—in the long game, I’d love to help.
Systems change doesn’t happen by accident.
It happens because someone dared to imagine something better—and refused to let that vision slip.
Don’t do it alone. Let’s talk.
P.S. Interested in joining a community of fellow social changemakers in learning and growing? We’re launching a book club!! Get on the waitlist here. For those on the waitlist, thank you for your patience!
P.P.S. Enjoying the content and want to support? I’ve set up a Buy Me a Coffee page.
