Feeling-First Future Design
Define the feeling you want, then find multiple affordable ways to create it
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 93%
Feeling-First Future Design starts by asking what emotional and practical experience a desired future is meant to create. Decompose the image into its component parts, such as nature, warmth, social connection, security or time with someone you love. Then generate multiple ways to obtain those components, including routes that require less money but more relocation, time or discomfort. Pal uses his image of a Spanish peninsula and family life to show that the underlying sea, beauty, community and love could be assembled in many places and at different costs. The framework separates money from the privilege it is intended to buy. Its output is a set of smaller lifestyle experiments rather than one rigid, expensive symbol of success.
Origin
Extracted from The Diary of a CEO
Core principles
- 01Money is a scoring system, not the final privilege
- 02The desired feeling can often be created in several ways
- 03Experiences and relationships may matter more than status assets
- 04A future vision should be decomposed into its real components
How to run it
- 1
Name the scene
Describe the future lifestyle or possession that currently represents success to you.
Pro tip Use one vivid day rather than an abstract word such as freedom.
Watch out Do not assume the symbol and the desired experience are identical.
- 2
Extract the feelings
Identify the emotional states and privileges you expect the scene to provide.
Watch out Status approval can masquerade as a personal value.
- 3
Break down the ingredients
List the people, environment, security, activity and time conditions that create those feelings.
Pro tip Separate necessities from decorative details.
- 4
Generate alternate routes
Find several locations, schedules or arrangements that could produce the same ingredients.
Pro tip Include one route that uses less money but asks for a different tradeoff.
Watch out A cheaper route may carry real legal, health or relationship costs.
- 5
Test the experience
Run a small, reversible experiment before committing to the most expensive version.
Watch out Do not use experimentation to postpone a necessary decision indefinitely.
In the wild
Pal describes wanting a peninsula in Spain with family, then breaks the image into sea, natural beauty, social life and being with someone he loves. He says those ingredients can be solved in many different ways rather than through one exact property or wealth target.
→ A rigid expensive vision becomes a flexible set of quality-of-life requirements.
Pal contrasts becoming a billionaire to live in St. Barts with living on a beach in Latin America for very little. The examples carry different tradeoffs, but both can address the underlying wish to live by the sea.
→ The desired experience is separated from one assumed price tag.
Common mistakes
Optimizing the symbol
A prestigious house or wealth number can consume resources without reliably producing the intended feeling.
Pretending money never matters
Alternative routes still require honest accounting for security, access, health and practical constraints.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for people setting financial or career goals around a particular future lifestyle.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for dismissing essential financial security, health or housing constraints.
From the transcript
“Money is just a scoring system that allows you privileges.”
“If we break it down to what is the feeling that I want”
From the episode
The Investing & Crypto Expert: "We Only Have 6 Years Until Everything Changes!", "The S&P 500 Isn't Worth Your Time!", "Don't Keep Spare Cash In A Bank!"