Your Ten-Year Plan For A Remarkable Life

In 2005 Debbie took a class at the School of Visual Arts with the late, great Milton Glaser. One of the exercises in his class was writing an essay articulating what your life could be five years into the future envisioning everything you wanted it to be, if you do could anything you wanted without fear or failure. Debbie decided to put my heart into this exercise and wrote a ten-page hand-written essay outlining her biggest, most audacious dreams. For the first time in her life, she didn’t edit what was possible before it was possible and she recorded every hope that she had. She put her disbelief and skepticism and pessimism aside and imagined a future of joy and abundance and freedom. It was a spectacularly life-affirming experience. And over the years—17 to be exact—every single one of the things she wrote about has happened. There is something tangibly mysterious about this exercise. Maybe suspending disbelief in steadfastly rigid beliefs can allow some light in. Perhaps declaring what is possible out loud helps it all feel real. Or it could be just human hope, manifested in a moment and forgotten.

 

When Milton stopped teaching, Debbie asked him if she could teach the exercise to her students, and he agreed. And now, several years later, for the first time ever, she has partnered with Chronicle Books to create a deck of cards to help anyone else that wants to undertake this exercise!

 

The Remarkable Life Deck provides prompts to identify hopes and aspirations, and, by daring you to dream them, helps you make those dreams a reality. The set features 30 illustrated cards with generative prompts, an instructional booklet, and a workbook for creating your own ten-year plan, this deck makes a meaningful gift for anyone contemplating a big life change, anyone searching for clarity and direction and anyone who wants to imagine what the immensities of their own life can be.