The Sceptic's Tarot

How can we create the ideal future? We don’t have the power to determine our future completely, but we can make choices today that will benefit us tomorrow.

“Future-me” is the you you will be in the future. She or he is the sum of all your choices today and has to cope with all the consequences.

• Should you invest this money or spend it on something you are sure you need?
• This job pays well, but you will get bored easily. Should you rather take the offer for the job that stimulates you, but pays less?
• These exercises are tough, and you don’t feel like doing them right now. Is it OK to skip the class?
• Jenny baked a delicious cake and you don’t want to hurt her feelings by refusing a piece. Or should you resist temptation?
• Should you say yes to someone who offers a secure but mundane future, or the one who promises excitement, but only for the short term?
• Should you lose weight quickly with a strict but short-term diet, or lose weight slowly with a long-term lifestyle change?
• Which talent should you concentrate on now: the one that will be helpful for your current job or the one that would give you marketability?

Some of these questions can be answered relatively easily, especially the ones comparing what you want now with what will be good for you in the future. (What you will choose to do, though, is another matter!) Other questions are trickier, in that both options offer suitable solutions. Things become even more complicated if there are more options.

This is where future-me comes in. The “you” that you will be at the end of the year: would she prefer you to have chosen A or B? The future-you in five year’s time, what would benefit her? What would tomorrow’s future-you do?

Here is a spread that covers some future-you issues:

1. What does future-you want you to know?
2. What does future-you want you to do?
3. What strength does future-you want you to use?
4. What strength does future-you want you to develop?
5. A message from future-you.