At the start of this summer, my daughter Arielle and I decided to sit outside with our journals and write about the most fun summer we ever had. 

The tricky thing was, the summer we were referring to hadn’t happened yet. 1st grade had just ended (for her, not me), mostly comprised of homeschool classes with mom so it was a lot of fun. But we were more excited for the fun that lay ahead. 

Instead of waiting for the summer to be over and journaling after. We dreamed about what our most fun summer would be like. What places would we travel to? What family would we spend time with? What yummy treats would we eat? 

We didn’t write this in the future tense, we wrote it all like it already happened. There is a special type of happiness that comes over you when you write about fun events that will take place in the future. And when you write about them as if they already happened to you, you get the joy of picturing yourself experiencing it plus the added joy of knowing you still get to experience it. 

I told Arielle to get really detailed with what we were writing. Instead of saying, “We went to Lake Tahoe and it was fun,” because we knew we had an upcoming wedding there, we wrote about the chilly weather that forced us into sweaters and hot tubs. We wrote about the ice cream we ate together. We wrote about the breathtaking scenery that only God could create. 

We wrote about trips to Disney and riding rides we’d never been on before. We of course wrote about food and ice cream, again. 

We wrote about cheerleading camp for Arielle and basketball camp for Dylan. Staying up past our bedtime to watch movies. Going in the pool as the sun was going down. Going to the beach as the sun was coming up. 

We had pages of journaling that only happened in our minds so far. This was a really fun experience. Just writing about all these things gave me a high. Like the high people get from setting audacious health goals on January 1st, but better. 

And then the best part happened, we got to do them all! 

As I read those same journal entries now, 3 months later, it’s incredible how spot-on they were. For a moment, I thought I was reading about the past from the present. It tricked me. I was really reading about the future, in the future, which was now the past…mind-blowing. 

One thing I learned from this process is how intentional you have to be to create magical moments with your family. Make them a part of the process and ask them, “What would an incredible summer look like to you?” 

We visualized the fun times we were going to have, and then made them happen. 

You only get like 10 summer vacations with your kids where they are old enough to keep up and young enough to still want to be friends with you. Don’t waste a single one. 

I’m so grateful for the time we had together this summer and will do this back-to-the-future exercise for every season. Speaking of, it’s time to do one for Fall! 

Let me know how you’re back-to-the-future journaling session goes! 

-Coach Tony

Here are a few pics from our adventures this summer.