The Line of Sight Method

The steps

Quoted from the essay, word for word.

1. Close your eyes and look down. Take a deep, slow breath in and out.
2. Ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing. Then ask again. And again and again. Start with what’s directly in front of you - your paper, your workout, being at the social gathering. An answer will come, be it a word, phrase, or image. Then ask why you want that again, go a layer deeper.
3. …until you feel a specific positive emotion. You’ll notice that somewhere around the 4th or 5th why, the answers won’t be sentences but scenes/emotions. This is your sign to stop. You’ll know you’re at the right place when you can’t ask “why” about it anymore.
4. Build the scene (who, what, when, where).
   1. Who’s there? Name them out loud to yourself.
   2. What’s happening? What action do you see and what sounds do you hear?
   3. Where? Where are you placed in the scene? Where’s your feet? What’s the setting?
   4. When? Name a specific day and time. Not “Sometime in 20 years”, “Wednesday, June 20, 2046 at 5:40pm”.
5. Ask yourself why this moment is possible. With every why, imagine you zoom out of the scene into a decision you made. Then ask again, what made that possible? Keep zooming back in time, decision by decision, until you reach the present.
6. Return to the present moment. Open your eyes and return to where you are. Now close your eyes again and look into the distance. The scene is still there, crystal clear. And between you and it is the line of whys and decisions connecting the present to the future scene. This is your line of sight. You can practice pulling up this scene any time, to the point where you can close your eyes at any point and the scene is right there, 100% clear.

The full essay, with the reasoning behind each step: How to be Successful