Scripting · “You Assign the Meaning”
Best Possible Self
Raise optimism, positive affect, and wellbeing by writing in detail about a future in which everything has gone as well as it realistically could.
Best Possible Self in 4 lines: For 20 minutes a day across four days, write in vivid detail about a future where you’ve worked hard and life has gone as well as it realistically could. Keep it specific and realistic, not a luck fantasy. Revisit it periodically, varying the domains. It builds optimism and clarifies goals so you’ll act toward them — a modest, real lift that needs repeating.
What it is
The Best Possible Self (BPS) exercise is Sonja Lyubomirsky’s evidence-tested writing practice for building optimism.
You write, in concrete detail, about a future in which everything has turned out as well as it realistically could — you have worked hard and your reasonable goals across work, relationships, health, and self have come to pass.
This is the research form, deliberately distinct from New Thought “live in the wish fulfilled” scripting: the aim is not to magically materialize the future by feeling it now, but to clarify your goals, build realistic optimism, and motivate present action toward them.
Lyubomirsky adapted it from Laura King’s 2001 study, where four days of such writing improved mood and even physical health months later.
The Method
- Set up the prompt. Imagine yourself at a point in the future — say one, five, or ten years from now — where life has gone as well as it realistically could. You have put in effort and accomplished what you reasonably hoped for. This is the best realistic self, not a fantasy of luck.
- Write for ~20 minutes. Describe that future in specific, vivid detail — what you are doing, who you are with, how you feel, what you have built. Write continuously; don’t edit. Cover the life domains that matter to you (career, relationships, health, personal growth).
- Repeat for four consecutive days. King’s and Lyubomirsky’s protocol is four days of writing, roughly 20 minutes each. The repetition is part of the dose (The Inner Creates the Outer), not optional.
- Keep returning to it. Lyubomirsky suggests revisiting the practice periodically — once you have the picture, you can re-read or re-write it to keep it alive and updated, with variety (different domains, different time horizons) to avoid it going stale.
- Let it convert into action. The mechanism Lyubomirsky emphasizes is motivational: a clear, optimistic picture of an attainable future helps you plan and work toward it (The Inner Creates the Outer), making it more likely — not by attraction, but by directing effort and attention. The writing is a goal-clarifying and confidence-building step, not the achievement itself. (Sourcing note: BPS originates with Laura A. King, “The Health Benefits of Writing About Life Goals,” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (2001); presented as a happiness activity in Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness (2007). Protocol details — ~20 min/day for 4 days — and quotes used briefly under fair use.)
Source & Lineage
Sonja Lyubomirsky (b. 1966) included BPS among her twelve happiness activities, drawing directly on Laura King’s experimental work and on the broader expressive-writing tradition (James Pennebaker).
It connects to optimism research (Carver & Scheier) and to goal-setting theory: writing a best possible self is, in effect, structured goal articulation with an optimistic frame.
The Traditions' versions
New Thought “ideal scene” / scripting the wish fulfilled — Marc Allen and others have you write the desired life as already real to feel and attract it; Lyubomirsky’s form is explicitly realistic and motivational, not metaphysical. Same pen, different theory of why it works.
- Neville Goddard’s imaginal living-in-the-end — assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled as a creative act; BPS shares the vividness but disclaims the manifestation mechanism.
- Expressive writing (Pennebaker) — writing about emotional material for wellbeing; BPS is its future-and-positive-focused sibling.
- Goal-setting / “future self” coaching — clarifying a vivid future identity to drive behaviour; BPS is the validated, time-boxed version.
Common refinements
Writing a luck fantasy. “I won the lottery” is not the exercise; it is the best realistic self after your own effort. Unrealistic content can even deflate by inviting comparison.
- One-and-done. The protocol is four days, then periodic; a single entry under-doses it (The Inner Creates the Outer).
- Editing instead of flowing. Write continuously and concretely; polish kills the affective lift.
- Staying vague. “I’ll be happy” does little; vivid specifics about people, actions, and feelings do the work.
- Confusing it with manifestation. This form does not claim the future arrives by feeling it now; if you want that framing, that’s a different (New Thought) practice — keep the theories separate.