Dreaming about the Future

Recently I have been thinking a lot about the future. A baby on the way will certainly inspire such thinking. You start to imagine what your life will be like in 5, 10, 15 years, and you start asking yourself a lot of questions -- What will my child be like? What kind of career will I have? How will my relationship with my husband change? Where will I be living? Will I be successful? Will I be happy? There are so many thoughts, questions, and scenarios running through my head in the lead-up to baby. In general I enjoy thinking about these things, I like to imagine the future, and picture myself happy and successful in the years to come. Sometimes of course I get anxious with all these thoughts - but mostly dreaming of my future is comforting.

My future dreams have not changed all that much over the years. I have always dreamed of living in a city, having a creative career, being happily in a relationship, and starting a family. I am living that dream, but I am starting to get a bit more specific about what I want from my career and life. This is my most recent dream scenario for 5-ish years in the future. It will be fun to look back on this post in a few years ;)

In five years this is how I imagine my life:

My family and I will be settled into a city, most likely a new city, since San Francisco is so unaffordable. We will live in a wonderful townhouse that has room for our family to grow and a little backyard, but is still very much a city home and convenient to public transit, shops, and restaurants. My son will be entering kindergarten, he is happy and healthy and cute as can be. My husband will have a job as a professor at a wonderful university. He will hopefully be enjoying his research and working hard to build his lab and legacy. We will have made a nice community of friends, other young parents, creatives, and intellectuals. We will host dinner parties and go to picnics in the park. We will go on weekend trips, and always be saving and planning for international adventures. Maybe we will have another addition to our family, or one on the way ;)

As for my career, my latest dream is to open a brick & mortar and run a more tangible business. As much as I love freelancing, I don't know that I can do it forever. Recently I have been dreaming about pivoting a little bit from my graphic design career and have been thinking about what it would be like to own my own storefront business. Something that many people don't know about me is that I have always been very interested in the art of massage. Starting way back in high school I thought about going to massage school and giving massages as a way to earn extra money in college. Of course that never happened but I still think about it. I don't think I would like to actually be a masseuse but I am interested in the industry of relaxation.

My dream right now is to open up an intimate and relaxing wellness spa and gift shop. In the back of the shop there will be 1-2 beautiful massage rooms, and in the front will be a wonderfully curated shop and art gallery that is also a relaxing space to hang out. I am not a hippy-dippy person at all - but I am very interested in creating a safe space where people can come and relax and relieve some of the stresses of their life. Of course as a designer, I can't help but think about how I would brand and design the shop. I see my target audience being women in their late 20's - 40's, who desire a relaxing space but are not interested in the more hoity-toity and overly expensive type of spas - but also want an upgrade from cheap foot spas and the like. Instead they desire a serene but also a bit more quirky/creative space, a place they can instantly feel comfortable in. In my more romantic big vision ideas for this shop, I imagine creating my own product line that focuses on wellness types of goods and beautiful gift items. I also imagine the shop being a gathering place for fun creative events, small exhibitions, book clubs, and interesting speakers.

Of course I know that owning a brick & mortar of your own is not all fun and games. There is inventory management, scheduling, employee management, cleaning, and so much more. But I am also excited for many of these things - and in a few years I think I will really be up to the challenge. I love the idea of having a tangible businesses that is not just an online notion. I want to meet my customers and be involved with the local shop community. Getting a massage and having a spa experience is not something you can buy on amazon - and so it is an industry that will never be crushed by online suppliers. And that is why not only is creating a relaxing spa/shop a dream of mine - I also think it is smart business-wise. At least I hope so!

Okay, this post got really long! But it has felt great to write out my ideas and dreams for the future. I know life is unpredictable - and knowing myself, I may have a completely different dream in a year! But in any case I know that in 5 years I hope to be happy, healthy, and creatively fulfilled.

Do you dream of opening a brick & mortar shop? Or if you have, do you have any advice?