Year-Off Possibility List
Remove time and money constraints to reveal goals, then shrink one into action
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 99%
Imagine that you have a full year away from work and a year's salary to fund it. This removes the two constraints—time and money—that normally limit imagination. List what you would do without editing for feasibility. The output is not a fantasy schedule; it is evidence about the experiences, projects, and priorities you genuinely want. Choose one item, bring it down to size, and create a version that fits into two weeks or a month. Then schedule it rather than postponing it to retirement or an undefined someday. The exercise moves from unconstrained imagination to a concrete list, then from a large aspiration to a bounded action.
Origin
Mulcahy uses this exercise with students and coaching clients who like the idea of career breaks but do not know what they would do with the time.
Core principles
- 01Someday is not a concrete plan
- 02Imagined constraints suppress meaningful goals
- 03A large aspiration can be reduced to a small experiment
- 04Personal goals should be lived throughout a career
How to run it
- 1
Grant imaginary freedom
Assume you have one full year off and a year's salary available.
Pro tip Write the assumption at the top of the page so practical objections do not creep in.
- 2
Generate the list
Record every experience, project, place, or pursuit you would choose under those conditions.
Pro tip Keep writing past the first conventional answers.
Watch out Do not judge feasibility while generating ideas.
- 3
Find the signal
Review the list for goals that create the strongest sense of joy, curiosity, or fulfillment.
- 4
Bring it down to size
Turn one large goal into a version that can be done in two weeks or one month.
Pro tip Preserve the essence of the goal even when shrinking its scale.
Watch out Do not shrink it into an administrative task with none of the desired experience.
- 5
Put it on the calendar
Choose a natural break or create space and commit to the small version.
Watch out Leaving it on the list recreates the deferred life plan.
In the wild
Someone imagines using a paid year off to live abroad. Rather than waiting until retirement, they identify a natural break between contracts and plan a one-month stay that captures the core experience.
→ An indefinite someday goal becomes a scheduled, affordable experiment.
Common mistakes
Editing the list too early
Applying normal time and money constraints during ideation prevents the exercise from revealing genuine desires.
Keeping the dream at full size
Treating the one-year version as the only valid version makes action easy to postpone.
Is it for you?
Best for
People who sense they are deferring life but cannot clearly name what they want to do instead.
Not ideal for
People with an urgent financial crisis who need immediate stabilization before discretionary experiments.
From the transcript
“imagine that you had a year off in a year's salary to go with it what would you do”
“they can take a huge plan and bring it down to size and get something they could do in two weeks or a month and…”
From the episode
Diane Mulcahy: Go Gig or Go Home
Diane Mulcahy