The Anti-Vision Exercise
Define the life you never want to reorient your mind toward what you do
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 80%
Rather than forcing a rigid life plan, Koe uses inversion to build a 'minimum viable anti-vision.' You spend 10-30 minutes contemplating experiences you never want to have again — reflecting on past pains that have since faded — and write them all down freeform. Then you flip it and write the vision: what you do want to experience. The pair becomes a push-pull frame. Its only purpose is to reorient your mind so you start noticing opportunities, people, and ideas you'd previously scrolled past. He stresses the first version will feel delusional in hindsight; the point is to plant a flag and refine it over years across health, wealth, relationships, and happiness.
Origin
Koe built this as a practice he teaches and includes a version in his free annual review template, framed around what would make an 85-year-old you miserable.
Core principles
- 01Knowing what you don't want is easier and clearer than knowing what you want
- 02The frame's job is to reorient perception, not prescribe an exact path
- 03First drafts will feel delusional — that's why you iterate
- 04Direction beats destination; solve problems along the way
How to run it
- 1
Set aside contemplation time
Give yourself 10, 20, or 30 minutes — however long it takes — of quiet to reflect. This is a minimum viable draft, not a final document.
- 2
Write your anti-vision
List every experience you never want to have again, including past pains that have since become less painful. Write freeform with no structure.
Pro tip Ask 'what would I do to make 85-year-old me miserable?' to surface honest answers.
- 3
Write the opposite vision
Flip the frame and write what you do want to experience. Accept that this side will feel naive or delusional in a year.
Watch out Don't treat this as set in stone — expecting to know exactly what you want defeats the purpose.
- 4
Use it as a perception filter
Hold the push-pull frame top of mind so everyday inputs — social posts, books, people — start getting sorted toward your direction.
Pro tip Once oriented, algorithms and recommendations begin compounding in your chosen direction.
- 5
Return and refine
Come back to the document over months and years, iterating across health, wealth, relationships, and happiness as your understanding sharpens.
In the wild
Koe illustrates with a fitness example: your vision is getting a six-pack; your anti-vision is feeling sluggish, overweight, and not liking how you look in the mirror. With that push-pull frame active, a useful fitness post you'd have scrolled past now catches your attention. You follow the account, the algorithm caters to it, you buy a recommended book, go down a rabbit hole, and develop a genuine interest — direction emerging from orientation rather than a rigid plan.
→ A previously invisible interest becomes a self-reinforcing pursuit driven by newly tuned perception.
Common mistakes
Demanding a perfect first draft
Expecting the first anti-vision to be accurate or permanent causes paralysis. It's meant to be a rough flag you refine over time.
Treating it as a fixed path
The frame sets direction, not a specific route. Holding high expectations that you must know exactly what to do undermines the exercise.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone paralyzed by too many possible directions who needs a low-stakes way to generate orientation.
Not ideal for
People who already hold a high-conviction goal and are executing on it.
From the transcript
“you're going to take 10 20 30 minutes ... to create an antiv vision for your future ... contemplate and think of experiences that you…”
“the only purpose of this Frame is to reorient your mind to perceive New Opportunities and ideas”
From the episode
How To Design Your Life For Peak Creativity - Dan Koe - #894
Dan Koe