In an interview titled How to Design a Life, designer and educator Debbie Millman tells entrepreneur Tim Ferriss about an exercise she gives her students to help them imagine what their lives will be like in the future.

Here’s how to do it in 2 steps:

1. Imagine yourself as 10 years older, and in as much detail as possible answer the below questions. Capturing your responses could take up to 20 pages or as few as 2 – the key is to dream big and without fear.

2. Then read your answers once a year and see what happens. For Millman, this process works like “magic.”

Choreographer and dancer Twyla Tharp writes in her book The Creative Habit that fear is a natural part of any creative endeavor.

Why didn’t you speak up during that brainstorming session at work? When that idea for a new project came to you, why didn’t you pursue it?

There’s nothing wrong with having fears – the mistake is to let them paralyze you before you begin.

She names 5 of the most common fears people face when they’re doing something new, along with some helpful perspectives for dealing with them:

I’m not sure how to do it: Doing is better than not doing, plus “we’re not talking about constructing the Brooklyn Bridge.” If you try and it doesn’t work, learn from your mistakes and use a different approach next time.

People will think less of me: Not the people who matter – your friends and family will still love you.

It will take too much time: Maybe, but if it’s something you really want to do, make the time. Tharp cites the golfer Ben Hogan’s idea that “Every day you don’t practice, you’re one day further from being good.”

It will cost money: Once your basic needs are met, money is there to be used: What better investment than in yourself?

It’s self-indulgent: So what? How often do you indulge yourself? Tharp notes that “You won’t be of much value to others if you don’t learn to value yourself and your efforts.”

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Founder and CEO of the Center for Talent Innovation, writes in the Harvard Business Review that mentors are great as “sympathetic confidants” and even role models, but you you need a career sponsor if you want to develop as a leader.

Hewlett argues that you need to be strategic in your search for a sponsor who can catapult your career: “Efficacy trumps affinity; you’re not looking for a friend but an ally.”

She recommends the following plan:

How to find a sponsor: The key is to target the right person. Not simply a role model, but someone with the power to significantly change your career through introductions to high-level contacts, stretch assignments that will help you grow, and a broad perspective when they give you critical feedback.

How to be sponsor-worthy: Instead of hoping for a lucky break, Hewlett suggests that you can make yourself worthy of a sponsor in 3 ways:

Note: Hewlett created a brief assessment to help you determine if you’re ready for a sponsor.

“Know your own happiness. Want for nothing but patience – or give it a more fascinating name: call it hope.“

- Novelist Jane Austen in her book Sense and Sensibility