A Helpful Strategy
Imagine yourself as the person you would be afraid to say you want to be out loud to others (because it seems so ridiculously impossible right now).
"So, in short, a helpful strategy for becoming a magician: Surround yourself with people who look like magicians to you. Then imagine yourself as one, older and wiser, in great detail. Imagine yourself as the person you would be afraid to say you want to be out loud to others (because it seems so ridiculously impossible right now). Write it down in great clarity and detail, then forget it. And let the part of your subconscious mind that still remembers lead you to becoming the things you want, and maybe, years later, check if it did." - Autotranslucence
See: Becoming a Magician - autotranslucence.com
I've done this with myself and with long term goals and aspirations. I return to look at my files around once every two years, though the frequency of when I return to it changes as I get older.
What's amazing to me about this is to see which of my desires came to pass, and which do not,
and then to see a correlation:
the desires that do come to pass are related to my best and long-term self,
while those that do not are momentary and related to the state of growth that I was at, at the time.