I actually do use something like imagining the future as well, but in a way I am imagining a future NOW. When I do it I don't see it as separate from myself - I place a center of consciousness in a future moment and it is as if that becomes what is real and relative to it I am a point in the past. Then it is like reeling in a fish to that specific NOW.
I don't know if that sounds really strange or not, but my view of time is that it is made up of an infinite pool of possible nows. I feel that this realization gives me the volition to choose; it is free will.
