Well, wonder no more. You can bring her to life starting TODAY.
It’s powerful to realize that you are the author of your future.
It’s not something that just happens to you. Each and every choice you make determines who you will become.
Your future begins with everything you choose to do or not do today.
Your vision of what your future self thinks, feels and how she behaves lives in your imagination. Tapping into your vision can guide your decision-making right now so you can actually become her.
Combine these two strategies to allow your vision of your future self to emerge.
1. Rewrite the story you tell about your past. MAKE YOURSELF THE HERO. How you think about your past affects everything you currently feel and do. Take each and every fact of of your life and explore what you’ve learned, how you’ve grown and all the accomplishments that you’ve realized from those experiences.
2. Imagine what future you looks like, thinks like, feels like, acts like and the satsifying results you will reap and enjoy. Dream big. Luxuriate in that vision. Think about it frequently. Write about it. Read and reread your vision. Rewrite again. Refine it. Expand it. Make it AMAZING! Blow your own mind with it’s awesomeness!
That’s it.
How you tell the story about your past matters.
While sharing a negative version of your past can be helpful at times as you sort out your feelings and understanding, reiterating it over and over again can hold you back and squash your dreams.
Retelling a negative version of your story on default mode is like rolling heavy boulder after boulder into your path through life. It’s tiring and frustrating to climbing past them. The more boulders, the slower and more laborious your progress.
But you have the power to clear your path. You can you can change the story you tell about your past in whatever way you want.
This is because the only place your past exists is in your mind. In your thoughts.
Your past is over but lives on in the story you tell yourself and others about it.
If you don’t like the story you’ve told up until now, change it. Tell a different version. It’s really that simple.
It all depends on where you direct your attention.
Create a version where you become the hero of your own story. Where you learn and grow and achieve.
Think about the parts of your story that were good, forgotten or ignored. Chose to remember those. Focus on them.
All the versions are equally true. You’re not deluding yourself if you choose one more positive version over one that’s more negative.
At the very least, it’s as important to give equal time to the idealized version of your story as it is to acknowledge the struggles and challenges.
Consider these prompts as you rewrite the story of your past.
If, on balance, life is 50% positive and 50% negative experiences, it’s inevitable that we will experience pain throughout our lives. It’s the contrasts which give our lives deeper richness and texture.
- In what ways am I the hero of my story?
- What did I learn or gain?
- How did this happen for me rather than to me?
- What if nothing’s gone wrong?
- How have new opportunities or experiences resulted?
- Is there a way to look at the experience to see that it happened exactly as it should have happened?
While this exercise can be helpful even processing and rewriting a traumatic event, this exercise is not in any way to be considered a substitute for seeking the care and guidance of a medical professional to address the trauma.
That being said, no matter our past or present circumstances, that is always the possibility and the option of growth.
It is possible to stop defining yourself based on what someone did to you or a situation you experienced.
You get to decide how to define yourself and what you will create and contribute to the world.
How do you discover your future self when she’s not you today?
You can write a letter from your future self who’s right where you want to be to the you of today who yearns to become her. Write from a place of love and appreciation for all you have achieved, your struggles and your successes.
- Encourage her to give you advice from the perspective of having achieved your future vision of yourself.
- What would she tell you to start doing, stop doing and continue doing?
- How would she advise you when obstacles and adversity appear?
- What else might she say?
Future you is not dictated by your past experiences unless you allow them to rule.
It’s easy to believe your future is dictated by your past.
We’ve often been warned that those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. This framing suggests negative consequences will occur.
But let’s not discount positive, life affirming lessons we learn from the past which we can use to make our lives so much better in the future.
How many times have you heard the old adage “Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life”? I’d like to tweak that saying to “TODAY is the first day of the rest of your life. ” Begin today to become the woman you envision.
You can learn to believe new things.
Another quote I love is “You’re never too old to become what you might have been.” It’s been one of my go to thoughts for years.
What you believe is what you create. So believe BIG.
If you need help getting started or have gotten stuck along the way, I’m here to help you dream big and become that woman you envision.
