i wanted freedom and flexibility it's something that i knew i was only going to
get if i created my own business as a coach you can actually choose whatever future you
want for yourself you don't have to be held hostage by what has happened before
well hello and welcome to the podcast or if you are watching this on youtube then welcome back to
my channel so this podcast episode is number 100 for me and you're just gonna have to bear with me
as i celebrate a bit and kind of absorb the amazement that i'm feeling at having reached
100 episodes it's so crazy it feels like i've only just started on this podcasting journey but
here we are anyway i spent a lot of time thinking about what i wanted to talk about on this episode
i felt like it needed to be a really juicy topic something really useful and timeless and just
kind of worthy of the number 100 so after a lot of deliberating it was clear to me that i had to make
this topic about creating your future self so this is going to be a really fun episode the future
self exercise is something that is so important for personal development and business development
too of course which is what you are probably here for as you are building your coaching business
and i think that you are going to absolutely love this exercise this is a topic that i really love
exploring and i have to say for some of us it's not an easy one to grasp hold of but once you do
it can change your life basically i want to push the boundaries of what we are all told to expect
i want you to think bigger this year now before we get into the granular how-to of this tool
of creating your future self let me just first explain what i mean so whenever we talk about the
future whether it's five minutes from now a year from now or ten years from now you know because
the future doesn't actually exist yet it's a fabrication of our brain it's a story or something
that we're making up and as far as i understand you know about the world and how it works then
this is the truth we can talk about the future and think about the future even though it doesn't
actually exist yet which means we can actually talk and think about it in a variety of different
ways so you know we do this all the time we're in the present moment and we're talking about
the future but here's what happens our primitive brains are always trying to keep us alive on
default our brains have a survival mechanism that wants things to stay the same and to continue the
patterns that have assured our survival up until this point so because of that when your brain when
thinking about the future you know it will want to repeat parts of your past even if these are things
that you don't really want to keep repeating if you were to think about it consciously using
those higher parts of your brain but your brain thinks that if you just keep on doing what you
have always done then you will be safe and stay alive and really that's the main function of that
primitive brain it's also efficient it's efficient to just keep doing the same thing
doesn't require a lot of thought it's just about going through the motions motions that you have
already done in the past but luckily we have more than just a primitive brain it's possible
to pause and think more intentionally instead of just going on autopilot and perpetuating
those subconscious habits that we have created we can actually decide on purpose when we stop and
use our higher brain do we want to keep doing what we have always done it will typically be
easier to continue just doing what you've always done for example several years ago when my kids
were really young i knew that i needed to become more active the kind of laziness that i could get
away with in my 20s was not really working anymore and i knew that i needed an exercise routine but
it was so hard with young kids whenever i had been active in the past it had been in the form of you
know going to the gym or taking exercise classes or taking dance classes or playing a team sport
really scheduled and formal things that took a lot of time time to you know get to the place wait for
the class to start get changed you know drive home after all of that stuff right and so for a long
time i was like well that's how i've exercised in the past and i can't really do that now so
i don't know what to do i guess i just won't exercise i'm not really any good at anything else
i also had a story that i hated to run i would say to people oh i only run when i'm being chased but
then i was like okay so do i want to be a 40 something year old who is totally sedentary who
has stopped bothering because she just doesn't have the time to exercise in the way that she
always has or do i want to try something new of course it would have been easier to just keep
doing the same old thing that was definitely the path of least resistance then i read an article
in some magazine about a celebrity who you know when she had kids she started running because
it was basically just the quickest and easiest thing that she could do she would just you know
put on her running shoes head out the door and 30 minutes later it's done so i pushed myself
out of my comfort zone i did i decided to try running i downloaded the um couch to 5k app
and then got started and it completely changed my life because now even though my boys are older now
and i do have the time that i could go to the gym or fitness classes or whatever i actually
way prefer running i run almost every day it's actually my favorite part of my day now so back to
our goal here which is to create your future self from your vision of what's possible for the future
not creating it from what has already happened in the past or what you have done before and this is
a really good thing because the point is that you can actually choose whatever future you want for
yourself you don't have to be held hostage by what has happened before but let's talk about
how so there are three steps i will list them really briefly and then we'll go back through them
you know just one at a time so step one is to pick a time frame in the future and ask yourself who do
i want to be by the end of this time frame and how do i want to feel and step two is to create your
future self with intention and then step three is to visualize being her right now so let's get into
the details of step one again choose a time frame so this can be short term medium term or long term
and short term i mean very short just like just to the end of the day medium term is something that's
more like six months from now or a year from now something like that and long term is more like
5 or 10 or 20 years from now or possibly as long as to the end of your life ideally it's really
helpful to do this exercise in each of those time frames short medium and long term but let's start
with just the short term so i want you to think about how do you want to feel by the end of the
day today now in the medium term you might say okay well how am i going to want to look back on
who i was being in the past year or the past five years or whatever time frame that you have chosen
and then step two is to get even more specific and then really have fun with this describe your
future self in detailed specific terms you can start with easy things like what your future
self wears what she looks like what she does on a daily basis and then keep going describe where she
lives and who she's with and again how she feels it's a great idea to ask yourself what things you
want to be different in the future by the end of the time frame that you've chosen and what
things you want to be the same for example when i was changing my career moving from medicine which
is very familiar and comfortable into coaching which was very unfamiliar and very scary and
unknown i knew that the things that i wanted to be the same were like i still wanted to focus on
helping people that had always been my motivation for going into medicine in the first place anyway
and that just hadn't changed so i still wanted that but the things that i wanted to be different
you know i didn't want to be changed to a clinical practice with no choice but to work in a clinic
according to somebody else's schedule and being a slave to other people's demands i wanted to be
the one in charge i wanted to be the boss and i wanted freedom and flexibility it's
something that i knew i was only going to get if i created my own business as a coach and i
just want to pause here for a second check in on this process because some of you may find this
really easy quite simple to describe your future self but i want to warn you that that may not be
such a great thing because what you may be doing is creating this image of your future
self from your past so this goes back to what i was talking about in the beginning that your brain
will tend to default to what you already know is possible so especially when we're talking about
picturing your future self that's in you know one of the medium or maybe long term categories like
five years down the road for example you may be creating an image of yourself that is just
too similar to what your current reality is and here's the thing we have to teach ourselves
what is possible because i'm here to tell you that anything is possible and that's because most of us
there aren't we're not taught to think about life like this our education system for example
is completely based on what has already happened what already exists in the world in high school
you know when a kid sits down with a counselor to discuss their future the conversation usually
centers around what they have already done what they are already good at and then maybe they're
given some very inside the box options of what they could do with those pre-existing preferences
so a kid who likes science could become a science teacher or a doctor and a kid who likes writing
could become a journalist and so on and then the decisions from there are basically designed
to just put you on that conveyor belt of life go to college here are the ones that you can get into
go ahead and get a job here's what you can expect for an income with the career box
that you've chosen and then just start working and saving for retirement so this is just one
example of how we are all conditioned to create our future from our past our brains want to do
it because it feels very safe society wants us to do it because it's clean and it keeps everything
making sense in the world but i want you as you're designing your future self to resist the urge
to create your future self based on your past self and like i said for the most part this applies to
those medium and long term time frames when you think about who you want to have become by the
end of the year or five years or ten years don't just default to who you are now and what makes
sense from that perspective i want to encourage you to really stretch yourself and create that
future from a sense of limitless possibility i want to invite you to come out of the fog that
most people exist within and step out of the idea that possibility is something that's based on the
past and really embrace the idea that all of your possibility is in the future the truth is
to achieve amazing success you need to grasp the fact that what is currently impossible for you now
is the possibility of the future i had a woman who was considering one of my um entry-level programs
to learn how to coach and she asked me would this work for someone who has never coached before
this was an entry-level program clearly designed for people at the beginning but she still wanted
to know and i was kind of tempted to say no sorry this program is only available for people who've
done some coaching from inside the womb people who are born with that experience i of course did
resist the temptation and reassured her that yes in fact this was indeed for somebody who had never
coached before we all start from somewhere nobody is born being able to do anything but i understood
that she couldn't see the possibility yet and that's okay most people who come to me just can't
because like i said society has told us repeatedly that if you haven't already done something
then it's not likely that you can do it now or anytime in the future and your brain tells
you the same thing this is new you don't know what you're doing you don't know how
so forget it but impossible is temporary so as you're describing your future self i want you
to release yourself of any of those preconceived ideas of what is possible in fact i'm giving you
permission i was on a call with a client recently um another physician who is struggling to reinvent
her identity outside of medicine and i said it's okay for you to do something with your life that
has nothing to do with medicine you are allowed i checked with the people in charge and you've
been granted permission if you want to follow a path that has to do with a love of food or travel
or any other thing that you like then you get to do that it doesn't matter that you went to medical
school and became a doctor if that is not what you want to do anymore it's not a life sentence
and i could see that when i granted her permission in that way even in that kind of like a silly way
it opened up some possibilities for her to explore without feeling like she had to create her future
based on her past so getting back to the exercise as you are fleshing out your picture
of your future self be sure to ask yourself how you want to feel which i mentioned before
ask yourself at the end of every day how do i want to feel how do i want to think about my life five
years from now so go ahead and ask yourself any of these questions and just you know see what
is coming up for you one of the beautiful things about this exercise is that when you create your
future self she can then give you advice she can actually help you to clarify your decisions
so let's say you're struggling over decision like wondering if you should do something like
go on a particular trip or invest in something for your business you can go to your future self for
advice and ask her what the answer is for you because you have created a clear and detailed
picture of her in your mind so what would your future self want you to do in this situation
and so this brings us to step number three which is visualizing your future self right
now and one way to do this is to set aside five minutes um and i like doing this in the morning
but you want to close your eyes and imagine being that future self person for you know just five
minutes in the morning imagine going through your day and imagine at the end of the day
feeling whatever emotion it is that you want to feel whether it's pride or contentment or
satisfaction or something else and what you're doing is visualizing ahead of time to get
your brain and body into that space remember by default your brain is going to try to focus on the
past but by visualizing repeatedly the future self that you want to create you can train your brain
to focus on your future joe dispenza calls this creating future memories and you can do this for
how you want to feel at the end of the day you can also do this for the one year goal that you
have or the three year vision that you have or any other time frame that you've chosen so
when you do your visualization just close your eyes and imagine being your future self person
really get into the details and activate all your senses you know what is your future self wearing
where is she living what does her environment smell like and feel like and just get into that
state of being her your future self just for five minutes every day this is going to help you
create your future self from your future instead of from your past so just to recap those three
steps choose a time frame create your future self with intention and visualize being her now
all right my friends that is what i have got for you today before i let you go i just want
to remind you that we are currently enrolling the winter class of the wellness coach academy and so
if you are listening to or watching this in real time there is only one week left to join my
comprehensive wellness coach certification program and finally make this the year that you step into
a career that gives you freedom and fulfillment and financial abundance a really fantastic group
of women have already enrolled and they will be kicking off on the journey of their lives
very soon and i would love for you to join them and come along with us if you're watching this at
any other time after the doors have closed you definitely want to add your name to the wait list
so you don't miss the next round of enrollment and you can learn more about the program and
get on that wait list that i mentioned by downloading our free wellness coaching career
guide i will put the link to that in the show notes and the description so be sure to check
there all right that is a wrap for today have an amazing week and i will talk to you again soon
you