Let’s take a journey into the year 2025…
Sit for a moment…breathe in and breathe out… Relax your nerves and shut down everything buzzing around you…
Now draw a picture in your mind’s eye, of who you hope to become in 10 years?
Who will you be? What will you have accomplished? Will you be closer to your dreams? How about your relationships? How will they have evolved? How will your children be?
And how about your relationship with God? Will you still be working for someone else? Or will you be your own boss? And your team – what sort of players will you have on it?
How about your state of mind? And your emotions? Will you have a better attitude? How about how you treat others?
If you’re able to see all of these clearly, it’s time to take a pen and notebook or your IPad or something, and write down what you see.
“The shortest pencil is better than the longest memory”
You might be so busy in the day to day activities of your business and life that you are unable to sit down and cast your vision further out. And if you run your own business, when was the last time you worked on your business? Have you rather been busy working ‘in’ it?
An invitation to meet your future self…
Now let’s take it a step further. If your present self were to meet your future self how different would you be? How much work would you need to do on you?
What will remain the same? What will be better? How will you be plus 10?
If today, my present self were to meet my future self plus 10 years… hmmm… We would be very different from each other. Well I am sure she would be absolutely appalled by my eating habits and some of my secret plans to deal with some people…Yeah! sue me! But I am also sure she will be a little proud of the steps I am taking today to really be her in 10 years!
So here are few more things about my future self:
♠ My future self is slimmer. Two dresses down! And a very flat tummy (gosh that feels good already!). She looks even younger and so ravishing her husband needs to peel his eyes off her daily! And oh what a Surprise! She hasn’t killed her husband yet! That’s great news. In fact they are more in love than ever! (I hope my husband is not reading this…)
♠ My future self is just as confident as I am now but much more experienced and closer to her dreams. She has a very strong team and they are reproducing other great leaders.
♠ My future self is on fire for God. In fact when she walks people grab a hold of anything around them to keep from falling! Yes!
♠ My future self finally got her other dreams off the shelf and now has 3 other thriving companies of her dreams. Her 2 grown up kids are being trained to take over 2 of these. And the other 3 children are now teenagers with a strong sense of purpose and direction. Why do I see another child. Hmm… I should quickly rewrite that…
♠ My future self does not drink coke anymore! She is really healthy and takes lots of fruits and veggies. She does not joke with her exercises (so help me God). My future self and I need to discuss how she accomplished these…
♠ My future self still forgives easily. She is even more loving and caring. Her greatest asset is still her creativity. In fact she has written 3 business books and 3 spiritual books. She has produced 2 movies and 6 theatrical musicals in her own theatre. (can someone tell me why my heart is beating faster and faster…)
♠ I thought to share a lite version and also to help you loosen up and do the same. My original picture is actually more specific with some serious details too.
It’s your turn.
Now that it’s all clear to you, how do you plan on ensuring that you become that future you? When do you plan to start? The question is, what things can you begin to do today to be who you just met?
“Where your mind’s eyes cannot see clearly, you can not go”
Simply put you will never own your future and develop intrinsic value if you do not have or develop a clear picture of your desired future outcome. And that’s simply what a dream is…
Having a clear picture – a dream does many things for us:
- A dream gives us direction – have you ever known a person who didn’t have a clue concerning what he or she wanted in life yet was highly successful? I haven’t either. We all need something worthwhile to aim for.
- A dream provides us with that – It acts as a compass, telling us the direction we should travel. And until we have identified the right direction, we will never know for sure that our movement is actually progress. We could be going backwards and never know it.
- A dream Increases our potential – without a dream, we are unable to see beyond our present circumstances and therefore struggle to see potential in ourselves. But with a dream we see further into the future, this helps us develop the capability to stretch and grow to reach it.
- A dream helps us prioritize – when you have a dream, you know what you are willing to give up in order to go up. You are able to measure everything you do according to whether or not it contributes to the dream, concentrating your attention on the things that bring you closer to it and giving less attention to everything that doesn’t.
Dust yourself up and take action!
Dreaming about what you want to be without taking steps towards it today is the same as daydreaming. The reality is that if we do not do anything to change ourselves daily we will not grow to reach our potential.
If you are not intentional about your growth you will soon be in the future, you will look for that future you, you imagined today and he or she will be nowhere around. Guess who you will find? You today. No significant changes.
So… what are you waiting for?
