“Keep going! Your Future Self is begging you to stick it out!”.—Fearless Motivation

Your Future Self is simply you in the future.   What’s important is that this self-image you hold of you in the future can help you or hurt you.

A first step is to actually understand how your Future Self can help your Present Self today.

How can your Future Self help present you?

There are obviously countless ways that using your Future Self can help you.

I don’t want to exhaust them here.

Instead, I want to inspire and challenge you to think of all the ways you can use your Future Self as a mentor, an inner coach instead of a critic, and a North Star to guide your path in work and life.

With that mind, let’s explore how your Futures Self can shape and guide a better you, today…

How Can Your Future Self Help Thee?… Let Me Count the Ways

Your Future Self can help your Present Self in multiple ways.

Here are a few examples…

1. Your Future Self can boost your optimism.
2. Your Future Self can boost your emotional intelligence.
3. Your Future Self can boost your health and well-being.

Are you starting to get the picture?… or should I say, are you starting to get a vivid picture of the full power of your Future Self?

1. Your Future Self Can Boost Your Optimism

You can focus on positive aspects in the future, to help you deal with negative aspects in the now (“this, too, shall pass”).

There is a saying that goes, “Hope spring eternal.”  This means it’s human nature to always find a fresh cause for optimism.

When you imagine your Future Self, you can create fresh sources of hope and inspiration.

Optimism is a great breeding ground for motivation.

While you can certainly motivate yourself with negativity and pain, you should work on pulling yourself forward.

You can master better motivation by pulling yourself forward by connecting to your values, tapping your inner drive, and connecting to inspiring scenes of your Future Self.

This is how you will find and create a sense and source of boundless energy in a more renewable way.

The phrase I like to remember here is:

“Keep going! Your Future Self is begging you to stick it out!”.

Imagine such compelling scenes of the future that you have a very good reason to stick it out.

You can think of your Future Self as your secret to your most powerful motivation and drive.

Your Future Self is really a great productivity partner, too, that can help you achieve exponential results.

2. Your Future Self Can Boost Your Emotional Intelligence

Clarity creates confidence.  When you create clarity about your Future Self and your future potential, you give yourself a firm foundation and reference to draw from.

When you picture your Future Self with more capabilities, it can give you a sense of motivation to move in the direction of your Future Self, through better choices and taking better actions.

This is how to get your Elephant and the Rider to move together, instead of fight each and create internal conflict.

You can also use your Future Self to respond better to situations that push your buttons or challenge you.

Instead of reacting, you can choose to respond.  And you can use your Future Self to help you respond better, by asking, “What would my Future Self do?” or “What would make my Future Self proud?”

The more you make these tough choices under tough situations, the more you will build resilience.

The more you will build confidence that you can handle whatever comes your way.

And you will also build a feeling of gratitude for your actions.  You will learn to deeply appreciate you.

And here’s the big deal…according to Tony Robbins, you can’t feel fear and anger when you’re feeling gratitude.

3. Your Future Self Can Boost Your Health and Well-Being

When you create vivid images of your Future Self in better shape, stronger, more flexible, more mobile, these scenes of the future can pull you forward while giving you deep sense of well-being today.

You can use these scenes of the future and your Future Self to help you make choices around your health and fitness.

You can picture calms images or scenes of your Future Self to remind you to be calm, cool, and collected, even under stress.

You can ask yourself simple things like “How does your Future Self want to show up?” or “How does your Future Self want others to experience you?”.

The more empathy you have for your Future Self, the more you can express better choices today.

What you are really practicing here is mindfulness.   The irony is that you are using your Future Self to be more present, and to make more mindful choices, with your future health and well-being in mind.

Expert Tip–Your Future Self Can Be General And Specific

You can imagine your Future Self in a general way.

You can also imagine your Future Self in terms of specific areas of focus, such as your mind, your body, your career, your emotions, or even musical talent, or achieving long-term goals, such as climbing a mountain.

This long-term goal concept is especially important since you won’t just wake up one day on top of a mountain, if you didn’t actually plan and prepare for it.

Effectively, you can use your Future Self to drive and guide your personal growth and greatness, as well as use it to hone in and improve an aspect of your work or life.

Imagine the Olympic athlete that sees their Future Self performing well under pressure as they reach for the gold.

Imagine the business leader who sees their Future Self able to give the perfect pitch or sell an idea with skill and influence the organization in the direction of her dreams.

You can use your Future Self to design a better future and shape your path.

The key here is staying power.  Andy body can jump into a goal.  But what separates the best from the rest, the ones who achieve their long-term goals, comes down to that vivid vision of their Future Self.

The power of your potential is in your hands right now, if you use it.

But your Future Self is a skill and you actually need to practice it.   And the beauty is you are ultimately practicing your positivity, your creativity, your problem skills and your visualization skills.

Way to go.

Expert Tip–You Can Practice Solving Hard Problems with Your Future Self

One of the mistakes people make when it comes to their Future Self is they just picture great outcomes or great achievements.

That’s the right place to start.

But you can’t stop there.

You know the road to greatness is paved with challenges, including leadership moments and learning opportunities.

To visualize better, and to get science on your side,  you need to imagine the obstacles, too.

And you need to imagine how you will respond to these challenges.

This is the “Doublethink.”

Doublethink is simply holding two opposing beliefs in your mind and accepting both.

This is actually crucial to your success.  Instead of glossing over and just imagining a shiny happy outcome, you take a good hard look at the realistic challenges you’ll face.

Imagine what you will do when you face these challenges.

You’ll be more effective in the real situations from practicing “Doublethink” rather than just fantasizing or just focusing on the negatives.

Expert Tip–Make Better Decisions Today Using Your Future Self

You can use your Future Self to inform your decisions right now.  At the end of the day, this Is where the rubber meets the road.

Do you hit the snooze?

Do you eat one more M&M?

Do you really put that off again?

Is this really the last time?

Do you try again?

Your decisions will largely come down to your values, your identity (the kind of person you think you are), and most importantly, who you think your Future Self will be.

If you can keep a vivid version of your Future Self that you aspire to be, this will be your ultimate empowerment platform to help you make better decisions, take better actions, and feel better along the way.

As Mae West said:

“I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it.”

And, in the end, using your Future Self to inform your decisions today will help you live one of the deepest quotes about live, from our departed friend, Waldo Emerson:

“What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what lies inside of you.”

What a poetic and eloquent way to say, “You can do it!”

If you ever wondered how to wake up your giant within, this is how.

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