Do you ever think about your future self? In a few years, what do you think you’ll be doing?
Would you travel the world on a boat? Or maybe you dream of being a famous author living in the country? Perhaps you’d rather be in a high-rise apartment? Either way, the chances of these things happening are extremely low if you don’t create the dream and work towards it.
All humans have an intrinsic desire to improve themselves and their lives. So, you’re benefiting by designing your triumphant outcome and mapping out the way to get there.
Today, you will enhance your life for years to come, and you’ll be forever grateful you did!
1. Who is your future self?
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
All right, let’s create your ideal future self! You’ll want to write this down so you don’t lose sight of whom you’re becoming. Place this list somewhere private where you’ll see it often. You could put it on your phone, on your computer, or your desk. Wherever you usually look every day.
Answer these questions:
- What current aspects of yourself do you love? How can you make these even better? Do you have a talent? Are you funny? Are you ultra-productive? Anything about you that’s awesome, write it on the list.
- What bad habits would you like to fix? For example, anger issues, shame, pessimism, low self-esteem, rudeness, lying, or disorganization. Label this list as “my past self” and choose now to stop identifying with these problems.
- What character traits would you like to develop? Write the aspects you admire—like confidence, classiness, kindness, patience, perseverance, or charisma.
- What will you look like? Of course, we can’t change things like height, but what changeable aspects would you improve? For instance, fitness, teeth, hairstyle, clothes, posture, or whatever you’d like to improve.
- What would be your hobbies? What experiences do you want to have? Where would you like to travel? What kind of friends would you have?
- What job would you have? Will you get paid enough to live your ideal life? Keep in mind that according to research from Princeton, making more than $75,000 per year doesn’t increase people’s happiness. However, that was in 2010, so with inflation, it equates to $89,398.37. Therefore, about 90k should be enough, but to each his own.
Also, remember that the more money you want to make, the more you’ll have to sacrifice your time that you could spend on a spouse, kids, or friends.
2. Imagine being your future self
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
— C.S. Lewis
Now, close your eyes and imagine being your future self in 3 to 5 years. How do you look? Where do you live? Are you married? Do you want to have kids?
Also, don’t worry about what society thinks is the ideal life; what would be the perfect life for you? You don’t have to have kids or even get married. You don’t have to buy a house if you’d rather travel. Open up your mind to a new life that resonates with you.
What do you want to have accomplished by this time? Would you have a boss, or would you be an entrepreneur? What are your hobbies?
Visualize everything in great detail. Experience the emotions you’d feel. Ingrain this image in your subconscious—journal about it. You can even write as your future self.
The more you visualize your perfect life, the more your subconscious will accept it as a destination, and then it can guide you to it.
3. What does your future self want you to do?
“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”
— Abraham Lincoln
Now, step into your future self’s shoes and look back at who you are now; this can be profoundly eye-opening.
What your future self would tell you.
- What advice would you give your current self?
- Which goals should you be working on every day?
- What have you been avoiding?
- Are there fears that are holding you back from starting?
Encourage yourself to get started because you must step outside of your old ways to move into this new world. Go for it, despite not knowing the outcome. Don’t worry about making mistakes because that’s how you’ll gain valuable experience.
You can also write a letter to yourself to read in a few years and seal it in an envelope. Write the date that you should open it on the envelope for several years from now.
Or even better, write a letter to yourself on futureme.org, then choose a future date for them to email it back to you. It’s pretty cool. Plus, when you receive the email from your “past self” it’ll remind you to check in with yourself and your progress. It’s free too!
4. Plan how to become your future self
“The future depends on what you do today.”
Next, plan out what you’ll need to do to become this glorious version of yourself. If you don’t plan what you do with your time, in 3 years, you’ll be somewhere else entirely from what you wanted. Take control and steer towards a phenomenal life. You do this by planning what you do every day.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What’s your ultimate goal that you want to reach in a few years?
- Write (in your planner) a list of what you’ll need to do and the dates you’ll do them. Circle the deadline date 3 (or 5) years from now.
- Brainstorm different strategies that will ensure you do them like how to make the process easier.
- Write a deadline for each task. Calculate how many days you have to conquer your goal.
5. Start becoming your future self
A person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.”
— Earl Nightingale
After you have everything scheduled in your planner, it’s time for the fun part—become the person you’ve planned to be. Remember when you were a little kid, and you pretended you were different people? Now, you get to do that again, only this time you’re acting like your future self.
Practice being this new enhanced person. Drop your bad habits like procrastinating. Never allow fear to stop you from taking action (except if it’s dangerous). Pretend you don’t have a worry in the world and do what you’ve been avoiding all these years.
Create new morning and evening routines to make sure you do what you need to do. For instance, you could wake up earlier, sit up straighter, give people your full attention, walk and talk with more confidence, or smile more.
You might feel strange at first, but over time it’ll become who you are naturally. Every time to respond to life how your intended self would, you transform who you are a little more.
Extra tips:
- Think of the time from now to your deadline in days (not months or years). 3 years = 1,095 days and 5 years= 1,825 days
- Measure your progress every day. Note every tiny success.
- Track your habits in your planner.
Wrapping up
In short, you’ve just taken a massive step towards becoming your future self! Now, you know exactly what your life will be like and who you’ll be. In fact, you’ve already begun to be that person!
However, I must warn you; your subconscious will try to lure you back into your old ways. So, when that happens, you need to respond to it as your future self would. Say, “No, I’m not going to waste time playing mindless games, I’m creating my destiny today instead.” The more you practice this, the more automatic it will become.
I know you can do this! You’ll be ecstatic and so proud when you become your future self!
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