Who are you going to be in the future? I think most of us hope that our future self is a better person, but we tend not to put much thought into who they actually are.
But what if your future self became the thing you thought most about? Or at least the thing most of your actions were directed towards.
Your future self could be incredibly different to who you are now if you want them to be. In our career coaching, we put a lot of effort into helping clients visualise their future self to help them with what they need to do now to make improvements.
Our thoughts are heavily influenced by the past. We view who we have been in the past as who we are because it’s the only reference point we have. But in reality, we could choose to be completely different tomorrow. Our past doesn’t dictate the person we should be.
But it does dictate how we normally think about ourselves.
It’s incredibly easy to get into a routine way of thinking and doing things and end up following a set pattern of life.
Turning your attention more towards your future self can be the starting point for making huge, positive changes in your career and life.
Who Is Your Future Self?
Your future self is a different person to who you are now. If you can grasp that concept, you are a long way towards making the improvements you want to.
If you look back 3 years, can you say that you are different now than you were then? I’m sure there is some small way at the very least that you can say you are different. The person you are now is the person you needed to become to live the life you have now, however small the difference is.
However, there will be a lot of things that are the same. The only reason these are the same is because you’ve carried them over from past behaviours. They are what you’re used to thinking and doing.
What if you could introduce completely new, better ways of thinking and doing?
Take the example of a first-time marathon runner. They sign up for a marathon several months in advance. They have a determination to take part and not make a fool of themselves. They don’t have much experience with running so they start a ‘couch to 5K’ program.
They have subconsciously visualised their future self as being a marathon runner. A marathon runner needs to be capable of running 26.2 miles, they need to be prepared for the attrition of running for several hours, they need to have hundreds of miles under their belt, they need to be the kind of person that gets up and goes for a run almost every day.
But the starting point is a couch to 5K challenge. That won’t get them to marathon runner level, but it starts the process. It’s the first step. It helps them get over the normal way of thinking towards the way they need to think to be a marathon runner.
Visualising your future self to the degree where it can completely change the way you view your career is a lot more involved, but it follows the same principles.
What do you want your future career to look like? Who do you need to be in that future career for it to be a reality?
That’s the person you need to work towards being and you can take it one step at a time until you become your future self and enjoy the future career you want.
Why Is Your Future Self Important?
It may seem like you’re just setting yourself goals and calling it ‘thinking about your future self’. But it’s very different to simply setting goals.
Visualising yourself taking part in the future career you want is a very powerful way of both understanding what you need to do and motivating yourself to do it.
Setting career goals does not give you a complete sense of what it will be like to achieve them. You know you should be doing things to work towards them, but you don’t truly understand the benefits of doing these things consistently and the detriment of not doing them.
Knowing who your future self needs to be helps you build the attributes you need to achieve certain milestones towards the future self and future career you want.
The way we get clients to visualise their future self is quite unique. We often take them to a place they never expected with their visualisation and really dig down into what they want. It involves breathwork, it involves a specific frequency of music, it involves an experienced guide to bring out your thoughts.
But at its core, it is about understanding your future self can be different and figuring out what they look like.
Do you know who your future self is?