I want you to do something for me for a few seconds. Close your eyes (once you’ve finished reading this paragraph). Imagine that future version of yourself who’s everything you hope you’ll become. You know the version I mean – the ultimate version of you, the one who’s finally learned to be everything that has turned you into the kind of person you’ve always wanted to be. We all have that future version somewhere in our mind. The person we hope to become.
Now close your eyes and imagine them.
I’m assuming you’re done and have opened your eyes to keep reading, so here’s what I want you to do next.
Be that person.
You’re already scoffing, because it’s the easiest and most obvious thing in the world to say, right? But it’s not as simple as just being that person. That version of you has achieved things you haven’t yet, has overcome challenges you don’t even know how to figure out yet, has become all of those things you want to be through experience and time. You can’t be them yet. Otherwise you already would be, right?
It’s a great excuse, because the reasoning seems sound, but you’re wrong. The clue is right there: it’s an excuse.
Do you think that future version of you got to being them by thinking your current thoughts? No. So at what point do you think that changed? It can’t have been after they came into existence, because you just agreed they couldn’t have become that version of themselves by thinking the way you’re currently thinking. Which means the change between how you’re currently thinking and how your ideal future self thinks comes somewhere in-between. Before your ideal future self came into being.
All it is, is a choice. Be the person you want to be.
And yes, it is easy to say and so much harder to put into action. But even just the thought of being the exact person you want to be is so liberating, it’s intoxicating. It becomes addictive, until you can’t stop doing it.
You don’t need to achieve anything or do anything to be the person you aspire to be. Just be them. Think like them. Act like them. Speak like them. Display the traits you value about them, do the things you admire them for doing. What would they do in this moment? How would they think about a situation? Then just do it. There is nothing in your way of being that person. We all know this, but we don’t believe it. We don’t accept it. So we don’t think we can do it.
But I’m telling you: you can. It is as simple as sitting there right now and deciding.
I will be that person.
And just keep telling yourself that – until one day you realise you don’t have to, because that’s exactly who you are.
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