Becoming Your Future Self

byAlanJE

2.2K followers

1 year ago

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday evening i attended a virtual Property Investors Network and presented a current case study of a property project that i am involved in which produces a great return on investment, of more than 300%.

However, the most interesting presentation of the evening was by the chairperson of the Property Investors Network (PIN) Meeting, Dominic Beecheno, who is also the Head Coach of the PIN organisation in the UK.

I have heard Dominic speak on several other occasions, and every time I hear his talk i find that i can resonate and relate totally to what he suggests. Here is my recollection of Dominic´s presentation of yesterday evening and I hope it will also be something that you can relate to and glean some benefit from.

Become Your Future Self

The article centres around the following main topics:

1. Psychology: In order to change the way that you think, you need to understand how your mind works.

2. Being Your Future Self NOW: You need to change yourself now so that you become your future self and prepare for future events and achievements.

3. Building Commitment: You need to be committed yourself, since it is your journey, not anyone elses.

4. Building Discipline: In order to achieve your aims and objectives, you need to build the habits that will help you along the journey, by becoming more self disciplined.

We will run through these topics in more detail so as to give you a better understanding of why these are most important for you to master.

1. Psychology

You are using psychology to help you to perform differently, ie to perform better than you have previously. This is good/best practice and is as used by top achievers in any field, for example sports people and athletes will work on their psychology to help them to achieve greater things in their own specialism, ie to get better results. So what we are looking for here is that we 1. THINKING differently about ourselves and what we do, which leads to:

2. FEELING different about yourself, and then you are

3. DOING the right action.

If you read articles about top athletes such as Michael Jordan, or Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt and how they get to the top of their game and stay there, then you will learn that they all are masters of the psychology of WINNING.

You can emulate their success if you employ the same sort of methods, of thinking in words or pictures (what top athletes call VISUALISATION - for example to see themselves crossing the finish line in first place), so as to experience the FEELING OF ACHIEVEMENT OR SUCCESS, then ACT IN THE APPROPRIATE WAY.

So we may also use these methods in order to get better or RAISE OUR GAME to the highest level.

This change in behaviour may consist of STOPPING doing certain things or STARTING doing other things, so we use our minds to control our actions so as to improve continuously.

Self Awareness:

In order to start that process of continual improvement until we reach the highest level, we need to take a long hard look at ourselves so as to establish exactly where we are in our journey first. So this can be called INTROSPECTION or SELF AWARENESS.

What you are looking to do is to drive change in your life by WHO YOU BECOME (by changing yourself) rather than looking at what you currently have or where you have been in the past. So the sequence is to BE THEN DO THEN HAVE, rather than any other way of approaching the problem. Success is making the connection between these things which were previously unconnected.

You should always LOOK TO IMPROVE SOMETHING YOU ARE ALREADY GOOD AT.

Michael Jordan would not want to improve his swimming and running to perfection rather than his overall basketball skills. similarly Michael Phelps would not prioritise improving his running, rather focus on perfecting his swimming prowess, and Usain Bolt would not waste time improving his swimming or basketball skills, he focusses on being the FASTEST MAN ON THE PLANET.

So in each of our own cases, we would be better focussing on something that we are good at and passionate about so that we can rise to the challenge and that success flows from out efforts.

2. Becoming Your Future Self Now

There are 2 aspects to Becoming Your Future Self, and these are related to:

Psychology - which is a Human issue.

Determinism - Past events that dictate who you are and what you are doing now.

Your future may be seconds away or decades away, and there may be a future we are each trying to avoid, or one which we are trying to create.

We may think we will be in the same future as we are now, but .... it depends (on the current outcomes)????.

Refer to the book "Be Your Future Self" by Dr Benjamin Hardy.

Essentially, how you define your future, defines you today.

Will it be a big bright future that you dream of or will past events keep dragging you back?

Your Future Defines Your Present!

Everything in life is a cost or an investment and it is significant to note that high performers invest in themselves continually. So if you have high aspirations then this should be you too, investing in yourself in order to reap greater benefits later.

How To Become Your Future Self

The quality of your connection with your future self is the key to this. The path to a successful life comes from shifting your goals from fear based reactive and short term to PROACTIVE, LONG TERM AND LOVE BASED.

You need to raise your self awareness and master your emotions to consciously create the best version of yourself that you can.

The past is blame, and you can tell yourself a different story about that. You need to let go of what is not serving you NOW.

The future holds the POSSIBILITY for you to create, character, commitment and discipline.

You need to BECOME COMMITTED, stop treating your business like a hobby, and be 100% committed about your future and become Serious About (Your Own) Success.

"Freedom Requires Self Mastery" Aristotle.

You need to become your own master of your Energy, Your Relationships, Your time and your Lifestyle.

What is discipline? Fundamentally it is the practice of training people to obey rules.

In practical terms this is what enables us to push through and overcome Pain, Boredom or FEAR. (False Expectations Appearing Real). It enables us to overcome the distractions from getting things done. Discipline is the willingness to be decisive in the face of uncertainty or inadequacy.

There are 6 steps to creating high self discipline:

1. Optimise Your Mind and Body

(Fatigue Makes Cowards Of Us All - Vince Lambardi). When you are chronically tired your body and mind function at a lower level.

Your mind and body require DAILY ENERGY for which purpose you need to:

Eat the right things, natural products wherever possible

Sleep sufficiently to recharge your batteries

Drink water - you need to hydrate your body with 1.6 to 2 litres of water daily and not over consume diuretics such as tea and coffer or alcohol.

Meditation or self reflection

Exercise according to your personal requirements and appropriate to your fitness and strength level.

2. Get Really Excited About What You Are Becoming (Be Passionate About It)

Overcome low self esteem by achieving lots of little wins, and then celebrate them, so that you feel good about yourself and what you are doing. So track your own success day by day, celebrate your successes, and look for the good in every day.

Create an affirmation list about things you are doing and wanting to do.

Build your PQ, picture intelligence.

3. The Secret Of Happiness - Flow

You need to set yourself up to succeed by setting yourself achievable goals that enable you to progress. There is no point in setting unachievable goals where you would just burn yourself out trying to achieve the impossible.

Neither is there any point in setting goals that are not challenging and would lead to boredom.

You need to set the bar high enough for the achievement to be challenging, and you derive satisfaction from such achievement.

4. Build Discipline Into Our Identity

We need to achieve 3 levels of behavioural change in order to achieve our goals.

Create a NEW IDENTITY for our future self, NOW.

Put in places PROCESSES to help us to achieve the transformation that we are seeking.

Focus on getting better OUTCOMES as a result of these changes to ourselves and our habits.

5. Create An Unbreakable Set Of Rules Which You Live By

You need to set down what you would like to achieve, and if the objectives seem to be too great to tackle all at once, then break them down into smaller tasks and tackle them one by one.

So in order to achieve great things, you will also need to pace yourself and take rest breaks so as to recharge your batteries.

No-one achieves the best results by flogging themselves to exhaustion. You need to test your results as you improve, gradually raising the bar so that you expect improvement in outcomes from better processes and habits. Those habits will include some time for introspection or meditation as well as those times when you are fully exerting yourself.

6. Trap Or Train Yourself Into Being Consistent

By surrounding yourself with the right people, and by investing in yourself, you can train yourself to become more like the sort of person you aspire to become. This may involve getting a coach and a mentor, and you need to commit to doing certain things (you decide what) in certain timescales, so you hold yourself accountable for what you commit to.

If you find there are obstacles that are holding you back, then remove them, or alter them so that they do not hinder you in the future.

You need to act DECISIVELY AND INSTINCTIVELY, JUST DO IT!

"Through Self Discipline Comes Freedom" Aristotle.

Have a great weekend wherever in the world you are!

Cheers

AlanJE