A Conversation with Your Future Self.

Dear High Performer,

If your future self could give you advice...

What would he or she say? ?

You hear the question asked in a lot of interviews…?

What advice would you give your younger self about life, business or relationships??

The question is an opportunity for us to reflect not only on how far we’ve come…?

But to also have a vision of who we want to become.?

If your future self could give you advice, what would he or she say?

I know my future self would advice me to:

Watch your thoughts, they become your words;

Watch your words, they become your actions;

Watch your actions, they become your habits;

Watch your habits, they become your character;

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. - Lao Tzu

I bet you've heard this quote before.

In it we have a blueprint for anything we want to achieve - in our finances, health, relationships, or career.

By deconstructing the quote we can reverse engineer the process of mastery.

The six-step formula to master yourself and manifest your own financial destiny:

DESTINY

In other words - where are you going?

Mastery of your financial destiny starts not at the beginning but at the end.

What is the vision?

What is the goal?

What is the destination?

Where are you going?

What does your rich life look like?

Can you describe it in as much detail as possible?

Until we know where we are going, we can't know the road we need to take to get there.

This is why having the end in view is very important.

The truth is most people don't have an idea of what their financial destiny looks like?

Do they want to be successful financially?

Yes.

But if you ask them to describe what that looks like in terms of lifestyle...

They get stuck.

I know the feeling, because I have been there too.

Everyday I'm still working at painting that picture of my financial destiny firmly in mind.

How do I do that?

By studying the lives of people who are financially successful.

It's hard to have vision for your life when you haven't seen anything.

It's hard to describe a destination you've never been to.

The best way to catch a real and compelling picture of your financial destiny...

A picture that's rooted in your heart and that starts the domino effect of that picture becoming a reality is by...

Exposing yourself to the lives and stories of the people who are successful financially.

Read their books...

Listen to their podcasts...

Interview them in person or online if you can...

Don't just follow them on Instagram admiring the trappings of their wealth...

Looking at their fancy house or cars is just the surface level of painting the picture of your own financial destiny.

Follow them closely to see the deeper meaning and bigger picture of their financial success.

A bigger picture like...

Setting a new standard for your family.

Having your gifts and talents coming out in a greater way.

Taking new territory for the kingdom of God.

As you expose your heart and mind more and more to the lives and stories of these people...

The more your heart and subsequently your life will change.

CHARACTER

Character is who you are.

Once you have answered the question of destiny - Where am I going?

The next question is the question of character - Who do I need to become to fulfill this destiny?

There is the kind of person you need to become to attract success into your life.

Because success is not something you do or something you chase...

The more a person chases success, money, etc...

The more it runs away from them.

This is why a lot of people struggle.

They are trying to get on the outside what doesn't match who they are on the inside.

They are trying...

That's the problem with man...

Man is always trying.

Birds don't try to be birds, they just are.

Fishes don't try, all they do is born out of their identity as a fish.

One of the main reasons people struggle is because they pretend.

Successful people pretending to be failures.

Rich, wealthy people pretending to be poor.

I bet you've never thought about it this way.

But when all we do is to try and try to be wealthy and successful.

What we are doing is we are pretending to be someone we are not.

That's why we are so frustrated.

It's time to take off the mask.

Wealth and Success is not something you are trying to do...

It's who you are.

It's your character.

It doesn't matter what your present circumstances may look like now.

Stop using your circumstances to define who you are.

Stop pretending to be who you are not.

Start living out who you really are.

How do you this?

This leads us to the next point.

HABITS

You are what you repeatedly do.

'Excellence is not an act, but a habit.' - Will Durant

Becoming who you really are - a person of excellence is all about your habits.

We form our habits and then our habits form us.

'There are no shortcuts - everything is reps, reps, reps.' - Arnold Schwarzenegger

There is value in repetition.

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.

Anything you do twice becomes easier.

Great men simply have great habits.

"The difference in champions is their habits:

Champions do daily what losers are only willing to do occasionally;

The secret to your future is hidden in your daily routine;

What you do daily determines what you will become permanently;

And; your success in life is determined by the habits you develop." - Mike Murdock

Now that you know you are a person of success...

Success is who you are and not something you do.

The next question is - what are the habits of financially successful people?

Practicing those habits is how we release our identity.

I know what you are thinking...

Doesn't that still sound like trying and struggling to get something?

After all it's a struggle building a habit.

The best way to look at habit building as it relates to your identity is the way Terry Crews puts it...

"We don't go to the gym to get fit...

It because we are fit that's why we go to the gym."

This is applicable to fitness and every area of life.

So it's about identity first.

When you see yourself the right way...

You see the habit to be practiced not? as something you have to do...

But as something you get to do.

And the more you get to practice these habits the more you reinforce your identity as a person of excellence.

ACTIONS

Excellence is not an act, but it starts with an act....

And it continues through a series of acts - Actions.

It's great to know the habits of excellence, but it's application that's the difference maker.

That you know it doesn't count.

That you preach it or post it on your social media is not the issue.

It's the application that counts.

Don't just think about it or talk about it...

Do it.

That's the difference between wisdom and intelligence.

There are so many intelligent, foolish people.

People who know what they should do, but are not doing it because they are waiting.

They are waiting for the right time.

They are waiting to have everything figured out.

They are waiting for perfect conditions.

The thing about application is that it's always messy.

Things most times don't go as planned.

The people you expect to support you will ignore you.

There will be resistance.

There will be opposition.

It's important for us to remember that our quest for perfection is simply procrastination in disguise.

Instead of waiting for the 'perfect' one hour to do that thing, why not do it for just 5 minutes everyday.

Stop waiting till you feel like it... till you feel motivated.

One thing about masters of their destinies is that they know how to take a step and to keep going...

Even when everything seems messy and doesn't make sense.

They don't lose days to doubt, discouragement, or distraction.

They don't fall apart just because they made a mistake...

They understand it's all part of the process.

They pick themselves up,

They dust themselves off and do what they need to do.

This is one of the major reasons most people aren't able to build the habits they desire.

They struggle with being consistent because one mistake, and they stop.

One disappointment, and they stop.

They feel discouraged, their feelings all over the place, and they stop.

Contrast this with successful people who are able to keep going.

They are able to do this because...

WORDS

Words are carriers of energy.

Words empower...

And words disempower.

Other people's words can affect us, but it is the words we say that can really affect us...

Positively or negatively.

Scriptures compares the tongue to a ship's rudder or a horse's bit...

This is because, the tongue though a small thing, it affects our whole being.

Just like rudder dictates the direction of a large ship...

The tongue, our words directs our lives.

Until we change the words we are listening to and saying, we can't change the direction of our lives.

When we change the words we are listening to and saying, we change the direction of our lives.

Action requires energy.

A cheerful word picks a man up*.

The person who's always listening to and spreading news of gloom and doom can't find the energy to take the steps he needs to take.

This is the reason why some people are tired at the beginning of the day and wonder why.

It's because of the words they've allowed into their system.

Let's use positive, faith filled words in our conversation.

Words that lift us up and the people around us.

Words that encourage, stir up joy and remind us to be at peace.

This is how we find the energy to take those bold steps in the face of resistance and difficulty.

And the way we master our words is by mastering our...

THOUGHTS

Growing up I never understood why Jesus said if you look at your neighbor's wife in a lustful way, you had sinned.

My belief then was God was this supreme being who just had incredibly high standards.

And the best anyone could wish for was a life where you're constantly walking on eggshells so you don't upset him.

It took some growing up for me to realize that I had it all backwards.

God loves us and wants what's best for us...

So much so, that he wants us to understand how life works.

To understand that it all starts with a thought.

Many people go their whole lives and never realize this truth.

The source of their struggles are the thoughts they allow in their mind.

But rather they focus all the their energies dealing with the fruits of the problem...

And never address the root.

A person can know they have a great destiny...

They know who they need to become and the habits they should practice...

They know the importance of the taking bold action and saying the right words...

But all these won't still translate into real results unless their thoughts are constantly aligned with what they know.

You and I must become the sentinels over our hearts and minds.

We must take the work of protecting our minds from the wrong thoughts seriously.

The things we listen to, the things we watch are deliberately programming our minds with the wrong thoughts or the right thoughts.

There is no middle ground.

There is no sitting on the fence.

Don't say that book, movie, music or conversation is harmless fun...

Don't say it doesn't affect you...

Don't say those comedy skits about extreme poverty and hardship are just harmless fun...

Of course it's affecting you.

The question is not, is it affecting you or not...

The question is, how is it affecting you?

Long ago the apostle Paul gives us a checklist for the kind of thoughts we should allow into our hearts and minds**.

So that book, music, movie, conversation... does it align with this checklist...

If it doesn't just avoid it.

And anytime you sense a thought randomly coming into your mind that doesn't align with the list...

Shoot it down.

Imagine yourself as a thought-slayer.

A slayer of negative thoughts.

Stop the thoughts so they don't stop your destiny.

Its Your Time

You have lived your false self for far too long.

It's time to reveal your true self to the world.

It's time to manifest your destiny.

No one can do it for you.

It's your responsibility and my responsibility to give birth to our future by paying close attention to our:

Character -

Who we are; which is a product of our...

Habits -

What we repeatedly do; which are formed by our...

Actions -

What we do even when don't feel like it; reinforced by our...

Words -

The kind of energy we release into our lives; rooted in our...

Thoughts -

Our conscious programming.

You are a person of destiny.

YOUR GREATNESS IS VERY SURE.

NOTES Proverbs 12:25 (MSG)? * Philippians 4:8 (KJV)?

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