Future-Self Date!

While you’re probably winding down for a nice weekend, make sure you don’t forget to spend time with one important person: Your future self! She/he/they is an even more amazing version of you, and you need to meet this person!

Are you telling me you never took your future-self out on a date?

Well, you will be sure to fall in love with this person, so it is worth your time.

Your future-self is you leveled-up. It is the vision of yourself that you aspire to be. Your furture-self can impact any and all areas of your life: How you are as a parent, where you are in your career, how you honor your creativity...

Spending time with your future-self regularly puts this vision of your life out of your dreams and into your life (or car if you are old enough to remember Billy Ocean).

Here's how I spend time with my future-self:

I sit down with a nice candle, a piece of paper and pen and perhaps a beverage that I enjoy (limit of one adult beverage, as I want to be focused on our date). I find a quiet place of inspiration and ask my future self, what needs to be done for her to show-up in full force.

And I am prepared to not like the answer.

The thing about hanging with your future-self, is that the new version of you needs to do one thing: seek obstacles for growth.

Your future-self didn’t get to where she is today by choosing easy; she/he/they likes when things are hard because your future-self knows strength comes from strain. And here's why...obstacles for growth may not always get you the results you want immediately, but they require you intentionally putting yourself in positions that make you a little scared and re-wire your brain. You start thinking differently, you start acting differently and eventually you are evolving into You 2.0.

Here are some examples of obstacles for growth for various future-self integrations:

-??????Future-self focus: New job

o??Applying for 5 new roles in alignment with your career growth plan. You don’t get any of the roles, but you learned what the market is demanding, and you put your name out there and interviewed.

-??????Future-self focus: Less booze

o??Cutting out alcohol for 60 days. You don’t lose any weight and the first few weeks you want to eat all of the candy in the house, but you see how much better your sleep is and you learn that you can actually go places without booze and have a good time.

-??????Future-self focus: Creative Genius

o??You start a podcast. No one listens to it except your mom but it pushes you to get out there and be creative in a way that brings you joy.

These are all examples of growth obstacles because you are acting in alignment with your future-self. You are trying. You may not be winning a trophy all the time, but you’re showing up for practice. And it’s important to think of these obstacles as obstacles because if you don’t you risk setting yourself up for the set-backs, you’ll run like hell when it gets hard and your future-self will be left in purgatory.

Don't do that to your future-self!

Writing down obstacles helps you confront the the fear of failure that will keep you from starting. We all want growth, but a lot of us don’t want to fail. Our brains want to avoid failure because we are taught to do it right or not at all- but this is limiting us! It’s keeping that future self in the corner (and you know what I am going to say about putting Baby in a corner).

So as you're planning your weekend, here’s your go-do:

Take that hot date with your future-self like I said (it can be a speed date of 20 minutes!).

Write down a list of actions that you can take that are in alignment with your future-self and represent obstacles for growth.

Practice giving yourself credit for being scared and doing it anyway. Then go do it. Without a trophy. Without immediate gratification and in honor of the person you become little by little when you push yourself out of your comfort zone.

Your future-self will thank you.