Life Coaching Tip: When you visualize yourself completing your goals, you are building confidence and priming your mind for success. So why not intentionally take time each day to check in with Future You and envision your life unfolding just as you want it to? This will help you make decisions from the brain of the Future You, who is relaxed and confident, and she knows that you’ve got this!
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I just wasn’t myself this morning as I took my walk at the bluffs by the lakeshore.
Well actually, I was myself, just not my present-day self. You see, this morning I decided to have some fun and imagine being my future-self as I strolled in her fabulous shoes along the path by the lake.
I thought, if I were walking on this path exactly one year from now, what would I be thinking about? What would be on my agenda for the day? What would be important to me? What would I look like? What could I reflect back on with a sense of ease, pride and comfort knowing that it was behind me?
And as I considered these questions, I decided …
Future Me will walks with great confidence, knowing that she has come out of a difficult season, stronger and more capable than ever. She is not worried about anything because she knows, from experience, that she can handle whatever comes her way.
Future Me is healthy and fit, feeling pleased with the food choices she has made this past year and her dedication to her twice-daily walks.
She is proud of the way she showed up for her family, clients and self, and she is eager for more opportunities to be a bright light in the world. Future Me is full of creative ideas, and she is ready to get her day going!
I felt into this persona as I walked, and I created a sense of peace, contentment, and a little excitement. I mean, Future Me is kind of rad!
So, now that you see how fun this visualization exercise was for me, I hope you give it a try! Allow yourself to truly “go there”, relax and be the future version of yourself.
And not only is this visualization fun, but it’s a powerful tool to help you move forward towards your goals and dreams. As a matter-of-fact, despite a ton of research establishing its effectiveness, visualization is one of the most underutilized superpowers available to humans.
The research indicates that our brain cannot tell the difference between an action we’ve performed and an action we’ve visualized. Therefore, visualization impacts many cognitive processes in the brain: motor control, attention, perception, planning and memory.
So, when you imagine yourself completing your goals, you are priming your brain for success. You are strengthening the neural connections, creating pathways that inspire the actions necessary to make it happen. How cool is that?
Now sometimes my clients tell me that they just aren’t comfortable doing visualization exercises, and perhaps this may feel a little fluffy to you too.
But here is the thing, our brain is conjuring up thoughts 24/7. Be it intentionally or unintentionally, we are always visualizing. And, if you are human, then you sometimes worry and fret.
That, my friend, is visualization. It’s using your imagination to visualize things that you don’t want to happen.
So why not intentionally take time each day to check in with Future You and envision your life unfolding just as you want it to?
This will help you make decisions from the brain of the Future You, who is relaxed and confident. The Future You knows that you’ve got this, and so taking steps forward will just make sense.
The Future You believes in you without a doubt and is really rad too!