You know enough about the world to have a pretty good idea of what it will take to live the life you desire. Your brain can quickly give you an accurate picture of the person you need to become to create the change you desire. So…what do you do now?

Once you have this answer, begin living as that person today. Think, act, behave, react, and adopt the beliefs of a fit person, someone with a great social circle, or whatever type of person you are ready to become.

Look to the future to change your present with these strategies:

      1. Look ahead and visualize the life you’d like to have. Imagine yourself 10 years from now living the life of your
dreams. Notice how you think, feel and behave. Imagine how you deal with your average day. Imagine the income,
physique, social life, relationships, and so on that you’d like to have.

• What do you eat each day? How often do you exercise? What type of exercise do you do? What are your attitudes and beliefs around diet and exercise?
• How are your finances? What are you doing to create the income you have? What are your saving and spending habits?
• Think about your future social life.What are your friends like? How often do you see them? Where do you go? How do you manage your social circle? How often do you communicate with your friends?
• If your ideal future includes a partner, how do you manage that? What do you do each day to keep your relationship strong and healthy?
• Consider the habits and hobbies you’d have, too.
  
  2. Take a look at your current life and behavior. Contrast the above with your current life. Take particular note of the differences in how you behave and think today versus your future self. What changes do you need to make to move closer to the version of yourself you’re ready to become?

  3. List the behaviors you would like to incorporate into your life to match your future self. The more you can think and act as your future self, the sooner you become that version of you.
  
  4. Begin making the changes. Start slowly and only make a few changes at first. You might decide to cut out the candy, go to the gym three times a week, and go out once a week with a friend.

• Or, you might decide to review your goals each night, keep a journal, incorporate essential oils into your day, begin a morning practice, or start meditating.
• Once the first set of habits starts to stick, add a few more.

  5. Adopt a new mindset. When you’re faced with a decision or challenge, ask yourself what your future self would do in the same situation. Begin making decisions as that version of yourself and see what happens.

  6. Expect resistance. It’s going to be unfamiliar to approach life with a new perspective and new behaviors. Don’t let that stop you, let it encourage you because it means you’re changing and moving closer to that version of you you’re creating.

• It will feel uncomfortable at first, but that’s good. When you do something uncomfortable, that’s when you grow.
• When you do the things you’re used to doing, things stay the same. It may be comfortable, but that’s not progress.

As you’ve probably heard: “Nothing changes if nothing changes.” That’s so true. So, why not be intentional about creating what it is you want, then create the version of you that you’d need to be in order to achieve that? By making those slow, steady and intentional changes over time, before long you’ll be living as your future self…earlier than you expected.

Dr. Debi
Founder, The PBT (Post Betrayal Transformation) Institute