The Future of Your Dreams
I recently saw a meme that said something along the lines of:
“When people talk about travelling to the past, they worry about radically changing the present by doing something small, but barely anyone in the present really thinks they can radically change the future by doing something small.”
This blew my mind! We tend to think that one small change today won’t make a big enough impact for the future, but if the Back to the Future series taught us anything, it’s that even a small change in your day can impact the rest of your life.
So, how can we apply this thinking to help us create the future of our dreams?
I have been working with a coach weekly for the last 4 weeks and it has been incredible to realize that I am not in the process of accepting my fate, but rather I am in the process of creating it (within what I can control). Just last week I mentioned to her that I was struggling with feelings of scarcity for the future because I still didn’t have a defined “idea” or clarity about what it would look like and she simply said: “What do you want it to look like?”
Her question stopped me in my tracks. Here I was worrying about the fact that was nothing was planned and it’s simply because I wasn’t giving myself direction to plan it the way I wanted because I am fearful that the way that I want to plan it won’t be “right”. There’s hesitation that what I want to do for my life isn’t high profile enough, isn’t “proper”, isn’t the way I “should” be doing it, isn’t what my parents had planned for me….shit, it wasn’t what I had planned for me.
”Again, Teri, what do you want it to look like?” Camille asked - I am sure she could see the fainting goat expression on my face. My brain locked up - it didn’t feel safe to say what it wanted to at first. So, she coaxed me into it slowly. “Okay, so Body Image Bootcamp ends mid November - what do you want to happen right after that?”
”Well, I know I definitely want to rest and take some time during the winter season to recuperate from Body Image Bootcamp and traveling.”
”Okay, that takes us to January - then what would be the perfect January?”
We continued on this way, her taking me one step at a time instead of looking at the larger YEAR picture. By walking through the months, we could look at what needed to be done now to ensure I could have the months and year that I desired.
I think one of the other things that we forget about is how we ideally want to feel. And yes, many of us do our “word of the year” situation in January, but what if we thought about that starting today. If I know my goal for 2024 is to feel EASE, I need to start creating strategies NOW, to make sure I am set up for success. A great example of this is, my husband and I are pretty sure we will be moving in the fall of 2024, but if I just go about my days as I currently am, not really worrying about that until the time comes - I am going to feeling anything BUT ease, leading up the sale of the house because there will be so much to do - so I can ask myself, what is something I could start doing now to make that better for me next year?
Here’s how I planned my dream future:
Ask myself, how I want to feel at the end of 2024: I want to feel at EASE with anything that comes along
Was honest with myself (through journaling and visualization) about the pace of life that would support this feeling. This is VERY important because I am someone who used to hustle, hustle, hard and until this year didn’t think that I could make a living (at least the kind I wanted) without it. Understanding my pace allows me be honest about how much I want to create & teach, how much I want to manage, and how much I want to relax. Creation & teaching phases tend to require a heavier energetic pace, management phases require me to be more consistent, and relaxation phases require me to pull away all together.
Once I realized the pace I wanted to live at, I then considered what rhythm works best for me based on things I’ve done in the past. Some people are great at being in multiple places at once doing multiple things - while I could do it before, I didn’t enjoy it and it actually brought me a lot of stress. I remember saying “Wherever I am, I only want to be there.” So, if I am in a writing phase - I only want to focus on writing. If I am traveling and teaching I want to be presently there - I don’t want to have to worry about what’s happening back at home. Etc. This allows me to honor my phase, but also structure out my months/year in a way that is rhythmic instead of balls to the wall year round (like I used to.
Then I brought numbers into it, asking myself how much ideally I would want to make by the end of the year (based on other goals that I have - like saving half a million $ before I’m 45). Once I had this big round number, I then looked at all the ways I WANTED To create revenue. For me, this looked like online education 35%, in person education/retreats 50%, book sales 10%, and additional revenue streams (prints/cards/clothing) 5%. Again, being honest and aware of these %s allows me to now go into each of these revenue streams and consider how I can maximize its potential while stay true to my pace and rhythm.
Once I have those specific goals in mind, then it’s time to say “What are three things I can do today, that are going to help me get closer to this future?” daily.
I think the biggest thing that keeps us stuck in our ruts/comfortability is the overwhelmingness of doing something new and doing something we’ve never done before (especially if it challenges what you previously believed about yourself, about success, etc.) so sometimes we just need to sit down and look at the first step and go from there. My brain works best in a funnel system - start big and then start filtering it down, down, down to the bare bones. Previously, I was capable of seeing the big picture and jumping in, but since lockdowns were a thing, I notice my resistance and hesitation to go “all in” right away as there are now too many questions that I previously just didn’t have to think about.
Part of being someone who is an achiever + futuristic is the desire to also just get “there” - not realizing that as soon as I am there, I am already thinking about the next “there” or the “there” doesn’t exist in the first place. So having a plan, albeit a flexible one, that can keep me coming back to “What are 3 things I can do today?” no matter how small those things are to stay focused and feeling like I’m making progress. Part of the human condition is our ability to get bored fast, so if we can get our dopamine from feeling “successful” in a way that is meaningful to us, the less likely we are to float aimlessly, feeling like we aren’t moving at all.
With that, I want to ask you - what does your dream year look like? Better yet, what does it feel like? And apply the steps above to help you get clear on how the impact you have today, can create your dream as a reality for you in the future.
