"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts," - William Shakespeare (from As You Like It, spoken by Jaques)
1. YOUR FUTURE SELF
Have you ever taken the time to imagine what kind of person you'd like to be in the future? What you would wear? How would you spend your time? Would you treat the people you love differently? Today I'd like to share three steps to becoming your future self.
The first step to becoming the person you want to be is establishing a clear picture of who exactly that is. Planning your life is a lot like using a GPS. You need to know to know exactly where you want to go in order to ever arrive there.
2. ACTING THE PART
Once you know who you want to become, you can practice acting the part as you anticipate what he or she might do in a given situation.
In a film, the script tells you, quite simply, what actions a character takes. This allows you to get an idea of who the character is and how he or she responds to different types of situations.
But this is only surface level. You are getting to know your future self, but how do you actually come that person without acting?
Let's imagine you audition for a part and don't get it. What do you make it mean? How do you feel? Would your future self (who makes millions in revenue) respond differently?
3. NOT FAKING IT
The reason you might respond differently to the same situation, is because of what you choose to think about the situation. Your thoughts stem from your beliefs. Your beliefs determine your feelings, actions, and results. Beliefs define character.
You may think the external things are what make the difference, but the opposite is actually true. Your future self has different results because of the way he or she has chosen to perceive the situation and therefore respond.
Really becoming your future self without acting comes down to learning to think the way your future self does. Sometimes we wait for our circumstances to change before we will allow ourselves to believe new or different things.
What would your future self believe about your current circumstance? Whatever it is, is what you need to believe now. As you practice new beliefs, your desired feelings, actions, and circumstances will naturally follow. Believing is becoming.