Be Your Future Self Now: The Science of Intentional Transformation

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Your schedule reflects your priorities. Your schedule reflects what you're actually committed to. Most schedules are dominated by urgent battles and lesser goals such as meetings and Zoom calls. Rarely does someone's schedule reflect and prioritize their Future Self over their current self." I also love the words of Lewis, that, “There are no ordinary people.” This view of God enables me to look at every person with awe and amazement. THREAT #2: A Reactive Narrative About Your Past Stunts Your Future “We reinterpret or reconstruct our memory in light of what our mental set is in the present. In this sense, it is more accurate to say the present causes the meaning of the past, than it is to say that the past causes the meaning of the present." -Brent Slife Given your current context, what is the absolute most important thing you could achieve or realize right now?

Book Notes: “Be public about your Future Self, and you’ll immediately stop being consistent with your past.” Knowing you can and will change enables you to love your current self. You’re less rigid about how you see yourself.The lesson is that investing in loss is how you become a winner over time. Seek out stretch goals that are just above what you're capable of overcoming right now, and you will grow into the Future Self capable of working through them. Without pushing yourself, though, that desirable future will be forever closed to you.

Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you’ve ever been.” -Dr. Daniel Gilbert Most people want to help you, but they just don't know how. They won't know what you need and how they can help you if you don't ask them, and you can't expect them to read your mind. It's astonishing what people will say yes to if you just ask.Much of the history of psychology has been dominated by a framework in which people and animals are driven by the past.” But what if humans are not driven by the past? What if we’re pulled forward by the future that we are the most committed to? Author and philosopher, Dr. Stephen R. Covey, said, 'Mental creation always precedes physical creation.' Anyone who has created something substantial did so by seeing it in their mind first, then working toward the image. As they took steps forward, their vision clarified, expanded, and evolved." Creativity occurs by giving form or organisation to disorganised raw materials. For example, a table isn’t built out of nothing but organised from raw materials that were previously disorganised or undesigned. Much better to say, "I used to smoke, but I quit." Now your identity is a "former smoker" who doesn't smoke anymore. Big difference.

NOTES FROM TRUTH #7: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you." -Marianne Williamson This became the core tenet of Frankl’s logotherapy: human beings are driven by their views of their own future. You don't have to go overboard with this, but it helps to organize your thoughts on paper and get them out of your head. It's crucial to understand, though, that the absolutely perfect system you don't even use is vastly inferior to the slightly imperfect system that you use without fail.Know this, that ev'ry soul is free To choose his life and what he'll be; For this eternal truth is giv'n: That God will force no man to heav'n. He'll call, persuade, direct aright, And bless with wisdom, love, and light, In nameless ways be good and kind, But never force the human mind." -Elias Smith and Abner Jones (original author unknown) This is a rather long breakdown, so I'll keep this section short, but basically, who and what you're becoming - and your thoughts about it - directly affect the quality of your experience in the here and now. STEP #2: Eliminate Lesser Goals “Anything that isn’t taking you toward your Future Self is a lesser goal." To combat this threat, you need two things: a will, and a way. You need to possess the will to create meaning in your future (and thus your present), and you need to have faith that you will find a way. Motivationally, our goal-conflicting behavior makes sense. To have motivation, you have a compelling outcome or reward, a path for attaining that outcome, and the confidence to execute that path.

If you get clear on your Future Self, and invest specifically toward your Future Self, you will become incredibly successful. You'll experience the compound effect in knowledge, skills, money, and relationships. But with this increase in success, you will face surprising complexity. To guard against collapse requires clarifying your Future Self at each succeeding stage. Success breeds a barrage of distractions and lesser goals. Without remaining clear on what truly matters, you'll become internally divided on what you're committed to."

Success!

In all instances, humans act as we do based on the future we see for ourselves. That may be a future we’re trying to avoid, or a future we’re trying to create. That future may be decades or seconds away. Rather than being the byproduct of your experiences, your experiences are the byproduct of your conscious choosing. You determine what your experiences mean. NOTES FROM STEP #4: “You can know you're committed to something when you ask for it. When you ask directly, boldly, and without apology. Start asking, and you'll start receiving. It's startling how fast you'll get what you want once you directly ask." Who is the person you want to become? Your answer to this question will, obviously, be influenced by your current context. However, your answer should also extend beyond your current context. It's freeing to know that no one else can "give us" success, or confer that status upon us. It is completly up to us.