One of my favorite techniques for creating clarity on my day-to-day activates is to imagine that my life is already exactly how I want it.  I’m not just talking about appreciating where we are at the moment, although that’s a good practice, too, but I’m talking about “acting as if.” 

In the book, The Success Principles(TM): How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be, Jack Canfield tells a story about bank teller who dressed a little better than the other tellers.  He interacted with customers in a similar fashion to the way the branch manager interacted with customers.  Eventually, he became the branch manager.

You can take this “acting as if” exercise as far as you want and this is where it helps me.  You see, of all my dreams and goals, the greatest feeling that I long for is leisure.  Don’t get me wrong, I love to work – especially the kind of work I’m doing now on a daily basis, which is blogging, writing seminars, and creating and delivering speeches.  But I hate the feeling that most people have when they work – the feeling of being rushed because there’s never enough time to do everything, feeling overwhelmed by task lists and deadlines, feeling guilty when you’re doing one thing because you feel like you should be doing another.

I used to accept those feelings as a part of life.  “That’s adulthood,” I would think to myself.  Well, guess what – I was wrong.  Now, some careers put you in that state of constant motion just by their nature.  The healthcare industry is one of those fields.  However, even if you have a job that demands a hectic pace, you can still control your private time.

For me, the majority of my days are spent writing – something.  Lots of things really – you just never know with me and sometimes neither do I!  As any writer knows, it’s easy to get side-tracked with a million other little things to do besides your top priority – writing.  On the flip side, I sometimes use writing to avoid doing other little things that I should be doing, like blog marketing and monetization.  So how do you find clarity and focus on what is most important right now?

My favorite way is to “pretend” that I am already an outrageously successful writer and speaker.  I’m making a million dollars a year, or more, have purchased the home of my dreams, drive a nice car, etc.  Then I ask, “What would that Debra be doing right now?” 

The answers are amazing, but I always trust them.  This morning, my “future self” told me to get on the treadmill.  At first I argued explaining that I needed to practice my speech for tomorrow and that with everything else I had to do, the treadmill would just have to wait until tomorrow or the next day.  My future self reminded me that the reason I am walking for one hour three times a week is so that I will be in good shape when I speak.  No one likes to listen to an out-of-breath speaker.  Then, that voice said, “Practice your speech while you’re on the treadmill.”  Okay!

What a fantastic idea – must be why I’m much richer in the future!  But it’s not just listening to and getting inspired ideas from that voice that makes me love this technique so much, there’s more.

When I’m feeling tense, anxious, or angry about something that I know I shouldn’t be but just can’t seem to let it go, I get in that future self frame of mind and ask, “Is this important to you now?”  If it’s not important to my future, it’s not important at all.  If it is important, I take action immediately so that it no longer clutters up my mind, and my day.

Then there are those days when I simply don’t know what to do with myself.  There are lots of tasks and work to do, but I don’t know where to begin.  So again, the question I ask is, “What would my future self be doing right now?”  Again, I do whatever I’m told – I guess you could say whatever I feel inspired to do, but it’s not a cop out.  Sometimes I do much more difficult, meaningful, powerful, and worthy tasks than I would have otherwise.  Sometimes I plow through all the little tasks that have created clutter.  Sometimes, I take a highly productive hour of solitude.  The answer is always right, and the best part is, I get that sense of leisure that I long for.  I can work 10 hours in one day, write three blog posts, two speeches, and work on an up-coming seminar and feel like the luckiest person alive because it’s all been so relaxed.  In many ways, I’m living my future life in the present and I believe there are a few books out there on this subject!

How would you act and what tasks would you actually perform if you were already a straight-A student, business owner, top salesperson for your company, international consultant, famous motivational speaker, world-class athlete, best-selling author, or renowned actor or musician?  What would the successful you be doing right now?

Posted under Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation