“Manifesting” for the Rest of Us
How to motivate yourself for a successful future if image boards just aren’t your thing
I’ve always been a little eye-rolly when it comes to creating image boards. Maybe it’s the cut-and-pasting of magazine images? Even as a child I felt like those were “make busy” projects in elementary school.
I like practical, tangible plans. A marathon training guide I can print on my fridge and record in a journal. Throw in some fitness jewelry like an activity watch tracking all my meta-data and I’m 100% in! (photo for proof. I have, in fact, completed a marathon in my lifetime).
And I did this without pasting images of runners and racing medals on particle board. So it’s always been challenging when people I respect and admire talk to me about vision boards and manifestation.
It happens a lot when you start a business.
With good reason.
The first year starting a business is always tough. Many books and articles prepared me to take a loss on Year 1. To prepare, I accepted a freelance news writing job to pay the bills so I could gradually attract clients.
It paid off. I signed my first client in August of last year, nearly four months after registering my business. By the end of the calendar year, I brought in $4,000 in revenue from my business.
Since then I’ve seen incredible growth. To the point where I quit the news writing job to focus on the business full-time.
I would love to say it was a practical pro/con list that finally gave me the courage to invest in myself completely. But I can’t lie to you.
It was a variation of “manifesting” that did it. No scissors required.
Meet Your Future Self
The exercise came to me courtesy of one of my clients, Hina Khan (the peak performance coach, not the Bollywood actress). I’ve worked with Hina for a few months now and she’s the real deal. Yes she’s in the self-improvement space, but it’s backed by years of psychological study.
I was treated to a complimentary coaching session to help better understand her expertise. It was three days of group coaching where she talked about self-image. Specifically how to readjust your self image to set you up for success.
Hina had us imaging ourselves in the future, having reached our goals. My goal was to have a successful upper six-figure consulting practice.
Then we painted a vivid picture of this future self: how does she look? What clothes is she wearing? Where does she work?
We went deeper: how does she feel? How does she make decisions? What does she value?
I’m woo-woo enough to love these kinds of exercises, but this one was different. Once we had a clear and deep understanding of this future self, Hina pointed out the future self is the same person as your current self.
The future me, managing the flourishing media careers of a half-dozen high net-worth clients; the one negotiating high-stakes brand partnership deals; the one running a successful consulting business with ease is me. Today.
Not the me of tomorrow. Not the me once my adult braces come off and I finally lose the pandemic 20 (which I gained when I was already trying to lose 20 pounds). Not the me who had to read every book ever published on closing deals. But the me today quietly building an empire from her laptop.
Be Your Future Self
This revelation cleared the way for the next, and most important step. To reach your goals, you need to start thinking and making decisions as your future self.
Most importantly, you need to act on these decisions quickly. If you wait, the doubt and discomfort will creep in.
If you wait, you’ll never act like your future, successful self.
I was living that truth in real time. I was still working the news writing gig, which had me working the early morning shift. My day started at 3:30 a.m. I wrote until 9 a.m. Then I would shower and turn attention to client work.
The schedule worked until daylight saving. Have you ever tried forcing yourself to sleep when it’s still daylight out? Spoiler alert, you can’t. It’s impossible. And lead to a solid month living on total sleep deprivation.
I knew I couldn’t keep it up. But I couldn’t bring myself to quit.
I was too afraid of losing the steady income to make the move.
But then I saw my future self. The me who only had one job and a normal bedtime. She looked happy, confident, and well rested.
I quit the news writing gig in the third session with Hina.
A Daily Mindset Shift
My last shift was just over two weeks ago. Since then I’ve already doubled my client base. By June I’ll have enough sustainable billable work to live on.
And I have so much time left over to scale up this work.
I now start my day connecting to my future self. This is another exercise Hina recommends. State a goal for the day. Then draw three lines. Under those lines fill the rest of the page with thoughts your future self has about the stated goal.
This is where the vision board always fell short for me. All too often, images of other people achieving what I dreamed of doing just reminded me I wasn’t doing it. I saw what I wanted, but I never saw myself.
Every time I journal as my future self, I end up with a clear plan of how to tackle that day’s to-do list. And I can do it with a confidence I’ve never had in the year I’ve been building a business.
Because I know future me has already succeeded.
