How to Practice (and Become) Your Awesome Future Self — Starting Today

“Only you can control your future” — Dr. Seuss

The burning problem we’d all love to tackle is how to become the ideal version of ourselves.

While we want to make that future dream a reality, it’s (just a little) easier said than done.

Often, the best you can accomplish in a day is to scribble a few check marks on your to-do list. Responsibilities start piling up, and you feel like you’ve done nothing while taking on everything.

So how do you get unstuck from the daily grind and move forward towards radically improving?

I don’t have a time machine to help, but Peter Bregman, the CEO of the leadership firm Bregman Partners, offers a brilliant solution to the paradox of productivity and loving your future self:

“Being busy is not the same as being productive. It’s the difference between running on a treadmill and running to a destination. They’re both running but being busy is running in place”.

The solution to this complacent “busyness” we all face?

Practicing not being productive.

The trick is, simply, that if you want to become your future self, you have to start practicing being your future self.

“You need to spend time on the future even when there are more important things to do in the present and even when there is no immediate apparent return to your efforts”.

Bregman’s key word here is apparent. You may not see the results of your new behavior immediately, but you will be getting closer to your future self and your true goals with every minute you spend focusing on them instead of quickly responding to an irrelevant email.

Here are some ways to get started today:

Visualize your journey to the top

Take five-minutes every day to picture what you want in life, and ask yourself if you did something that day that moved you closer to your goal. If not, picture what small steps you can do to catalyze that change.

According to writer Neil Gaiman, this little trick helped him become one of the most successful authors of our time.

“Something that worked for me was imagining that where I wanted to be … was a mountain. A distant mountain. My goal. And I knew that as long as I kept walking towards the mountain I would be all right. And when I truly was not sure what to do, I could stop, and think about whether it was taking me towards or away from the mountain.”

The trick to this routine is to not ideally wish or dream. This habit might start in your head, but it needs to turn into an actionable, concrete game plan over time.

Take 5 minutes to work on yourself

One thing the separates the incredibly rich and prosperous from the rest of us is how they utilize their down time for self-improvement. Look for productive things to do during your break and the gaps in your day. You could take five minutes to read a short article, learn a piece of a new skill, knock out 20 push-ups, or do a quick five-minute stretch routine. You could meditate or listen to an audiobook on your way home from work. Improving yourself is essential to moving closer to realizing your success.

Jot 5 new ideas down a day

“The truth is you have to have great ideas that solve problems to make money. If you do, you will attract money like a magnet,” writes Steve Siebold, a self-made millionaire who’s interviewed over 1000 of the wealthiest and most influential people of our time.

One way to incorporate this concept into a quick, daily routine is to jot down five new ideas every day. They don’t all have to be groundbreaking or even that great. The point of this simple exercise is to turn your mind into a well-oiled moneymaking machine that is primed to come up with new innovations and novel solutions that will make you rise to the top.

Be uncomfortable for 5 minutes every day

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Do one thing every day that scares you.”

Wealthy entrepreneurs and powerful executives didn’t get to where they are by living inside their comfort zone and focusing on the daily drudgery.

For many of us, risk isn’t something we’re comfortable with, and that’s why taking five minutes out of your day to try something new is so important. Doing this on a regular basis trains your brain to be okay with a challenge or to feel comfortable with putting yourself out there, even if the result is failure.

This could be as simple as trying a new food, asking for help, talking to a new person, or requesting feedback from a peer. It could be something bigger like investing your money or learning how to say no.

So instead of stressing out over that never-ending to-do list, take some time to invest in who you want to be. Research graduate or even law school, begin that novel or play, and consider how to invest in the new you.

Your future self is patiently waiting.