I was embarrassed to be in my fifties and worried about money.
I had planned to be retired and living the dream at this time in my life. About 15 years prior, I had been working in a securities bank in Tokyo as an IT engineer. My salary and my savings were good.
But I wanted more. I wanted to create multiple streams of passive income and live in comfort as I got older, so I quit my job. I felt confident. The internet was a place where anyone could make money.
Over the years, my failures outperformed my successes, and I was embarrassed and worried about my future.
I wanted freedom but I kept waiting for things to happen to me instead of making things happen. I was overly optimistic and kept waiting for good luck to rain down upon me.
I was into comfort. I had routines. I had times where I would work hard, and then time where I would “relax and refresh.” I used this time to ponder and plan. I seemed to be stuck in planning mode forever.
Things needed to change.
During all this time, I started to work on myself. I discovered how my subconscious was working against me.
I did a character assessment and found why I self-sabotaged. I started to understand how my brain was wired and how it kept me in my complacent zone.
I made changes, and I started to get better.
Still the old me kept creeping back out: the perfectionist, the optimist, the overthinker, the save your energy and do it later old me.
The old me was comfortable with life. I had deep fears and anxieties about my future, but the comfortable me did not want to change.
I had to look in the mirror and make a decision. I knew I needed to change who I was. There was a part of me that was afraid to let go. I was afraid of changes and what they would do to my life as I had been living it for so long.
I knew that I had to work on my identity, if I were to really take the full step into becoming what I wanted to achieve.
How I changed my identity to match what I wanted to be.
I had heard of the law of attraction throughout the years. The optimist in me believed in it, but the pessimist in me felt that people used it as a magic pill to allow themselves to be complacent.
I had read that the law of attraction works best when you think about what you want, but you act towards the thing you want.
Maybe the universe was sending me a message.
A random video related to the law of attraction popped up in my feed, and the speaker said that you should write out what type of person you want to be in the future and then envision and say it as if it is true now. He said to carefully think about how you would be acting, thinking, and living and write it down in the present tense as if it were already true.
Once you have done that, he said to really envision this new you and how you would act and see it in your mind.
In a past article, I wrote about the importance of input, which is about how we talk to ourselves. Input is a tool that can help us to rewire our thinking and help to create a new mindset.
I decided to follow the man’s advice.
I sat down and wrote out how I envisioned the perfect me to be acting and doing in the future, but I wrote it down as if I were that person today in the present tense.
I wrote out things related to my work, health, mind, character, and relationships.
I practiced reading my statement over and over. I would read it at night before sleeping and try to really envision and feel that I was that person. I would read it in the morning, and then I would act in accordance with what I had written. I would read it after finishing things that I pushed myself to complete.
In just a few days, I could feel and see me matching what I wrote. It was really powerful.
Doing this reduced the pushback from my subconscious. Creating a positive identity and then acting as if I were that new me started changing who I was.
I was getting a lot more done. Most surprisingly, I started finding that I had motivation to get things done and move forward.
I encourage you to do the same.
You first must decide that you are tired of the old you and that you want to change. Make a firm decision to let go and embrace the future you.
Next, sit down and write out what you envision your perfect self to be in the future. How would you act? What would you be doing? What are things that you would have achieved?
Every night, close your eyes and try to envision it using as many of your senses as you can. In the morning, do it again; it is a terrific way to start off your day. When you finish a task, close your eyes and envision it again. The act of doing and then envisioning will be even stronger.
This is a simple exercise but life changing. Not only will you feel positive change from the first day, but you will also feel it grow as you do it day after day. You WILL change.
Please share your feedback below after you have tried it a few days. I am looking forward to hearing your insights.
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