12. Achieve Any Goal by Becoming Your Future Self (Part 1)

I am Deidrea Kiesling and you’re listening to The Success Minded Woman, episode 12. If you could become the woman who achieves the goals you're dreaming of, who would she be? What would she be doing? Finding out who she is and how you can become her is the key to creating the life you want. Listen in to find out how.

Hi, I’m Deidrea, wife, and mom to three teenagers, coffee snob, and certified life and business coach. If you’re a high-achieving, goal-oriented woman and you know you were meant for more, then you are a success minded woman and you’re in the right place. I’m here to help you make the money and the impact you’ve been dreaming of, to step into your confidence, create habits and systems to support you, ditch that imposter syndrome, and harness the power of your mind. If you’re ready to create a life and business you love, then let’s go. I’m so glad you’re here.

We’re going to talk today about how to get it done. So if there is something that you want in your life and you don’t have it, we have to figure out why you don’t have it and what you’d need to do to get it. So one of the things that I really like to think about when I am going after a goal, creating a project, making a plan is to figure out what are the major milestones that need to happen? And then what are the different tasks under that milestone? And breaking it out this way into smaller chunks helps it be more manageable so that our brains don't freak out and go to overwhelm and shut down.

So what I want for you to do is to take that big goal, that big dream and put some framework around it. So for me, I'm creating a $1 million business. So if I thought, okay, I’m going to start today and I’m creating a $1 million business, that could be so big that my brain can’t handle it and I would shut down for me. So what I'm doing is I’m doing $100,000 this year. So that’s how I’m starting, I’m starting with I’m going to do $100,000 in revenue this year in my new life coaching business.

And after this year then I’ll make a plan for the next year. And in my mind having the big goal of $1 million, taking it into a smaller goal of this year for $100,000, that lets me get to work on the $100,000 and not worry about how I’m going to get to the $1 million. So right now my work is to create a plan and become the person that achieves that result. so for me I’m a $1 million coach, that is my identity, I’m a $1 million coach. I'm here to serve. I'm here to help. I'm here to guide. I'm here to inspire.

And the more I do that the more I show up and do my work and be the person that I want to be the more that the results will happen. So I'm just going to focus on showing up and doing the work. And I’m going to let go of the result because what I know for sure is that the best way to get the result that you want is to think and feel and take the action that will take me towards that result. Because that is what I can control. I can control what I think. I can control what I’m feeling and I can control what I'm doing. So as long as I focus on those things the result will take care of itself.

So that is what I want for you. And how to get it done, first you have to really be clear on what you want. So if you haven't listened to that episode, go back and listen to it, GPS for Success, I think it’s episode three. But go back and listen to that so you can get really clear on how you want to program your GPS for success. And once you have that program, once you know where you are and where you're going then you can do this next step of basically implementation. And so the first thing that we really have to do is decide who we’re going to be because it’s your identity, it’s who you are.

It’s who you’re being, that is how you create the results that you want because we can only achieve to the level of our identity. So if we want to have more than we have right now, we have to become that person. And so what we have to do is start thinking and feeling and acting like the person that will get the result that you want.

So when I was starting in my career 20/30 years ago, there was a saying, dress for the job you want, not the one that you have. And I really like that and I always did that. I always looked like I was in charge even when I was the most junior consultant on a project team. When we walked in, we would go, we would sign in to like when you go to a corporate client, there is a reception desk, you have to sign in and give them your ID and tell them who you’re there to meet with.

And it was funny because after that first probably year of being the small sort of junior consultant in the back looking around and how do I do this and just watching my male senior colleagues and how they negotiated things. I started deciding that I would be more in charge of things. And so then I would always when I'd walk into those corporate offices, I would be right there at the front desk and I would say, “Hey, how are you doing? I’m Deidrea. I’m here to see so and so.” And just, I would have so much authority when I was doing that.

And even if I was with a group of other consultants and even if I was with some of my managers, they always could tell that I was in charge. And it was really because of the way I dressed and the way I acted. And so I always made sure that I was dressed really well, very professional and tailored and polished. I always had a really nice bag, really nice shoes. And I just really looked the part way before I actually had the part. And so I always took that to heart and I really never understood exactly what that all meant, dress for the job you want, not the one that you have.

But now that I’ve done all of this work and coaching and learning to be a coach I totally get it because we create the results from our identity. And so if you start being the person who has that result you will start to get it and that's really what happened to me. I started getting promotions so quickly within a year of starting at KPMG. I went from I think I was junior consultant, regular consultant, senior consultant and manager within I think maybe within a year, might have been 18 months. But anyways it happened really, really fast because I just acted the part.

I just wore the identity of who I wanted to be and the job I wanted to have and not necessarily where I was and where I was starting. So that’s the number one thing is that you really have to figure out who you need to be to get the results that you want. In coaching we call that your future self. So your future self, what would she be thinking, would she be wearing? What would her day look like? What would her mindset be like? All the things when you think about your future and that future you.

You have to really spend time there getting to know her because she is who you’re doing the work for. You’re doing the work now for her, for your future self. And what's been so fun for me now that I've gone through several iterations of this personal growth journey is that now I can say, “Thank you. Thank you”, to myself from a couple of years ago who put in so much work to get to where I am today. Thank you so much for all your hard work, for all your struggles and your disappointments and your courage and your resilience and your not giving up on yourself and your dreams.

And even though it was really, really hard you did it and I'm so proud of you and I'm so grateful for you and all that you did for me. And I can look at her and say,” “Thank you.” And I can also go, “And here I am right now.” And looking at where I want to go and this is the gift that I'm giving my future self. And she is going to look back at me today and what I'm going through today and she's going to say the same thing, “Thank you. You did amazing. It was hard and you did it, you figured it out, you showed up, you made it happen. And I'm so grateful to you.”

So that's what I want for you, to really step into the identity of who you want to be, who you will be when you achieve the result that you want in your life, because that is how you do it. You become the person that creates the results because what you have right now, everything that you have right now is based on who you are right now or who you were in the past. And so everything that you want in the future, if you want to change, if you want to grow, if you want to live this big dream life that you’re working on you're going to have to change.

And you’re going to have to change your identity which is how you think about yourself, how you feel about yourself, how you take care of yourself, how you speak to others about yourself, all of it will have to change to become your future self. And so that's the work. That is the number one thing in getting things done and achieving your results and creating this dream come true life is you have to become the person who does it. So taking time to identify who she is. And this is an exercise that I have done a couple of times and I’m actually going to do it again.

I’m kind of convincing myself while I’m doing this podcast, I think it’s time for me to do this again, to really identify all the areas of your future self. So what does she look like? What is she thinking in the day? What is her rhythm of her day? What kind of clothes does she wear? What is the environment that she's in and her house and her office, her car, her clothes? Just all the things that you think it's such a clear picture of who she is and where she is and how she is experiencing her life.

So once you have all of that really, really clear then it’s just a matter of really becoming her. And like I said earlier, it’s dressing the part before you have it. So it's really waking up and having the identity of your future self, of the woman that achieves the results that we’re working on. And the sooner that you can do that and the more that you can embody that, the quicker you will get the result because the only difference from where you are now and what you want is becoming the person who can do it.

So the quicker that you can get into this identity of your future self, of the woman that gets the things done to get the results that she wants.  The sooner that you can get into that rhythm and that mindset and that thought process and that routine, the faster you’ll get there. Okay, step one of getting things done is to create your future self. I was actually going to go into a lot more stats on this podcast. But I want to break it down and really give it to you one step at a time so that you can do the exercise that goes along with this.

So I really want you to take some time to really think about your future self, think about who you want to be in a year from now, in three years from now, in five years from now. Who do you want to be? And there’s probably a lot of things that you are right now that you want to keep, that you love about yourself, that you’re proud of about yourself. We’re going to keep all of that. We’re just going to improve on it and then there’s probably things that you don’t like about yourself or that you want to change about yourself that your future self wouldn't be doing.

And so that’s part of this future self exercise is to figure out what she would think in the day, what she would eat in the day, what time she would get up, what kind of exercise would she do. Just all the rhythm and routine of the day, of the workday, of a weekend day. Just all the aspects of her, this future self that you're creating. So really take some time and spend some time getting to know her, what is she thinking? What is she feeling? What is she excited about? What is she proud of herself about? And what habits does she do that support her?

And what habits does she no longer do that maybe you do right now that you know you can’t continue to become the person that you want to be? So the more that you can spend time in developing this future self, the more you can really get to know her and understand her and become her, the faster you will create your result. The added bonus is the more that you can be your future self now, not only does it make your results come faster, but you actually get to enjoy your life right now.

Because really all you’re really wanting when you create your results is how you’re going to feel. And if you start feeling how you want to feel now, being the person that you want to be now, it's like you get a double bonus of the result. You get to feel that way now and you get to feel that way when you get the result that you’re working on. So it’s like a double bonus when you decide who you want to be, decide what you want out of life and start becoming her, start being her and start interacting with the world as her. And you will create the result that you want.

I mean it really is that simple and yet that's the work. That’s the work of really deciding what we want and who we want to be and then making a commitment to do that, to become that person, to do the work. And then really the implementation, making a plan, taking action, assessing your action and just going through that cycle, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. I mean that's really it, that it really is the work is deciding who you want to be, deciding what you want, making 100% commitment to create it, making a plan, taking action, assessing the action, revisiting your plan, taking more action. I mean that's it.

Simplicity is when you take things down to its most basic level. But when something is simple it doesn't mean that it's easy. So this really is something, it’s simple because it’s really just four steps. Decide, commit, plan, take action and assess. I mean that's really it, but the implementation of that, that's the work. And that's where you have to dig deep and become that future self, the woman that achieves those results, the woman that does that work to get that result.

Alright, that’s it for now and I’ll see you all next week. Bye.

If you love what you’re learning here on the podcast and you want to start implementing these concepts into your daily life then you must get my free course where I will teach you how to get 10 hours back a week. Imagine what you could create with 10 more hours a week. So go to thedreamacademy.com/freecourse and learn about the magic wand of time. Thanks for listening. Bye.

Thanks for joining me this week on The Success Minded Woman podcast. If you like what you heard on the podcast and you want to know more, then head on over to thedreamacademy.com where you can sign up for my weekly success and mindset tips to help you create your dream come true life. Talk to you all next week, bye.