The Scary Truth About Your Future!

Today we are going to shine a light on the scary truth about your future.  

If you don’t have absolute clarity as to where you will be in 5 years from now, you are already there!

Now, if you are exceptionally happy with where your life is right now, congratulations! We probably don’t have to continue with our conversation. 

If however, you know that there is more for you, then here is the scary truth about your future.  

In their book “The Three Laws of Performance,” Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan propose that you have a default future that you are committed to and that you are creating it now, whether you are conscious of it or not. 

And it is not the future you think will materialise, nor is it the one you are hoping for. 

The scary truth about your future is that you can expect more of your past. Your default future is based on your past. 

One of the greatest life-changing moments that I experienced some time ago was when I learned that you and I are not watching the same movie. 

How you and I perceive the world is entirely different and is filtered through the beliefs, values, and unique experiences that we have had in the past. 

And that perception that is unique to you, is what you project into the world. So you don’t see the world as it is but rather how you are! 

Dr. Joe Dispenza, who wrote the book “Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself,” said that what you perceive as your daily reality is close to only about 1 percent of actual reality. 

And the reason for that is, because of the filtering system that we have unconsciously set up in our minds, we miss so much. We only pay attention to what that filtering system deems important to us. 

We are missing all the gold coins in the pot because we can only see the bronze coins! We are missing out on opportunities that are all around us every day because we cannot see them! 

Unless you train yourself to see differently, you are on the way to realising the scary truth about your future. 

So what is the solution, how do you turn it around? 

The first step is to get absolute clarity of the future you want. You have to create a big compelling future! Something that is both scary and exciting at the same time. 

Creating this kind of future will cause you to start paying attention to things that you may have previously missed. You may start seeing gold coins instead of bronze ones. 

Here is an example that is overused but it does illustrate how creating a compelling future causes you to notice what you previously may have missed. 

If you have ever decided that you would like to buy a new car and you know the make and colour that you would like, suddenly you start seeing that car everywhere. 

So creating a crystal clear clarity of the future you want will cause you to start seeing those previously invisible opportunities to make it real. 

In psychology, there is a relatively new concept called Prospection where research has shown that as humans, we are driven by our view of the future and that all behaviour is goal driven. 

The challenge for most people is that their view of the future is a nose length in front of them so their goals are to fight the urgent battles and challenges related to that nose-length future. 

To avoid the scary truth about your future, you have to have the courage to look further than your nose. You have to decide exactly what you want your future to look like at least three to five years from now. 

You also have to decide what kind of person you want to be in that future. Your future self will be different from who you are today, especially if you have moved away from the scary truth of your future, which is your default future, and you have proactively created a new one. 

Who is that person?

What do they value?

What do they believe?

Where is their emotional home?

How do they see the world? 

Once you have decided who that person will be, why wait? You can start showing up as that person today. 

When you know what your future looks like and you recreate your identity around that, your behaviour will begin to shift because your identity is what you are most committed to. 

We don’t do what we can in life, we do what we believe we are. As humans, we will do anything to remain consistent with who we believe we are. 

And ultimately, if you are going to move away from the scary truth of your future, the only thing that is going to move you is what you do! 

Sadly, unless you proactively take back your power to create clarity for your future and build an identity around it, you can expect more of your past, and you will default to the scary truth of your future. 

If you would like to comment on how you intend to shift out of your default future, please do so below. 

Until then, unleash your future self! See you soon.