EP103: You One Year From Today
BEGIN WITH THE END
Direct your brain in the right direction now to create the results you want.
Enjoy!
Listen Here:
(The notes below are only a brief summary of what is discussed in the podcast. Be sure to listen to get all of the goodness! If you would like a full transcription of the episode, please send an email request to: angie@angie-robinson.com. We’d be happy to provide that!)
Happy New Year (at the time of posting)!
So, I don't really do new year's resolutions. I used to do that long ago in my early adult years, but not anymore. I do however, have goals. I do set intentions. I do choose a word every year to focus on. In all of that - taking some time to think about the end of the year (or whatever time frame makes sense for you) is such a powerful exercise.
After you read this, block off 30 minutes and do the activities that I am going to talk about here.
When we think about you one year from today, we're going to take three steps:
Imagine the Future
Anticipate Barriers
Take Action
1 - Imagine the Future
Imagine you one year from today (i.e. December 31, 2024). Answer the questions below by getting really specific.
Don't get stuck on “I don't know what actually is going to happen” or “I don't know how I'm going to make things happen” or “How am I supposed to know what's going to happen? That's a whole year from now!”. It's true - we really don't know what might happen in the course of a year, but if we get stuck in the unknown, we don't actually do anything. Be open to anything being possible. Imagine that this next year is an open book. It is a blank canvas.
Here are the questions:
What do you want to be reflecting on one year from today?
What do you want to be thinking about past year?
What will you have accomplished?
What will you be saying…about yourself? About your accomplishments?
What are other people saying about you?
How will you have shown up throughout the year?
What will you be super proud of?
What will you have learned?
What will you have stopped doing?
What will you be looking forward to next?
Who will you have become over the past year?
You might be having some resistance here. You might be thinking “Come on!. We haven't even started the year yet!”
Answering these questions really helps to prime your brain for how you approach this next year (or whatever timeframe you chose).
By doing this exercise and really thinking about who you are and what you have accomplished one year from today, it might actually prompt you to revisit goals you have already established. You might find it useful to rewrite them to make sure that they're in alignment with this future version of yourself.
2 - Anticipate Barriers
We want to anticipate anything that might come up and get in our way to creating the results we are looking to create. This part is so, so important. Let your brain think of all the things that might get in the way. Get them all out of your head and onto paper. You might thing of barriers around resources (i.e. time, money), support (or lack of) and limiting beliefs (thought gaps). Write it all down without judgment or censoring.
Of course, you aren’t going to think of everything - there are going to be unforeseen situations that might show up as a barrier. But we are thinking of everything we can in this moment.
When you get this out of your brain and onto paper - it does a couple of things.. First of all. it gives us an opportunity to look at the barriers objectively. Oftentimes our brains like to catastrophize, thinking of all the worst case scenarios. And that's okay. It's just our brain doing its job - trying to protect us. But when we can actually see those thoughts for what they are, it helps to minimize their power. When you look at what you’ve written - you can determine what the probability of that actually happening. If it’s a low probability - you can simply ‘cross it off the list’ - clearing up some brain space for more possibility.
The other thing that we've done by getting all of these potential barriers out on paper is given ourselves the opportunity to decide ahead of time on what we might do if we actually run into the barrier.
So - your action is to make the list of potential barriers (let your brain think of everything!), review the list and decide what the probability is of each item (rid of any with a low probability) and then brainstorm on what actions you could take to overcome each barrier if they were to come to fruition.
(Here is an example: One of the barriers is lack of sufficient money. When brainstorming on how to overcome that barrier - you could do things like stop going to Starbucks, selling something on Facebook Marketplace or ask to borrow from a family member.)
3 - Take Action
Listen, I believe in the power of reflection and planning and visioning. It's super critical in creating the results that we most want. But unless we take action, things are not going to happen. So we have to be willing to take the next best step, even when we're a little unsure of what that should be or if we are afraid of what might happen.
We need to get uncomfortable. We need to take the actions. Decide now what that next step is - and do it. Then decide the next one - and to that.
Let’s Go!
Here's what I know: what our brain spends time thinking about is what creates and/or impacts our results. So - start now.
Imagine that future version of you and what you have accomplished. Decide on what the potential barriers could be and figure out how you could overcome those barriers. Then start taking action.
You're doing all of this ahead of time in order to create the results that you most want.
This is where understanding yourself is key. What are your thoughts about you? What are your thoughts about possibilities? What needs to be cleaned up? What about you can be leveraged and what might get in your way? What do you need to dial up? What do you need to dial down? What do you need to start doing? What do you need to stop doing? How do you need to show up?
Call it goal-setting, call it visioning, call it whatever you want to call it.
But it is more than just writing down a smart goal.
It's about getting really specific about who you are and who you need to become.
When we don't do this, we are more likely to get distracted. There might be some limiting beliefs that we aren't even aware of. There might be that imposter syndrome that we're not giving airtime to. We may get busy with other things and not hold ourselves accountable.
And then before we know it, we've gotten off track. But when we get really clear about our brains and about our future version of ourselves and learn how to stay on top of that - we will actually make things happen.
Let’s do this!
What Do You Think?
Are you ready to create results that you will celebrate one year from today?
Links
Episode 11: Bringing Light to Limiting Beliefs
Episode 23: Who Do I Think I Am? [aka Imposter Syndrome]
Episode 98: The Magic of One Word on Your Leadership and Life
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