The future is now.
You may not have met your future self yet, but they’re ready to meet you! Learn how to connect with the person you’re becoming in order to work with intention & achieve your goals more consistently.
You’re listening to Episode 98 of the Music-Preneur Mindset Podcast.
Hello! You’re listening to Episode 98: Tapping Into Your Future Self.
I’m your host, Suz, a mindset + productivity coach helping music professionals get clear on their goals, priorities, and next steps all while decreasing overwhelm and avoiding burnout.
This episode is brought to you by my new 90-minute training – Tapping into Your Vision.
During this training I’ll be guiding you on how to rewire those limiting beliefs through the art of EFT, also known as tapping. We’ll then identify your most top priorities AND create a specific and powerful vision board to attract the exact energy, things, and people needed to help you fulfill that vision.
Imagine feeling confident about the way you’re spending your time. How about relaxing into the fact that you have time to get it all done? Let’s get to a place where you know what you want and you’re clear on how to figure out your next steps.
I’ve taken all of the best parts of my past workshops and live talks and put it into these 90 mins that you can RSVP to by signing up on the show notes page – www.therockstaradvocate.com/ep98 – or DMing me on Instagram @rockstaradvo and letting me know you’d like to attend!
I call it Tapping Into Your Vision because I’ll be leading the training with a short but powerful tapping exercise, also known as EFT. Over the years I’ve found tapping to be an incredible way to hit pause and let go of the anxieties and stresses holding me back. I’m no expert, but I am a student of the practice and it’s proven to be extremely impactful each time I begin a workshop with this exercise of self-care and self-discovery.
It helps to have a visual as you learn how to effectively practice EFT, so I’ll save it for the training, don’t miss out! Replays will be available, but you’ll need to register.
In the meantime, on today’s episode, I thought I’d do a little play on words and focus on the more figurative definition of Tapping Into Your Future Self. I want to talk today about how to access that vision and future intention with simple, yet effective, self-care exercises that can help center you when the world’s white noise is pushing you off course.
While EFT is one of those exercises, as I mentioned, it’s best to demonstrate that practice visually, so I’ve included EFT resources in the show notes in case you’d like to dive in deeper on your own time. Right now, I want to focus on why it’s important to know your future self and then dig into three simple things you can do to get closer to who you are becoming.
Meditation teaches us the importance of being present. And it’s true, there’s not much we can do about the past, and we can’t predict the future, so the best we can do is be present in the moment and be aware of how we’re feeling and the environment that surrounds us.
It’s absolutely important to be present. However, while I don’t want to live in the past or float away into an imaginary future, I believe it’s equally important to reflect on what’s been and determine where we’d like to go from this point forward in order to have some purpose and direction in our actions.
True, we can’t change the past. But as Rafiki says, “you can either run from it or learn from it.”
We’re going to fail time and again, but it hurts less when those failures serve as informants for our next steps.
Same with the future, we can’t predict it or stop destiny or the Universe from doing its thing, but we do have control over our own actions, so why not put some purpose behind those actions and create a greater impact on the world around us? I mean, I think that sounds like more fun than just hangin out…
But here’s the thing… here’s the less fun part: Reflecting on our past takes honesty and willingness to grow from what we’ve learned and stepping into our future takes commitment to that growth which can feel scary as fuck.
It’s important to get to know your future self because it makes that commitment less scary and therefore more likely that you’ll take the action you ultimately wish to take. Think about it like this:
You’re single. Lockdown does not exist. And your best friend wants to set you up on a blind date. “You’re going to LOVE the person,” they promise.
You think to yourself, “Sure, that’s a possibility. But I don’t know that person. It could equally go just as bad and I could fully regret doing this. I rather just go out for the night with you and hit the town!”
You may also think to yourself, “I rather just stay home on my couch,” but let’s imagine for a moment that you’re a go-getter and not someone who’s been beaten down by a global pandemic, shall we?
Now let’s look at that scenario a bit more closely – your instinct is to prefer to go out with your best friend, someone you know so well that you know no matter how the night turns out, even if the food sucks, you’ll have a great time.
The blind date, on the other hand, is an unknown entity. You BFF claims it’s a great match, but can you trust that? What if it’s not? There are too many variables left up to chance and even if you agree to risk it and go you’ll certainly be cautious where you step and watch what you say until you feel more comfortable.
Much like walking into a dark room, a scenario I’ve described on this podcast many times before – if you only have a flashlight you’ll be limited to how easily you move about the room in an effort to avoid knocking into things. Turning the lights on will allow you to run from wall to wall if you felt like it, knowing where there was a clear path.
Knowing your future self is like going out for drinks with your best friend or turning on the lights in the room you’re entering. It’s less scary, less risky! Even if things go wrong, and they will, you’ll feel confident in having the tools to navigate through the mess.
In the age of Google I find it near impossible to believe you don’t try your best to learn everything you can about a potential date before meeting them. I’ll even state right here and now that while I fully believe the accusations Megan Markel and Prince Harry asserted to Oprah the other week, I do NOT believe for one second she did not research bits about the Prince before she met him for dinner. Sorry not sorry.
We want to know what our future holds for us, especially when it comes to the things or people we love (or hope to love), it’s survival instinct.
All jokes aside, if you want to take the risks you’ve been wanting to take in order to build the life and/or career you’ve always wanted, getting to know your future self as best you can will make the whole process less scary.
Because you won’t be chasing a day dream or an idea of yourself with doubts that that person even exists. You’ll be taking intentional steps to meet someone you already love, admire, and respect – like your best friend.
I’ve seen a lot of video clips shared online, after Beyoncé’s recent historic Grammy® achievement, from an interview when she first went solo years back. The interviewer asked how she sees herself and she said “a legend in the making.” That’s not cockiness or bravado, that’s intention.
You don’t have to have dreams of being a legend. If you do, awesome, keep that focus! Your dream could also be “full time musician” or “parent with the freedom to make my own hours” or “the person behind the legend” or literally anything under the Sun.
But, get as specific as you can. You don’t have to share the vision with everyone, or you can keep some of the details to yourself, but get those details! What is life like? How are you spending your time? What money are you bringing in? Who are you surrounding yourself with on a regular basis? Who are you impacting? What are you creating?
These aren’t day dreams, because you’re then going to commit to putting this vision into action. These visions are their own form of meditation. It’s part of the work.
So how can you ensure these don’t remain day dreams? In addition to EFT, I’m going to share 3 small but impactful exercises you can do to get to know your future self in greater detail and hone that vision. Remember, details and clarity are important for the Law of Attraction to work, which we discussed in Episode 95.
The first is writing a letter or journal entry from your future self. This is something I came across after falling into a YouTube rabbit hole years back and I came across a video I liked that explained it how to make it a part of your daily routine rather simply. I added the video to my
Suz’ Morning Routine playlist on YouTube. The link to it is in the show notes if you’d like to subscribe and check out the full routine.
In essence, sit down and set a timer for 5-10 mins. Center yourself, take a deep breath in, exhale and imagine what you want to accomplish – whether it’s a long term or short term goal, that’s up to you. I like to think of a long term goal and then choose a shorter milestone to focus on within the year. Then for the 5-10 mins you’ve set, write as if you’ve already reached that milestone and you’re telling your present (aka past) self about it.
For instance, when I was preparing to launch the 2021 Rock/Star Life Planner one of my letters to myself went something like this:
Dear Suz,
Future Suz here, it’s officially 2021, you made it! I know you’re exhausted, but you did it. We did it. It’s January and we’ve already sold out of the Planner, the fastest amount of time yet and we did it without Amazon or ads! I know it’s been really stressful, but now I get to focus on the podcast again and I can get back to creating more trainings and workshops for people to enjoy and even use the Planner as they do it. I feel really proud of the years of work that have gone into this moment and the feedback I’ve received from customers is really incredible.
I know you thought this couldn’t be done straight from our website, but it’s happening. Keep the faith. I’m living proof your handwork pays off. See you soon enough!
And that was it. To be honest, I paraphrased that one, but those were EXACTLY the goals I set and envisioned – for me, for the podcast, and for the sales of the Planner. And while I didn’t sell out by January, I still beat previous year goals and sold out by the end of January, all without the help of ads and Amazon for the first time ever.
Side note: I just received a small reprint order of new physical Planners for 2021, so if you want them be sure to grab them before they run out again! Just head to http://therockstaradvocate.com/planner
Back to the letter from my future self – I don’t do it daily, but I DO do it each time I’m hesitant to leap forward into uncharted territory. And it works. Notice in my note how I told myself the things I was able to do after reaching my goal – how I spent my time, what I was excited for next.
When we set a goal we usually think of it as a precipice and not another rung on the ladder. We can’t see past it so again… fear. It’s also paralyzing when we don’t know what to do after reaching the goal because we were so focused on the goal itself.
Try to be focused on the IMPACT the goal will make, rather than just the goal. What will reaching it allow you to do? How will you feel? These things help motivate us to take action.
Think of it this way – it’s not a high point on a mountain – it’s a ribbon you can not only reach but run straight into, break through, and continue running past. It’s like when vocal coaches advise you on reaching a high note – don’t reach for it, come down on top of it.
Another visual exercise is mind mapping. I love to use Simple Mind Lite, but any mind mapping app works and most are free – I don’t advise spending any money to do this or any of these exercises.
The link to Simple Mind Lite is in the show notes, I’m not an affiliate, just a fan. You can also use simple paper and pencil, but if you’re like me, you’re gonna wanna make a bunch of changes as you go.
Start with your goal or idea in the center and then start branching off. You can also do a mind dump list and then clean it up if you prefer.
Get all of the moving pieces out on the table and start organizing them, compartmentalizing.
You may realize certain steps need to come first or certain tasks can be batched together. You may also start to see what is better delegated to someone else or which is more of a long-term idea for down the road.
After some clean up you can get a more clear picture of something that was perhaps a bit too abstract just floating around in your head. If you want to visualize your future self here – create branches of that person’s life – what’s future you’s money situation? Love situation? Living situation? What does future you do for fun?
It’s like you’re creating a dating profile for your future self. Paint a picture, so to speak, and make them a three-dimensional idea. A lot of what will be there is already in you. You’re not reinventing yourself, you’re simply growing and adding/subtracting/tweaking parts of it.
This can also be a great way to acknowledge the pieces of yourself you don’t celebrate often enough – all of the wonderful attributes that you want to hold onto tighter. The last exercise I want to go over is vision boarding. We focused on this during Planchella back in December, but if you missed it or simply want to revisit it with us, I’ll be focusing on building a vision board again in my 90-min training later today at 4pm EST. Be sure to sign up, even if
you need to catch the replay! Head on over to bit.ly/tapintovision21 to RSVP or catch the link in the show notes.
All you need to do is use an app like Canva to create a visual representation of the various goals you have, or simply articulate one major goal through imagery. There’s no right way to do it. It can be one single image or a cacophony of images. These can be short term goals or long term goals, but I personally love to have a few short term milestones thrown in for good measure.
Making it digitally allows you specify the size, shape, and you have an endless bank of images to choose from or create from scratch.
I offer a free Canva template to create your vision board on my Planner Tutorial page, and my team and I just added a mobile version of the template – so you can create a desktop and mobile vision board and save them to your devices’ backgrounds as the sizes are already set to fit most devices. Need to resize? Sign up for a free trial of Canva Pro and you’ll be able to automatically resize any design you make so that it fits your devices perfectly.
Vision boards help us visually display the life we’re building for ourselves. Whether through text graphics or photos or painted images, having something to look at serves as a powerful reminder of what we’re working towards each and every day.
Feel like you’re spinning out and getting sucked into a hole of “busy work?” Take a moment and look at your vision board. What can you do with your time right now to make an impact towards one of those goals?
Vision boards inspire us, but they also help recenter us and allow us to work with more intention. Whether you focus on the imagery, the way you want to feel, or the exact steps you need to take, take time to get clear on what it looks like for you and watch the fear begin to melt away.
Go meet that best friend, they’re waiting for you.
I hope these 3 exercises help you get closer to the you you’re already becoming and if you’d like more guidance on these exercises join me later today! I’ll be going into all of this in greater detail, Tapping Into Your Vision at 4pm EST. Be sure to click on the link in the show notes or click the link in my bio on Instagram @rockstaradvo.
Thank you so much for listening and if you haven’t already, be sure to subscribe on your platform of choice as I’ll be back every week with a brand new episode! And if you like what you’ve heard I’d love it if you’d rate, follow, leave a review, or share from your favorite platform.
Until next time, Rock/Star. Keep planning, keep learning, and I hope to see you back here next week so we can get grounded to get rising! Take care.
Key Highlights
- Join me for a Tapping Into Your Vision webinar TODAY at 4:00pm EST
- Why the past and future matter just as much as being present when it comes to goal setting
- How writing a letter to your future self is like getting drinks with your best friend
- The difference between goals and day dreams
- Suz’ note from HER future self
- Mind mapping – what it is and why it’s crucial
- The power behind vision boarding
- What is your future self waiting to thank you for?
- Tell us in the comments!
Links/Rocksources
- Theme music brought to you by DC-based Indie/Pop band Sub-Radio
- More podcast episodes can be found here
- You can download a copy of the episode’s transcript here
- Our Sponsor: Tapping Into Your Vision webinar on March 24th at 4:00pm EST below and get my From Flustered to Focused Checklist when you sign up!
- Ep 95: The WTF of Law of Attraction
- Suz’ Morning Routine Playlist
- Grab your copy of The 2021 Rock/Star Life Planner
- Download Simple Mind Lite here
- Access my Vision Board Templates
- Wanna work together?? Schedule your call here
Thanks for listening!
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