Episode 83: Future Thought

Hey, everybody, how are you? I hope that you're doing well. I am sitting over here in a fuzzy sweatshirt that feels so good, but it's still hot outside. I'm just wishing that it were fall already, but it isn't quite feeling that way and I just can't wait. So I started to wear some of my fall clothes. and hoping that that helps bring on a little bit of the cooler weather. But as we go into this last quarter, by the time you're listening, you're already in the fourth quarter. What I want you to know is that even though for many of you, because I've heard from so many of you that the year feels like it's almost over. I want you to know, this is just the beginning. This is just the beginning. And that's a precursor to everything that I want to talk about today. So let's talk about future thoughts. And first, I'm going to reflect back to when I was little, I used to get asked questions, maybe you've been asked this before, but if you could have any superpower, what would you want. And sure it would be nice to fly or be invisible or read minds. But I wanted to be able to predict the future. And I guess I've just always been a planner by nature. And I like to know what's ahead. I like to know where things are headed. I like to try not to waste time if I can figure out something now and kind of predict the outcome. And so I've always liked to know what the future holds. 

I also have this uncanny or innate ability to see patterns in data and behavior, and just my surroundings in general, and understand how that's going to impact future results. It's something that I've just been gifted with. I am just that strategic thinker, but also very futuristic and understand at a high level, what the impact will be before it's ever actually real or evident to other people. In fact, other people sometimes don't believe me. And then if you whether it's weeks, months, whatever later, they're like how did you know, but I just do and there's no like, there's no like psychic ability or, or anything like that I'm looking at data. I'm very logical by nature. But I like to look ahead, and I just always have. And the thing is that no matter how much I plan or analyze the patterns, I'll never actually be able to predict the future, I might have a good idea of where something could head but I never know for sure, right?  And even though I never know for sure what the future holds, there's something that I have done that is so helpful, and that I want to share with you. 

So here's what I do. And here's what you can do. And that is to focus on your future thoughts. Now, this involves a few things. First, you need to understand that life is 50/50, I really want you to take that in. This means that the human experience includes both good and bad. And if you're human, that means you're going to experience both the good and the bad. As much as we want to. We can't control everything around us. So it doesn't matter how hard I try. It doesn't matter how perfect I try to make things how much I've tried to plan in advance, I can't control everything. Life happens. It's 50/50. And this is less about the percentage and more about the fact that there's truly always going to be some good, some bad. Sometimes we will succeed. Sometimes we won't. Sometimes we're going to feel great. And sometimes we're going to feel awful because we're human. And what that means is even though we can't predict exactly how things will go, we can always imagine at least two possible outcomes to any scenario or goal. So for example, if you're planning a launch, what you can predict is that either you're going to hit your goal or you won't. It's going to be one of those two things, yeah. If you're hiring a team member, either they're going to perform well or they won't. 

So this is the first thing, understanding that life is 50/50. And looking at the two sides to it, not just focusing on if you hit the goal, if things are perfect, if things work out, not just looking at, in other words, the best-case scenario, but also looking at the worst, or not just looking at the worst case, but also looking at the best case, really looking at both options. And knowing that there are two paths that this could go down, at least sometimes more. But at least, the second thing is then deciding ahead of time, what I want to think no matter which of those options happen, once I accept that there are multiple outcomes that are possible, I can decide ahead of time what I want to think in each situation if I don't hit my launch goal, I don't have to make it mean, anything negative. If a team member doesn't work out, I can decide ahead of time. What I want to think about is that because I know that that was an option from the point that I hired them. I always knew that was an option. So before I know the outcome, when it's less emotional, when I can think more objectively. I can think about how I want to think in the future, what are my future thoughts. 

Now, third, there are times where you're going to miss the second step, you're going to forget to slow down and think about what you want to think in the future in those specific scenarios, with the potential outcomes you could face. And so I recommend that you choose a thought that will work in any situation any and every situation. For me that means that when I'm taking a big step in business, I take the time to intentionally create future thoughts. But if I forget to create my belief plan, I also like to have a future thought in my back pocket that will work for any and every scenario, whether good or bad. No matter the outcome, I can decide ahead of time what I want to think because I have this back pocket thought. I've helped my clients come up with their go-to thoughts. But it should be a thought that works either way. Whether you hit your goal or you don't. Whether things go as planned or not. So when things go well, the thought, for me makes me feel really inspired about even greater possibilities. And when things don't go as planned, this thought makes me feel optimistic that it's still possible for me. So I'm going to share with you my future thought, but I encourage you to think about how it feels for you. And you can test out mine, try it on. But you can also come up with your own and then you need to test it in different situations and see how it feels for you. If it doesn't feel good for you choose a different thought. But for me, the thought this is just the beginning has served me so well. 

So I'm going to give you some scenarios, this is how you're going to test it out whether you're on pace to hit your big goals for the year, or whether you think you should be further along. This is just the beginning. You see how that works. When you're on pace to hit your big goals for the year. And you think this is just the beginning. At least for me, I feel so inspired, like oh, wow, like there's even more possible. I'm just getting started. This is amazing. And if I feel like I should be further along, I haven't hit my goals, then if I think this is just the beginning, I'm so optimistic about what's possible. Let's look at some other scenarios. Whether your revenue is ahead of last year's, or you're afraid to look at the numbers. This is just the beginning. Whether your team is taking care of business, literally, or whether you feel like you're starting over with hiring and training yet again, this is just the beginning. Whether you're finally feeling that taste of freedom from freeing up your time, or you're stressed and feeling burnt out. This is just the beginning. Wherever you are means nothing, nothing about what is or isn't possible for you. And no matter what happens in life and business, you can choose to think yes, maybe you guessed it, this is just the beginning. So again, that's the thought that serves me really well. That's the thought that I try to recall and use myself. But it's also become a thought that I've shared with my team. When my team doesn't hit their goals. You better bet yet that I'm telling them, this is just the beginning. you're capable of so much more. It's not over. We can do this. And so I encourage you to do the same. 

Now as a recap. Life is 50/50. There's good and bad but no matter what you can decide ahead of time, what you want to think and you can also choose it a thought that's going to work in any situation. Just like my thought, "this is just the beginning".