Decide To Be Your Future Self

By Andrea C. McLean

Do you want to live a more fulfilling and successful life? Do you want to become the best version of yourself?

If so, you must read Decide to Be Your Future Self: A Journey of Transformation. This book will show you how to decide to bec

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrea C. McLean
• Release date: Dec 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798988456841

Book preview

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Decide to Be Your Future Self

Decide to be Your

Future Self

A Journey of Transformation

Andrea C. McLean

Decide to Be Your Future Self

Copyright © 2023 by Andrea C. McLean

Published in the United States of America

ISBN Paperback: 979-8-9884568-3-4

ISBN eBook: 979-8-9884568-4-1

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the author’s prior permission except as provided by USA copyright law.

Introduction

You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

C. S. LEWIS

Have you ever imagined yourself in the future living life on your own terms? It’s human nature to fantasize about our future selves and how we have changed and grown. According to renowned psychologist Dr. Daniel Gilbert, most people believe they will change over time. The person you are today is not the person you will be five or ten years from now. When we accept this truth, we can lean into the power of envisioning our future. But it’s also fundamentally important to decide who we want to become.

I have a friend who envisioned himself in the future. As a young boy attending boarding school, he missed seeing his father. There were certain designated ‘family days’ when fathers would drive to the school on a Sunday evening, bring snacks, and just hang out with their sons. My friend’s father had migrated to another country in search of a better life, leaving behind his mother and four children. The family would only see him once a year, sometimes once every two years. My friend would look out from his room across the campus and see many other boys at the school enjoying an afternoon with their fathers, and he would long to see his own dad. One of those afternoons when he was feeling down, he made a vow to himself that one day, when he had children, they would never have the same experience and that he would always be there for them. He never forgot about that vow he made to himself. My friend kept his commitment and is now an amazing father who has a very close relationship with his children.

Envisioning and deciding who you want to be is not merely a daydreaming exercise, but a powerful tool for personal growth and transformation. When we have a clear vision of our future self, we are more motivated to act and make choices that align with our aspirations. When we envision the person we want to become, we can set goals, overcome obstacles, and make decisions to lead us toward that future with a sense of purpose, direction, intention, and determination.

Comedian Jim Carrey leveraged the power of envisioning to build a brilliant future for himself. He came from a family history of poverty, and his parents had health issues. Jim began telling jokes to make his mom feel better. At 15, he got his first gig at the Yuk Yuk Club in Toronto. His performance flopped; however, his dad encouraged him to continue his dream of becoming a comedian. Jim dropped out of school and moved to Hollywood to pursue his dream. In 1985, he envisioned the future and wrote a $10 million check to himself post-dated ten years in the future for ‘acting services rendered’ and kept it in his wallet. In November 1995, Jim was cast in the movie Dumb and Dumber for $10 million.

Sometimes, we have an intuition about what we will become in the future; other times, people speak it into our lives. Seven years ago, I was on the board of directors for a customer service organization. I was one of a few newly elected members on the board, as there was a three-year board term, and some people had rolled off the board. As part of a team-building exercise, we did the CliftonStrengths™ assessment. There was a facilitated session for the entire team where we explored the team strengths and our individual strengths to inform how we could best work together.

After we did the group facilitated session, we were each given the opportunity to have a one-to-one session with a CliftonStrengths™ certified coach. When I had my session with the