What I Did

To grow my Future Self, I must invest in it and be clear on what I’m optimising for. What do I want my Future Self to be? To answer this question, I must have a growth mindset and be flexible and clear that:

• I am not my past self

• My Present Self isn’t fixed, but is temporary

• My Future Self will be radically different from who I am today

I am the one who mentally decides who I want to be. My Future Self is a draft, under constant revision. Hardy advises us not to stress or overcomplicate the process and to be playful!

The next two tasks and my three priorities will be in the next note.

All the notes in this series are here.

What I Did

I’m working through the 7 Steps For Being Your Future Self, taken from the book Be Your Future Self Now by Dr Benjamin Hardy.

Hardy states we must have a specific future goal to look forward to. This goal gives meaning to our lives. This is not about a grand purpose for our entire life. This goal is the most important thing we can do right now. This is the next level that will be utterly amazing to achieve!

What We Must Do

To clarify our contextual purpose—the most important objective we could accomplish—Hardy says we must do 3 things:

• Connect to our long-term Future Self. My previous notes outline how we have been doing this.

• Clarify your contextual purpose through your three major priorities.

• Set massive 12-month targets based on your three priorities.

We’ll start working through the three above in my next note, demonstrating how, by imagining and connecting to our 12-month targets, we become more informed and strategic when connecting to our Future Self.

What I Did

For the last 6 days, first thing in the morning, I’ve written a new 3-sentence ‘money’ conversation in the present tense. It’s vital to connect each day with my future scripting in the voice of my new money identity.

Fairies

All through my university studies, I had a ‘book fairy’! Whenever I had an assignment, I would go to the library, and the perfect book would practically jump off the shelf. I also have a ‘parking fairy’. She is so good that my two daughters borrow her with equally fabulous results! Because we expect it to happen, we always get a parking spot in crowded car parks, courtesy of our fairy.

But I never had a ‘money fairy’. I do now! She is definitely part of my future scripting. Every day, I’m ready for her to make an appearance. There’s no reason why future scripting can’t be fun! In the evening, I review any occasions when I slipped back into old thoughts of disbelief that the changes will happen. This is normal, and the answer is to be aware without judging.

In my next note, I will return to the book I mentioned earlier - Be Your Future Self Now. In Part 3, there are 7 Steps for Being Your Future Self. We will go through these 7 Steps together.

By the way, you will find all the notes in this series under FutureSelfNotes on my Author-Come-Lately website navigation bar.

What I Did

To change my neural pathways, I wrote my new money story. In rewriting this story, I’m rewriting my identity as someone possessing wealth and prosperity. This is how I am reprogramming my future. I also wrote a scene taking place six months from now, in which I’m living my new reality.

This reprogramming of my neural pathways is critical, not only for me, but for my children, too. Their father, my ex-husband, is a compulsive gambler, so you can imagine how disastrous their early messaging was.

I’m determined to do everything I can to change the influence of that money scripting, not only for myself and my children, but also so none of it is passed down to my grandchildren. Once you start to see the old scripting, you can’t unsee it! That’s a good thing.

My next note is about my Integration practice. You can see all these notes on my Author-Come-Lately website navigation bar—FutureSelfNotes.

What I Did First

As I read through Magdalena Ponurska’s Rewrite Your Relationship With Money workbook, I learned that to identify my ‘money blindspots’, I had to write the script of all my inherited beliefs that had shaped my relationship with money, prosperity and abundance.

What I Did Next

I completed the three writing exercises and realised how embedded the notion of ‘Gone With The Wind’ had become in my belief system. It was even one of my favourite movies. This theme had been repeated not only in my parents’ lives but also in my own. I wrote a post about it - ‘Gone With The Wind’: Ditching My Life Script! This was my money and life script! Can you think of one sentence that captures the money script that you’ve been living by?

In my next note, I’ll share how I’m continuing to change my neural pathways.

What I Did First

In March this year, I downloaded Magdalena Ponurska’s workbook, Rewrite Your Relationship With Money (you need to be a subscriber, or you can buy it for $57).

What I Learned

I learned that our brains respond to stories, not strategies. We learn our ‘money story’ through countless messages we get from growing up in our family—all the little messages that we don’t realise we’re absorbing.

In my case, every time it looked like everything was going really well financially, something happened, and my parents repeatedly lost everything, starting with losing their home and lifestyle when Singapore fell to the Japanese at the beginning of WW2.

As a newborn, I started absorbing those stories and the emotions attached to them, and they have been informing my ‘money story’ ever since without my awareness or permission. What are all the little messages you got growing up about how to handle money?

How I started rewriting my money story in the next note.

What I Did First

At the end of last year, I found the perfect book online - Be Your Future Self Now: The Science of Intentional Transformation. I bought two copies, one for me and one for my eldest daughter. The idea was that we would do the exercises together.

How I Did It

We still haven’t done it! My daughter is so busy. This is the reality. We get caught up in doing so many things in our lives, and doing this work requires real commitment!

Finally, I read the book, which is fabulous. But I didn’t do the exercises as I was still waiting for my daughter. Instead, I returned to Magdalena earlier this year. I’ll share that in my next note, and I will also be returning to the book later.

What I Did First

My journey started once I read Magdalena Ponurska’s 20-Minute Writing Exercise. Her post set everything in motion. She tells how everything changed for her, and what happened after she did the 20-minute exercise.

How I Did It.

I was hooked. I followed instructions, focusing on the money I needed for a writing program and outlined how my WW2 novel was a bestseller and was being turned into a blockbuster movie.

I know, I know! But it was so much fun to write, and I have complete faith that it will happen!

But then my life took a different turn involving a family commitment, and my future self was sidetracked, a familiar pattern. I share the book that got me back on track in my next note.

If you are interested in how to become a much bolder and more powerful Future Self, then do join me as I chart my own personal journey on this quest in a series of notes that I hope you will find helpful.

I’ll be sharing how I started, what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. Let the journey begin! Watch out for the next Note!