How to Design Your Future

Do you have an ideal picture or dream of what your life would look like, feel like, or be like 5 years, 10 years from now?

Did you have an ideal picture or dream 5 or 10 years ago?

Are you where you pictured you would be today?

Do you constantly find yourself saying things like, “when I have more money,” or “when things are different,” or “when I finish ______,” “then I will do my dream.” “THEN I will start living life the way I wanted to?”

If so, this is just for you.

Here’s why: “when” will probably never happen. Think about this: how long have you been saying that you will live your dream next year, in 5 years, in 10 years, but next year never gets here. Sure, it gets here in man-years. But your dream never gets here.

And it probably won’t, either.

Not unless you make it happen. NOW.

Now? you ask?

Yes, now.

Here’s why:

How many times have you read in a book to write your 5 year or 10 year plan, list out the steps to get there, and then just do those steps?

If you are like me, you’ve probably read something like that many many times. And if you are particularly ambitious, you’ve probably written out your 5 year or 10 year game plan.

But 5 years later, you didn’t accomplish it.

Some would say you didn’t work hard enough.

You might say that you veered from your plan, so of course it didn’t work.

You might even argue that your plan changed, so now you are working on another plan.

But I’ve been thinking about something. Deeply. I do it in my life.

And when I look back at my successes in life, they almost always occur as a result of what I am going to share with you next.

But when you look back at them, it is easy to rewrite the past to believe I created a set of goals, and then methodically did what it took to achieve them. And in some cases, in a literal sense, that’s what I did on the outside.

And so what has happened in the past is that when someone asks me what I did to be successful – I tell them that I had goals, and did the work to achieve them. And the Lord blessed me (of course) ( and I believe He has blessed me with the realization I am sharing in this document).

And so when you ask me what to do to achieve your goals, in the past I have said,
“Write your goals. Make a list of what to do to GET THERE. And do it.”

But the problem is in the “get there.”

Because I have realized that in real life, I don’t really do the steps to “get there,” I do the steps to “be there.”

And I believe that that’s what most highly successful people do – even if they BELIEVE they are doing what they need to to “get there.”

On the outside, it looks like we are doing the steps to “get there.”

But inside, something else was going on – and I think that something else is what actually drove the results.

Here it is:

Create a picture of what you want your _____ to look like. Your ________ is your life, your business, your marriage, etc.

Create a picture of what you want it to look like.

So far, this sounds like what everyone else might be saying: next, create a list of steps, then sequentially DO those steps. (GET THERE)

But I suggest doing something different:

Start doing what it will look like: NOW.

That’s right, instead of making a list of things to do to get to that point, start living that point NOW. (BE THERE)

You may say, but I don’t have the money to DO what I want in my dream. Do it anyway, just without the money. Or you may say, I don’t have the following to do it now. Do it anyway, just without the following. Or you may say, I don’t have the traffic, the prospects, the connections, to do that now. Do it anyway, without the traffic, the prospects, or the connections.

Just do it, at whatever level you CAN, right now.

And when you do it now, you will have that thing that can GROW into exactly the way you want it to be in the future. No getting there. You will have it now. All it has to do is grow.

Here are a few examples:

Let’s imagine your dream is to take 6 weeks of vacation a year, work 4 hours a day teaching something you love, and only answer email 30 minutes a day.

Right now, you say, I can’t go away for 6 weeks because I don’t have the money, I can’t work 4 hours a day because I have to work 8 to have the money come in, and I have to answer email 4 hours a day because that’s what people expect.

But what if you were to say, “I am going to take 6 weeks off, even if we have no money.” No money may be relative. What if you were to simply check into a budget studio in a town 30 minutes away, one that has a kitchen, go grocery shopping on the way to the town, spend no more than you would in town that week grocery shopping, leave your computer AND your phone at home, and just spend your day walking the town, sitting in coffeeshops and bookstores, and only eat what you packed in groceries?

That would be a bare – minimum vacation. The ONLY cost would be the studio for one week. If you don’t have the money for that, some relative that wants you out of town would loan it to you.

Do that 6 times a year. After a few of these, you will find a way to set the money aside between the vacations to be able to eat out. To be able to do some paid sightseeing. To go further than 30 minutes away. But the key is that you are getting away, you are creating a habit of getting away. And instead of waiting 10 years to be able to start doing this – 10 years that will probably never happen. But if you start doing that NOW, you will be doing it NOW. The only change that has to happen is that your budget expands over time.

What about working 4 hours a day on your dream business? You may think, I can’t do that because I HAVE to work 8 hours a day on making the money come in. That’s okay, do that AND work 4 hours a day on your dream business. And since your bills are paid in the other 8 hours, you have no stress during the 4 hours a day working on your dream business. You just work on it. And if it takes 2 years to be profitable, who cares?

And when working on your dream business, you work on it the way you WANT it to be, not the way you think you have to now.

For example, if your dream business for 4 hours a day would look like this:

write 1 article a day (1 hour)

record 1 youtube a day (1 hour)

coach 1 client a day (1 hour)

write 1 email a day (1 hour)

just do just that.

You say, but I don’t have any clients.

You don’t need them. Surely, you can find one person a day that would allow you to coach him for free, right?

Instead of advertising for someone to buy your $97 product that no one is buying because you don’t have much of a list nor copywriting skills, just advertise one hour free coaching sessions.

You say, but I don’t have anyone to write the email to. Write it anyway.

It doesn’t matter, anyway, right? You are committed to doing the steps, the money comes from your day job, so your dream business doesn’t have to be profitable anyhow. When it does become profitable, then you can quit your day job.

By the way, sometimes folks come to me and say something like, “I HAVE To make $3000 the next 30 days online.” Look, if you didn’t make $2800 last month, the odds of you making $3k next month are practically nil anyway.

If you need to make money in the next 30 days, get a job. Or start doing work for people. Most towns have enough unadvertised handyman or handywoman work around to make $3k a month pretty easy.

You can do it right in your neighborhood.

Here’s how it works: knock on a door of a neighbor. Ask if they have anything around the house that needs to be done. . . a door hung, a floor vacuumed, a window washed. Anything. Stop thinking these jobs belong to teenagers. Anyone can do them. I put myself through graduate school cleaning carpets.

If someone paid you $10 to vacuum their house, you just need to vacuum 300 houses to make $3k. Some will need more work done. They like you. You are in their house. You vacuum. You ask if there is anything else that needs to be done.

That is just one example. But there are dozens and dozens of things YOU can do in people’s homes. Or in their offices.

For example, maybe you know how to build a blog from scratch. You go to every business in your neighborhood and ask if they have a blog. If they say “no”, ask, “why not?” Most of the time they will probably tell you, “because the other guy wanted $2000” You say, what if you could get it done for $100, would you want it? He says yes. You say, ok, what do you want on the 5 pages of your website? He tells you. You go home, build the blog (really easy, buy domain name, upload wordpress, put the 5 pages of content on his site. Note: $100 does not include you writing 5 posts, he has to do that. Or pay you $100 to do it. Now it is a $200 job.)

You go back to his business tomorrow, collect $100. Tell him if he wants any more pages added, it is $100 per 5 pages, call me. Some will like your work and give you 100 pages ($2000) right now.

Go to the next business. Show them the site you just made for their competitor. Same spiel. Why don’t you have a blog? Too much? Ok, $125.

Do this 10 times. You will find the right price. In 2 weeks you are probably doing 2 websites a day for $200 each. $400 a day. 20 days a month. $8000 a month.

I could give you many more examples. ANYTHING that needs to be done in a home or office that you know how to do, you can charge enough to make a full time living if you are not greedy and have to charge the going rate. Once you have hundreds of clients, raise your price.

Ok, enough about making money right now to be able to fund your dream.

You see, if you don’t fund your dream it won’t happen.

You might have to clean toilets, make blogs, vacuum floors, mow grass, whatever other humbling work you have to do to fund your dream.

But do it NOW.

Let’s review:

Create a picture of what it will look like. Then starting doing it now.

Note: this is NOT law of attraction or visualization.

Visualization only works when combined with DOING the work. And if you DO THE WORK without visualization, you still get what you would have visualized.

So therefore the visualization isn’t making the dream happen. The work is.

Sure, you can visualize. But if you just visualize and don’t do the work, nothing is going to fall out of the sky.

The law of attraction should be called “law of noticing”

You see, if you meditate on what you are going to accomplish today for 15 minutes, you accomplish it. But it’s not because you meditated. It’s because you did it. You thought about it for 15 minutes, therefore when you saw an opportunity along those lines today, you jumped on it. But the law of attraction didn’t bring you the opportunity. The opportunity would have been there anyway. But because you thought about it, you saw the opportunity. Just start looking for opportunities. That replaces loa.

Review:

Start DOING what it will look like – NOW

Stop waiting until “things are different” – they never will be different.

Your today doesn’t look any different than 10 years ago except for the choices you’ve made

Think about this. How old are you, in decades? For example, are your 50 years old? Then you are 5 decades old. You have used up 5 decades. How many usable decades do you have left? If you are 50 and in good health, you might have 3 usable decades left. If you are overweight and eat too much and don’t exercise or walk an hour a day, you probably only have 2 decades of usable working life left. Sorry if this is harsh. Look at the actuarial tables. That’s why I recently lost 40 pounds. Because I realized I was shortening my life by being 60 pounds overweight. 20 pounds to go.

But seriously, look back at the last few decades. Have you accomplished what you wanted to?

If not, why not?

Has anything changed that will lead to a greater probability that the next decade will be any different?

If it’s not, in one decade (10 years) you will have squandered one more decade. And only have 1-2 left.

I know this is direct. Maybe it doesn’t fit you. That’s okay.

I am willing to push hard to maybe be a part of changing your life.

So that your next decade is more productive than your last.

So here’s one more review:

Picture what you want your life to look like.

Start DOING what it will look like – NOW

Stop waiting until “things are different” – they never will be different.

Now, there’s one more step.

In fact, it’s not even necessary to “do” because if you do the above perfectly, this will happen anyway. But . . . I want to share it with you. Because if you strategically do this next step, it will make doing everything preceding this much easier.

And that is this:

Eliminate everything that doesn’t fit into the future NOW.

That’s right, if something doesn’t fit into your FUTURE, don’t do it NOW.

Meaning that if in your future dream, you wouldn’t spend more than 30 minutes on email, just don’t do it now.

You don’t need it.

Whatever it is, if you don’t NEED it for your future, don’t do it.

Because that task just doesn’t matter, unless it is part of your future.

It just doesn’t matter, no sense in spending time on things that don’t matter.

Now, you may say, what about the necessary income to fuel the dream?

That’s the one exception. And that is done during strategic working time. Unless you close sales over email, or your are getting paid per email to answer them, they are probably useless and simply taking away from your time.

What would change in your life if the server on which your emails live were destroyed in a fire overnight?

What would you really lose?

If not much, what?

What would it take to get EVERYTHING that is important into ONE email address that only got checked once a day, or on Tuesdays and Thursdays?

Email is just one example. But anything else that isn’t necessary, during worktime, get rid of it. Facebook making you money? Keep it on. Not? Close it down. Are you making money on your texts? Shut them down. Buy a $20 a month phone for your wife to use to text you, if that is necessary. But shut down the one that interrupts you every 5 minutes.

Let’s review everything I have just shared:

— The reason you aren’t achieving your goals and dreams is likely because your dreams and goals are in the future. And when you get to the future, they are in the future again. They are phantom. Like the perfect body on television. Airbrushed, lost 10 pounds of water with a diuretic right before the shoot. You CAN’T look like that. You are chasing a phantom. Dreams and goals are a phantom if not done TODAY.

–Create a picture of what it will look like.

It’s not loa or visualization.

Start DOING what it will look like – NOW

Stop waiting until “things are different” – they never will be different.

Your today doesn’t look any different than 10 years ago except for the choices you’ve made.

You only have 4 decades left, etc.

Eliminate everything that doesn’t fit into the future NOW

That’s it.

Take the time TODAY to figure it out for you.

Reread this 5 times if necessary.

Make this page your homepage and read this everyday for a month.

Cancel all activities for the rest of the day, and make a list of what you want in your life 10 years from now.

Then starting DOING what you want in your life, but do it now.

More examples:

You want to coach 5 hours a week at $200 an hour.

Start TODAY coaching 5 hours a week for free.

Once you are booked for 5 a week, then start charging $5 a hour.

Raise your price each time you are booked until you reach your target.

You want to speak 2 times a week.

Start today.

In your living room.

Invite everyone you know.

Free.

Do it each week.

Rent a space in town.

Speak to 3 people in a coffeeshop.

Each week it grows.

In 10 years, you have a crowd.

But if you do nothing now, you won’t be speaking in 10 years.

You want to have 1000 articles on the web.

Start today.

One a day for 10 years. In 10 years you have 2000 articles.

You want to take 6 weeks off each year.

Start now.

Whatever it takes. Work 60 hours the week before and 60 the week after if necessary. But take the time off.

Whatever you want in the future, do it now.

— Sean Mize