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What would you do if you could travel back in time? What would you change about your life or do differently? What if I told you I could teach you the secret of it in less than 10 minutes? It may occur to some of you that if you had a time machine, fixing your life wouldn’t take any time at all, relatively speaking. I will not let you derail this post with those sorts of thoughts! I am not writing today to play on words, but to offer you a powerful strategy that will help you live in the now by, ironically, imagining living in the future.
This exercise is a thought experiment I developed about a decade ago and have been using with good success ever since. Essentially, it is a motivation builder in which you picture yourself 15 years in the future. Think of the clarity and determination you would bring to past experiences in which you feel as though you ought to have acted differently, or done more. This future you (or Fy) remembers clearly it time in your life. With perfect clarity, determination, and complete love, Fy can alter anything with his currently undiscovered power. Fy knows your mind, remembers every detail, but is completely unburdened by any of the attachments, anxiety, or fears and exclusively concerned with your well-being, understanding you and cherishing you as you are.
A famous playwright who you will know once wrote something you have likely heard:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143
Although Shakespeare’s character Jaques in As You Like it was speaking about the so called “seven ages of man” which referred to stages of development and aging, Shakespeare understood something key about how are lives we live are roles that we play. Everyone plays one or more, and we lose the immediacy of our core being and the ability to act freely beneath baggage of urges and attachments.
Imagine if you could control the actions in your life just as you control a character in a videogame. I want to carefully point out that I am not suggesting that becoming detached or less invested in your life will allow you to succeed, or count as “development” even though one could say that might be true of the videogame character. The character you play is simple a role, but as Shakespeare noted, our lives can be characterized as roles we play. The difference is that I am not remotely equating the a videogame character and you in your actual life. Every action we take is still a variation of making a decision about your next action, and then following through. Every one of us gets caught up in the psychological and emotional quagmire that causes us to hesitate or quit. We often still follow through with our plans, but not with automatic conviction of action like the videogame player, or like Fy. Their aims are clear. So are yours.
Try this experiment. Let Fy execute a plan and carry out an action. Strive to be automatic once committed. Your weaknesses (perceived or actual) will not tarnish your self-esteem, or hamper your self-confidence. I will write in a future entry about the importance of loving oneself for lasting personal development, but for now feel it for a though Fy. You have access to a divine connection, a pure channel through which no judgement or conditions can pass. Journey back to yourself!
You will find that working to act more freely according to your conviction and intentions, without being burdened down by fear from uncertainty, without being attached to the moment, becomes more and more automatic if you practice. While this exercise is only the first step in foundational personal development through holistic wellness, it is not a crutch. You are developing the core skills necessary to build higher, in a way that enables you to better manage daily struggles.
Congratulations, you are now a time traveller!
CRC
