TLDR: in this post I am going to break down how exactly you can picture your future self... this post also introduces article III of this series, and gives some backstory. This shit is raw, straight from my journal, and exactly what I ended up using as a successful path to transform myself. I’m here to hopefully help those people who need it most. Those who really want to transform but keep fucking it up.

Intro:

Since exploring many things I struggled with years ago, I have actually made them come to fruition years later. As a result, and now that I have made it through quitting these bad habits (some as long as 18 months ago) and starting new great ones, I decided to break out my journal and share with you what I learned, and discard the things that did not work for me. At the time of quitting, I didn’t find something so inclusive. There wasn’t some step by step guide for me to understand how I could quit these terrible things. Instead, there was just a shit load of people telling me that I should quit.

A little background... when I say I struggled with these bad habits, I mean I really struggled. I wanted so bad for these things to be gone from my life when I first started after them, but I couldn’t quite get it. I had the best intentions, but tried and failed for so long. Again and again and again. It wasn’t until time had passed, my strength had increased, and I tried so many things that I was able to easily quit all of these things and transform myself. This series will pinpoint exactly how I made this transformation.

So, if you haven’t read part one of this series, check it out here.

Body:

Using visualization to see yourself where you want to be:

I will never forget there was this one point during my cut diet where I put my jeans on and realized they fit me properly. They fit me like they should. I had this reassurance from it... but only for about 10 seconds. This isn’t very intuitive, but afterwards, I quickly realized that they should NOT fit me like “they should”. They should not fit me, because I am supposed to be transforming into something different.

I then sat down and wrote this down. I realized I didn’t even know what I was supposed to look like, or who I was supposed to become. I have seen my future self many times in my thoughts, or at least so I thought. It wasn’t until after deeply reflecting that I realized I never did. The crazy part was, I realized I only ever saw the people around me and the tangible goods I had with me. I only ever thought of the feelings i would have to be the future me.

After reflecting further, I realized that my body and the way my face was going to look is what I should focus on. I visualized myself at a lower body fat. I visualized myself smiling. I made sure when I did, it wasn’t some object or feeling that I was focusing on, rather just the person I wanted to be, naked. It was about whether or not I was happy, and my body and face would show that in the future me, and so I began to try and see myself. However, when I first tried, it wasn’t easy. It was blurry. I couldn’t really picture a more lean or cut me, or a more happy me, it took time. It took relaxation.

Here are the steps of what I would do (TL/DR: I break down the fundamentals of mindfulness meditation and explain the visualization technique I used once in a calm state):

  1. I would spend an arbitrary amount of time (will further explain this below) getting relaxed. Typically, it would work much better at the end of the day rather than in the middle. Or, directly after a run or intense lifting session.

  2. I would lie on my back and get very comfortable and I insured my limbs were not crossing, and were placed by my sides.

  3. I began breathing, and focused only on my breathe. I would say to myself, “rising, falling” etc and follow my stomach moving. I made my mind with the stomach, so to say.

  4. Then, when thoughts came in, I would focus on the thoughts. If I was tired, I would say, “tired”. If a thought distracted me, I would say “distracted”.

  5. The point of focusing on these thoughts was to become aware of them, NOT to judge them. I let these thoughts be what they were, temporary states that come and go.

  6. I slowed my breathing down more and more. My breathing became deeper, my inhalation longer, and exhalation slower.

  7. Once I was relaxed, I began the visualization.

  8. The cue for me, and when I was relaxed enough, was I heard my thoughts slow way, way down. I can explain the feeling as floating in deep space. Many times, when I first got this calm, I would almost panic. I could barely feel myself breathing. I definitely could not feel my limbs, or any other body parts, I had zero proprioception (basically, a cool word for spatial orientation). After running some tests, I would typically reach this state about 35 - 40 minutes into this state. I set a stop watch, and came out of the state to check the time and report it to myself.

  9. The visualization was easy for me. At this point, there was almost no chatter, and nothing but quiet. I would begin visualization of myself. I pictured my naked self, floating in the space. I pictured what I would look like, my facial features. I painted a picture of a hoppy me, that looked how I wanted to look. There was nothing material to this, and I made sure I eliminated this from my future self-picture, as it gets in the way of what matters most.

Of course, as you can see, this is a very powerful and impactful way of reaching a future visualization for all tenants of your life.

Since, as most from this community know, consumerism and other people as a part of your life are not the root of your happiness, be wise as to how you see the future you. Be wise as to how you picture your future self, what is around you, and what it is that you’re doing.

Part III on how I fixed the rest of my bad habits (other than my sleep schedule), coming soon.

I wish you all great luck in seeing your future.