There are many ways to boost self-esteem and in this article, we’ll focus on one particular strategy called Future Pacing. Future pacing, also known as “visualization,” is the act of focusing on an outcome before it’s happened, which thereby “sets the pace for the future”.
The idea of focusing on something you desire will prevent you from focusing on what you don’t want and as the Buddha Shakyamuni so famously said: “What you think you become.” In other words, when you focus on something enough, you rewire the neurons in your brain to recondition themselves on empowering thoughts. These empowering thoughts then lead to empowering emotions like increase self-esteem and these, in turn, dictate your actions, which then create your results.
Ok so not everything you imagine will actually happen, but the simple act of doing this forces you to focus on a preferred outcome. Keeping your eyes on the prize rather than the process is one of the master’s keys to staying on track and getting new more favorable results.
Think about it… if all you focus on is how many steps it takes to make something happen, you’ll most likely just get discouraged. But if you keep your eyes on the prize, you’ll have way more motivation to move through all those steps regardless of how challenging they may be.
For example, let’s say you wanted to build a business around a new revolutionary bike that had the ability to hop curbs without any effort. The wrong focus would be on the hundred plus steps to the finish line including: taking days to simply sketch out the designs, finding someone to be the engineer, finding a factory to build it, finding the money to complete it and then focusing on all the time you will NOT be doing your regular activities like traveling and having fun. All this creates feelings of being overwhelmed and will stop you dead in your tracks.
Or let’s say you want to be more self-confident and find an intimate relationship with someone who really rocks your boat. The wrong focus is on the past and any bad relationships or the future and how you have to do all the searching for this needle in a haystack, then reveal all your shortcomings, then to somehow convince them to fall in love with you and all your shortcomings.
Instead, use these “5 Steps To Future Pacing” as follows:
1) Close your eyes and imagine that above you there is a timeline of past, present, and future.
2) Now take yourself up into the timeline in the present time and look to the future and picture the goal you want to achieve on the date it will be achieved.
3) Next look back into the timeline and notice all the things that occurred to make that goal a reality; all the work, the people involved and the progress.
4) Next look forward into the timeline and go past the time your goal is achieved to notice what life looks like. Notice all the good feelings, what the people around you are doing and how they are treating you. Now bring it to life by juicing up the submodalities like: animating it in full color, with people’s expressions and words, the weather, the trees, the gifts in your life, the house, the car, the temperature on your skin, the love in your life. Now notice how real it all feels.
5) Come back down to the current time and notice how you feel.
Practice future pacing when you’re feeling overwhelmed or frustrated. Give up the excuses, try it out now, it only takes two minutes and you’ll feel confident about your future prospects.
Remember, these are all tools that require conditioning over time. Try them all at least a few times each then pick a couple you can sink your teeth into. The first few reps will most likely feel uncomfortable, which only means… you’re headed in the right direction. Keep going!
Now, to make sure you never give up on your goals and dreams and ensure your full potential is realized, it’s time to take the next step. This next level of the Triad will help to create a laser focus on your goals while building an indestructible foundation of confidence that will propel you over the largest of obstacles and through the worst of times. Check out the next step by reading the Triad Here
