Channel Your Inner Mcfly And Look To The Future

Most of us draw from our past experiences in order to find evidence that something may or may not work in our future:

"I've never been successful losing weight and keeping it off in the past...I'm just not capable of doing it now..."

"I yell at my kids everyday around dinnertime because there is so much chaos with the cooking and the homework and the non-stop whining..."

Instead of looking to your past, why not look to the future instead?

Imagine the after-school rush and craziness that happens from 3pm-5pm (I refer to them as the witching hours). Assuming there is whining and craziness like there always is, what kind of mom do you want to be?

Picture her.

How does she respond?

What does she say/do?

Here is a way that I've called on my future self recently:

One of my children has a negative response most days when I ask him to do chores. In the past, I have banged my head against the wall trying to change his behavior. "Why can't you just do your work happily?" or "Stop complaining so much and just do your work, already!"

But I decided that I didn't like the way I was showing up around him. So I asked myself, 'Assuming he is negative tomorrow when I ask him to do his chores, what kind of mom do I want to be? How do I want to show up? How will future Sara handle this situation?'

I decided that I didn't want his negativity to affect my mood.

'I can be happy even if he isn't.' is the thought I redirect to. Or, 'maybe he just needs to be negative right now. But I don't'.

You know what?

It worked.

Every time I take a moment to call on my future self for support, I show up better in my life.

Try it. It just might work for you, too.