Journaling is not just for releasing your emotions; it’s also for creating YOUR badass future! Journaling gets our creative juices flowing and helps you visualize the bigger picture. To really get in-touch with our future bad-ass selves, I’ve curated some HIGH QUALITY QUESTIONS you need to be asking YOUR future self about WHO you are 1 year, 5 years, and 25 years from now to see what changes may need to happen to assure a successful and profitable you.
And if you want to get inspired by my Shout of the Week, Danielle Williams, CEO of Good inTents, you can listen to my full episode with her right here: https://www.sincerelyfutureyou.com/post/the-path-to-quitting-your-full-time-job-with-danielle-williams
She’s made it to the Finals at Start-Up Week in Denver, and is pitching her company to be the next big thing. Go Danielle!
Want to join the fun? Check out my ongoing, success-boosting “Splash Pad” business coaching course. CLICK HERE: https://campsite.bio/whatshappyningwjess
Catch up with Coach Jess and Sincerely, Future You on:
Website: https://www.sincerelyfutureyou.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessmckinleyuyeno/
This Transcript is autogenerated:
Jessica McKinley Uyeno 0:00
Number five, who are you no longer spending lots of time with a year from now. IE, that one's tough. It's bit cutthroat. But you all know that there are some people that we spend time with that maybe it's just for a matter of convenience. And we might not be spending time with that person a year from now. Welcome to sincerely future you a podcast that helps ambitious women like you make decisions today with the future you in mind. Welcome back to sincerely future you. If you are new to this podcast, a huge welcome. I'm your host, Jess McKinley way No, and I am pumped to help you get your creative juices flowing with wait for it journaling. I know, I know, you're either a novice at journaling, like myself, actually. Or maybe it's not been your thing in the past. But this is an important tool. Because whether you do this daily or not writing is putting energy on paper. And it can be a great tool to help you grow your business. But what to write about, don't worry, because I'm going to give you literally the entire journal prompts that you can use up for the rest of 2023. I'm about to give you these powerhouse writing prompts to bring out your inner, big ass boss lady. Let's do it. But before we do you know what time it is, it's time to get hype. Sometimes we're just not feeling hype. And really, if I'm being totally honest with you, one of the things that I pride myself in in this podcast is this one of those podcasts that's super transparent. I love business owners who are transparent behind the scenes, not just about their numbers and their processes. I geek out on all that stuff. But also, when they're having human moments and when they're struggling to practice what they preach. And if I'm being honest, one of the quickest ways that I know that my processes that I teach my clients works is when I am not applying them myself in my own business. I know because I'm like, Oh, wow, suddenly, it feels like there's not a lot of time. Why does it feel like things feel constricting Oh, because I'm not practicing the vital behaviors that I teach. And you know what, there are times when I can hype myself into the motivation to take the action that I need to take. But then other times, we don't have to do everything ourselves, we can lean on our expanders. So this hype sesh is really about knowing, Hey, you want to get motivated, you want to get the results, you have a deadline, you have a goal, and you're not feeling it. Don't worry if you know chugging coffee, and staying up late and just listening to podcast is not doing the trick for you right now. Lean on your support system lean on your expanders, there is not a single person that you look up to a single mentor, a single successful business owner, especially a woman who is trying to balance all of the things that us women are balancing that is doing it without her support system. So if you have built up this chip on the blog, and if you're a longtime listener, if you've been using the title of masterful CEO against yourself, and you forget that you have a C suite, okay, part of what you get to do as the CEO is to delegate not just to delegate decisions and delegate tasks, but to delegate high quality questions to ask the people around you, hey, what do you see that I'm not seeing? Hey, I'm feeling drained or I'm feeling a little bit stuck or in confusion, whatever, negative emotion that you've been wallowing in, if you are in one right now. Let your team hype you up. And if you don't have a business team right now, and you're a true solopreneur that's okay. Who is your life team? For me, before I had anyone working for me, my life team happened to be my partner in life. You know, Mark was the person that I turned to, to help get my mind right. And if your significant other isn't that person for you, if that's okay, too, or if you don't have a significant other, you get to create your life team. These people don't have to be people that you're paying. And I just want to remind you You know that we don't look around and expect other people to do this for us, you need to create a support system so that when you are in these phases, when you're in these low cycles that we all go through as human beings, and definitely as masterful CEOs. You can just prepare and expect, hey, it's that time that I'm coming to lean on you. And you know exactly who your go to people are. So pause for a quick second and say, who is my team? Who is my life team? Who expands me? Who pushes me who knows me, as well as I know myself, who is further along in this process, and can say, hey, there's actually no problems, you're exactly where you need to be. Or who can say, Hey, I see your blind spot, I see where you're telling yourself this excuse or this lie or this justification, we're just going to drop it and move on. Or maybe, Hey, I see where you're not showing up? What's going on here, and can pull it out of you. All right, but you are not. There's a reason. When I say you've got all the sauce and you are the secret ingredient. Yeah, but you know what sauce comes in, it comes in a jar, and you know, where the instructions for mixing up that sauce into a really kick ass recipe aren't thrown on the outside of the frickin jar. We do this on purpose, okay, someone else has to be able to reflect back to you that directions. This is why I hire coaches. This is why you guys hire me. This is why you surround yourself with other people to reflect back to you what you cannot see because you my sweet thing are inside the jar. Okay? So if you're feeling like I'm feeling a bit of a bit of a sore throat voice going, feeling just crazy excited for what's to come, but also a little bit like, can I just like close my eyes and wake up on the day where it's done? Yes, we're gonna just oscillate between that. But in this, in the meantime, lean on the people who are going to be able to help you get there. There's nothing wrong with that. All right, so today, we actually have an awesome shout out, I want to shout out my client and CEO of good, intense This is Danielle Williams. So Danielle is in this round of the masterful CEO school. And as we speak, we're actually technically as you listen, if you're listening in real time, she is pitching her business model in the finals for the pitch contest at Startup Week in Denver. This is a huge deal. I don't know whether you guys are in the US and you're listening to this. Or if you are familiar with a startup week style festival, or if you're in a big city or a town that does this. But Denver really goes all out for their entrepreneurs. It's a really entrepreneur, heavy city. And this is a huge opportunity that she created for herself. You guys if you hear me shouting out these women, and you're like, oh my gosh, that's so cool. I wish I hope one day be careful of those thoughts. Be careful of the barriers that you are putting between you and what can be your future self within a matter of days or weeks or minutes. All right, so if that's something that inspires you like it inspires me go and look up the opportunities that are right within your grasp that are within your reach. Are you a women owned but business? Are there grant competitions, or their pitch competitions? Do you want to get a little bit outside of your comfort zone is Shark Tank doing something near you? Take this opportunity and make it your own? And that's exactly what Danielle did. I have loved watching her take this business from idea to conception and now it is out there in the world raising capital getting out in person in the music festivals and other places where her good intense. These are camping equipment, right? These are tents. I love this pun. I have had her on the podcast. I will link that episode in the show notes. But it's kind of really exciting to see even from the episode when we recorded to where we are now how far she's come from having this idea that starts in our brain and then gets to become a real life thing that you can buy that impacts
the world. That is the power of what we are Doing my friends and I am pumped. I have no doubt that Danielle is going to kill it in this pitch contest. And I bet the more of us that just like really ground ourselves into saying 10 Yeah, Dan Yeah, Dan Yeah. As we're listening to this, she's gonna win. Oh my gosh, I will update you guys next week if she wins, or I'll update you either way. But Danielle, we're just so freaking proud of you, girlfriend. All right. Today, we're talking about journal prompts for your future. I'm not someone who journals daily, I'm gonna be real with you, I do create a piece of content daily, which is a form of journaling, right? It's a form of writing. I either create a post or an email, webinars, podcasts or something for my clients in the master will CEO school or the splash pad. But last week, as we finish our last session with the march class of the masterful CEO school. So sad, but also just bittersweet, watching them fly free and seeing everything that they have learned and accomplished in our short six months together. The members who were ending their coaching and weren't coming back for the September round, they wanted to know the best practices for staying grounded in the work specifically for staying connected to their future selves. Because when we're in coaching weekly, I'm asking high quality questions to help remind them that the process of evolving into their future self takes work, right? Because similar to what I was saying, in the hype sash, it's like, your brain is conditioned to primally continuously feed you a pattern of thinking that's familiar to you. So in order to become your future self, you need to think different thoughts. And in order to think different thoughts, you need to think, hey, are these thoughts the thoughts that I'm thinking you need to get into deep consciousness, right, it takes work, it's actually very exhausting for our brain to do this. That's why I like to do this with the help of a coach because it's otherwise prompting yourself to do this on a regular basis can be kind of a pie a if you know what I'm talking about. So when you are not in coaching, I think journaling Aside from using the tools or goal setting, tracking, scheduling, all those things that I teach the work of creating a big business and life, it's about evolving those thoughts. So I agree journal prompts are a great way to practice thinking in a new way. And part of the reason I haven't made this a daily practice journaling is probably because the journal prompts that I've seen out there when I go and look for some right, we're talking about times where we don't really feel like thinking about thinking we're like someone just asked me a question. So I can answer it. The way our brain likes to work is most of the things out there are really past focused journal prompts. It's about reflection. And listen, I think reflection is really important as well. And but I already do my reflecting in my own sessions with my coach or in my formal evaluations of my business. But I wanted to share with you the journal prompts that I gave to my clients because they are future focused, and not vaguely so just designed to help you dream bigger, manifest or focus on the goals that you want, which I'm saying that a little bit like, like that's not a good thing to do. Of course it is. But remember vague thoughts create vague results, vague goals create vague results. These prompts are to help you connect to future you the person to bring her to life to connect with her as if she already exists, because she does. So this journal exercise is a series of high quality questions that help you become her. And her brain is just less fazed. She moves differently, more swiftly and with ease. How else is she different? Right? Let's dive in. Here are your future you journal prompts. So I divided them actually into three versions of future you. I imagine if you were watching a movie that jumps between time there would be four different actors that are playing you maybe. And these would be the versions of you. I want you to imagine kind of the this person that's asking you the question, this version of you. She might be wearing something different. She might look different. Maybe she holds herself a little bit different. Maybe She dresses different. Maybe she's in a different location when she's speaking to you what's different about her? So think about that, as we talk about the, the how far into the future. So first, we're going to start with your journal prompts, one year from now? What false pleasures? Have you stopped indulging in one year from now? Number two, what do you credit for your level 10 Confidence one year from now? Number three, what habits are natural for you one year from now that you currently don't practice? What identity did you have to let go of in order to make that change? That's a really important sub question, right? What habits are natural to you a year from now that you don't currently practice and what identity that you currently have to do have to let go of in order to make that chain. So for example, for me, that if I was talking about, oh, in the future, I am someone who think who speaks Spanish regularly in the house, whereas like right now, I have to think really hard for it. I guess my thought and my identity that I'd have to let go of would be that thought that it's hard that it's hard that it takes because the truth was it was hard when I was doing it with my son. And when he was little, and now my daughter's little and I'm trying to do with her. And it suddenly I have this thought that's always popping up like, Oh, it's just hard, you know, it's hard to remind myself, where whereas if I want to do it, I need to find some better thoughts, then that needs us find some strong identities that I can latch on to. Okay, so it just helps me think I could do a whole journal on that right now. Number four, what new self concept do you have that you don't currently believe about yourself? Self concept is another word for identity. Right? What is so as a self concept, I believe that I am a masterful CEO. I believe that I'm someone who is organized. I believe that I am extremely resourceful, that I'm resilient, that I'm fun. I believe those things about me right now. But what self concept Do you have a year from now that you don't currently believe about yourself? Good. Number five, who are you no longer spending lots of time with a year from now. IE, that one's tough. It's bit cutthroat. But you guys, we talked about this in last week's nine big girl pants, practices to start practicing. And one of those really was about getting in to a circle making a habit of being around people who expand you and who grow you. And we all know that there are some people that we spend time with that maybe it's just for a matter of convenience. And we might not be spending time with that person a year from now. What kind of people are in your inner circle? This is number six. How did you come to be friends with these people? These are the people that maybe are spending time with that you didn't spend time with before. Where did you meet? How did you get in those rooms? What did you have to believe about yourself to show up there? Ooh, so that's a whole journal prompt of itself, right? All of that. What kind of people are your inner circle? How did you meet how'd you get in those rooms? What do you have to believe about yourself to show up there? Number seven, what is your net worth? What was the biggest shift in you that created this? What can you do today to catapult yourself into her? The person who has that net worth of future you one year from now? Number eight, what is the most noticeable daily difference between you and future? You have one year from now? A daily difference? Right? Number nine What are you delaying doing that future you would slap you for? Kind of why would she slap you maybe future you is not as violent as future me.
Sometimes I really respond to like, just a good splash of cold water in the face, you know? All right. 10 Watt qualities of hers that future you one year from now is she most proud of? So for me when I think of the word proud the emotion of pride. I just think of something that took guts it took effort. It took hutzpah, right, we're in the Jewish holiday season, I feel the most proud when I didn't really want to do the thing, or didn't think that I had it in me to create this habit, or to create this result or to be this version of me. And I did it anyway. So, just journal on that right? What are you most proud of? What is she most proud of a year from now? What is different about her relationships? Relationships, plural, could be with strangers could be with people that she holds dear could be with her team. Who did you have to become in order to create that? So in order to create those relationships? Why, what is different about future US business one year from now? Who did you have to become in order to create that? It's such a good follow up question, right? Because it's really not about what we do. Notice. I said, not what did she do to create that business? So who did you have to become? Because it all starts in our thoughts, our thoughts create our feelings, which drive our actions which produce our results. This is the self coaching model. And it is so important to just remind ourselves when we're wondering why the actions are not creating what we want, if we are taking those actions, that we can take those actions left and right. And the real shifts happen. The second that we change who we are we change what we believe deep. All right. Now we're going to shift into five year from now future you. You're at a business conference. This is point number one. You're at a business conference for industry five years from now, you go to the bathroom and over here to women, you don't know. And they're excitedly talking about how they saw you were there. What else do they say about you? Oh, I love this. I love the idea that people positively gossip. Because we do we think of gossip as it's this negative thing. But I'm constantly positively gossiping about the people that I love. I'm about to go. Actually, when you guys are listening to this, I will be in Denver for the empower her live conference with Keisha Fitzgerald. And she is just someone who I positively gossip about all the time she pumps me up, she motivates me. Now she's about to join the mom club. I'm so excited for her in that phase of life. And yet she is over in her world just you know, doing her own thing not even knowing that I'm speaking about her. There might be multiple people buzzing about her right now because she's doing big things. And you future you is doing big things to what are those strangers that you didn't even know excitedly talking? How are they talking about you? Number two, five years from now future you remember, you have plans to work on your business at 2pm, let's say. And a potential client asks if you're free at two to discuss working together. What does future you tell them? And why? Ooh, I'm gonna let that one sit. I'm not even going to ruminate on it. Number three, how does five years from now future You think differently about her time? Just in general? Why not just talk about how you imagine she thinks about her time? Number four, what kind of support systems does future you invest in five years from now? regularly? What kind of support systems to she invest in? To she invest in going to a in person networking gig once a month? Or once a quarter? Or once a year? Does she invest in traveling to these things? Does she invest in coaching? Does she invest in mentorship of some kind of training? You tell me? Number five, what would she tell you to start doing today? The advice of future you from five years from now if she could tell you to start doing one thing today? What do you think she tell you? And listen, if you're going through this and you're like, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. It's okay. Give yourself a little bit of a deep breath and just say like if I really don't know and you're struggling to connect with your future self, just start writing. Just put down whatever it is that comes to mind. And I promise you through the process, something great will come out might be a bunch of like Oh, I'm not sure I guess this, but just start writing and tap into your own wisdom. I think you'll surprise yourself. Number six, what would she tell you to let go of? We all know we're holding on to something that is no longer serving us. And for you, future you, there's no one that knows you better than her. What would she tell you that you've got to let go of? Number seven? What failure that you've already experienced? would she say in hindsight, turned out to be the best thing for you? Once you decided to maybe let go of it, or to just take a look at it, tune into it, evaluate, learn from it, what failure turned out to be the best thing for you? And number eight, what would she tell you to stop making such a big deal? Similar to the let it let it go? One but what's different is maybe emotionally maybe it's not a thing that you're holding on to maybe it's just a thought or a person or an instant or a memory that you need to let go of. Okay, now we are going to do the final journal prompts. We're not gonna we're gonna skip way into the future, right? Imagine this girls for sure got Gray's unless you're like 10 In which case, you still might have grace because then you'll be 25 years into the future. You'll be my age and I definitely got the grace. Okay, journal prompt number one, what is she most grateful to you for? The version of you 25 years from now? She's looking back and she's thinking, Oh, my God, I'm so grateful that she did this, that she thought that, that she spent time doing this believing this being generous here, being thoughtful here. What was that? Number two, what is she wished you believed about yourself earlier? And I just imagine, like me smiling, like with this knowing smile like a girlfriend? You have this in you all along? I'm really not that different from you. Because you just need to believe this. Now. What is it? Number three? What risk? Is she most excited for you to take? Because she knows it's going to work out? Number four, what is the legacy she is leaving that is uniquely yours? Number five, what is the Life team she has? So again, we're asking this, but from a perspective of 25 years from now, not just one year from now, what life team does 25 years from now you have this might be really ornate. Or it might be pretty simple. I said Life team and not business team, but Your Life team will include your business team for the purpose of this questions. Number six, what are her working hours? What cutthroat decision did she have to make? or small habit? Did she have to master starting now to create that balance? Number seven, what is future use mantra? What is just her tried and true thing that she would tell you now, her mantra how she lives her her life. And number eight, what is the thing that she is most looking forward to? I'd love to remind myself that future me, she's still got goals. Doesn't matter if it's 50 years from now. We the people that listen to this podcast, we want a big life and that means every breath until we die it means that while we are here while we are breathing, we are evolving human beings. We are here to grow, to learn to give back. Whatever experience we always have something in the future that we are looking forward to. So what is she looking forward to 25 years from now?
Wow, some of these prompts are pretty heavy and emotional. And it might really get you thinking it might bring up some things that have to change but you know what they work. You may even think of a few friends that you want to send this episode to, because I know that they're going to have just as eye opening of a moment as I have journaling some of these prompts, and guess what future you and future your besties are all worth the time. It's worth putting in this work. All of this. These steps are going to help you achieve and mold your future to be great I believe in you and future you believes in you. That's why this entire podcast is sincerely future. You
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