Ep #14: Your Future Self

You are listening to the Weight Loss for Successful Women podcast with Shannan Christiansen, episode number 14.

Welcome to Weight Loss for Successful Women, a podcast for women who are ready to break the diet cycle and end their struggle with weight for good. Here’s your host, Fortune 100 Executive and Certified Life Coach, Shannan Christiansen.

Hello, loves. First I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas or a happy holiday season. I know this episode will be released on Christmas Day, so just wishing you so much love, whether it’s Christmas Day or any other day that you’re listening to it.

So, I love today’s topic. It is one of my favorite things. We are all going to get ready today for 2021 or 2025? What did I just say? I know, we’re going to talk about your future self. It is so good. And as always, I will leave you with a couple of transformational questions to start taking action today.

But first, I want to give a listener shout-out. This is where I’ll read a review of the podcast every week. This week’s listener shout-out is to Jelly Bean 477. The title of her review is “Life-Changing Stuff Found Here. You won’t find a more dedicated, supportive, real or knowledgeable coach anywhere. Shannan is the most genuine and loving person, using her personal experience and lessons learned to help us be the best we can be.”

Oh my goodness, thank you so much, Jelly Bean 477. I just love these reviews. They really do inspire me. I love that you ladies are listening. If you love this show, please rate and review the show. I would so appreciate it.

Also, subscribe so the new episodes are waiting for you when they’re released. Loves, as I record this, we just celebrated our Christmas yesterday with our family. It was amazing. We had all of our children, grandbabies, my brother, his wife, my dad. You know, it was such an amazing time. I really was present and kind of just enjoyed the crazy of it. I mean, with four grandbabies, it’s pretty high energy.

And, we did it early this year because my husband is having surgery. And I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this concept that we have a 50-50 life. Meaning it’s balanced between the amazing and wonderful, and the hard and painful. I mean, for sure, sometimes it’s 90-10, or even 10-90, but in the end, it all balances out.

I love this concept, because it helps me embrace the 50% that is hard. Like when we found out my husband was going to have two surgeries within two weeks in December. I mean, when we found out I cried, I was worried. But loves, I felt all of the emotions of it and I didn’t buffer. And, they came and went until we got the all clear from the doctor. And then, loves, we did, and he is all good. And loves, then I was elated.

I mean, that’s how life, the crazy balance of amazing and hard, and lots of stuff in between. When we stop resisting the hard, when we embrace it, loves, everything changes. When we’re present in those moments that are amazing, we fully embrace the good, too. Our lives are more full. We are more present with everything.

When we know that we can handle anything, I mean anything, and still take the next best action for ourselves? Loves, we become on stoppable. I wanted to share, because I hope this helps as you move through this week, or wherever you are.

So, let’s get into today’s episode. I love watching my grandkids and asking them questions. I like to ask them, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” So, I asked my two older grandkids, and every time their answers amaze me. I mean, mostly my oldest grandson, he wants to be Sonic.

When I was in high school, I wanted to be a fashion designer, living in New York. I mean, when we’re kids, we just love to dream. Then comes college, or family, jobs, marriage or no marriage, kids or no kids, aging parents. And loves, we stopped dreaming. We get into the daily routines of our lives and we’re just like robots, going from one day to the next.

Add in the hard stuff that happens along the way. Challenges, divorce, death, job loss, changes, health issues, and loves, we just give up on ourselves. We tell ourselves, “This is good enough.” “I should be grateful for what I have.” Or, “This is my lot in life.”

But loves, we can dream. We can look up and want things for ourselves. We can want to grow, learn, achieve goals that we thought were impossible, all while being grateful for what we have. Time is always moving. I know, ladies, you feel me on this. I mean, I really do believe as you get older, it just keeps moving faster.

And so today I want to introduce a concept that my teacher taught me, that I loved, and it’s called future self. I mean, I love this concept and it has propelled everything for me. Everything I do today is for my future self, the future self of 2021 or 2025.

If I decide to make my realistic plan and eat what’s on it, that affects my future self. If I show up at my business, or not, that affects my future self. If I decide to save money, that affects my future self. So, let’s go back. Everything I did 10 to 15 years ago affects me today. I’m either benefiting from it, or not.

So, when I decided to marry my amazing husband 11 years ago, I was making a decision for my future self When I decided to stop dieting five years ago and find a different way, I was making a decision for my future self.

Loves, looking back at myself over the past 10 to 15 years, I am so happy, what I did for myself. I had goals, I did hard things. I knew what I wanted for my future. I am so thankful for that Shannan. I mean, she married an amazing man. She went back for her MBA. She learned how to lose weight, how to take care of herself. She got certified as a life coach. She was a good mom and Mimi.

I’m so grateful that Shannan showed up and did hard things, because now, I get to benefit from all of it. So everything I do today is for her, for the Shannan of 2025. Just think about that for a moment, loves. Stop and think. Everything you do today is for her.

I know that dreaming and looking at the future can be hard. We don’t trust ourselves, because we have let ourselves down so many times. We’ve broken commitments to ourselves, but loves, your future starts today, not tomorrow. I learned early in my leadership career that I had to set goals. I had to dream. I had to know where I was going. So, I did. I learned how to write down my goals, how to make decisions that served me.

Now loves, there is no straight line or path. But don’t use “I don’t know what will happen” to not plan your future. Having a plan and taking action today for your future self helps you to get where you want to go, because loves, the future will happen one way or the other.

It is often small, boring things that are the contributions to your future self. Like my morning walks, like eating foods that fuel me, like resting, making my realistic plan every day. It’s not the momentous, huge, big things. It’s the small things that, with time, make a huge impact.

Hear me when I say this. Time plus consistency equals results. And those results are either good or bad. So, I’m going to say it one more time. Time plus consistency equals results, good or bad.

I look up and ask, “Who is my future self? What does she do for a living? What does she look like? How does she take care of herself? How much money does she make? What do I want for my family, my grandkids? How can I help them today?” And then I write it down. And, a couple times a year, I actually write a letter to my future self.

I really think about the 2021 or 2025 version of me. Is your 2025 self still struggling with weight? Or is that in her rearview mirror? Now, who is your future self, love? And what are you going to do for her today? I mean, loves, that is where the magic lies. When I don’t want to get out of bed for my walk in the morning, I think about my future self and I ask, “What would she do?”

I mean, she’d get out of bed. My future self has more wisdom, she has grown, and my future self is my best mentor. Doing this work, looking at your future self, dreaming, it’ll help you when you want to give up. When in the short term, you want to try another quick-fix diet, or you want to eat the cupcake, ask yourself, “What would she do? What would my future self do?”

Oh, it’s so powerful, love. So the transformational questions are, who is your future self of 2021 or 2025? And number two, what can you do today for your future self? Loves, so good.

Jumpstart is opening on January 1^st, it’s almost here. It’ll be open for six days. And if you love this work and want to take it deeper to lose weight for good, then make sure that you’re on the Jumpstart waitlist. You can register at bflycoaching.com/waitlist.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Weight Loss for Successful Women. If you love what you heard today and want to learn more, come on over to bflycoaching.com. That’s B – F – L – Y coaching dot com. See you next week!