Have you heard the phrase “act as if”? If you haven’t, today is the day you’re going to learn all about it!
In order to get something different, you have to do something different, right? Acting “as if” is where that comes into play. For example, if you want to make more money and create better boundaries in your business…but you never take any action to create better boundaries, or grow your business, nothing will ever change. Acting “as if” is the idea that when you start acting like a person who has what you want, and taking the action that that future you would take, things start to shift and happen for you in a positive way.
So how can we do this? How can we harness the energy of “as if” for ourselves?
Know where you are going
It starts with having a clear understanding of where you are going. Where you want to go in life, and where your business is going. This is vital in order to create actions that support where you are going.
Be willing to take action
Sometimes we have to make decisions based on where we want to go, and not where we are right now. That embodies the idea of “acting as if”. Essentially, we are acting like we are already there.
Let’s look at this through the lens of your business. If you want to be a millionaire, it’s not about going out and living a lavish lifestyle, it’s about tapping into the energy and mindset of a millionaire. If that’s a far away goal right now, it might just look like pushing the edges of your comfort zone. When we do that, we can make significant changes even if they are small and incremental.
Before we can fully step into the “as if” mindset, we need to address three key areas:
#1: YOU
When you envision your future, what changes about YOU? Are you more confident? What qualities do you embody and project and feel?
How would you act if you knew you couldn’t fail? Would you be sweating the lack of views on your last post? Would you hesitate to talk about your offers? Once you have a very clear vision of what you want your business to look like in the future, you need to show up with the confidence of someone who is already there. That confidence is required to get you to where you want to go. Sometimes we can’t do that perfectly, because we’re not that person yet. A powerful exercise is to write a letter to yourself from the future. This will help you embody the person that you want to be six months from now, or a year from now.
Where is your lack of confidence and self-trust hindering you? Imagine what “future you” will look like in the future.
#2: Your Business
If part of your vision for the future involves a more profitable business where you are working less and making more, there’s work to do. We need to make sure that your business is set up to sustain what you want in the future. You will stay stuck where you are if you don’t do anything that supports your future business.
I’m talking about your foundation, your internal systems, your client systems, your sales systems, your marketing, your online storefront. What changes do you need to make for your future business?
Here’s the truth: I’m tired of people saying “here’s what I want. This is what I want my business to look like.” But yet they will NOT show up like the person that would reap the rewards of what they want. They have these huge audacious dreams and yet they will not market that way.
Bottom line: If you want a business that makes six figures a year, and you want to do that in a way where you’re working less, you have to create a business that actually supports that.
So if that’s what you want in the future, guess what? Today you have to start acting as if you have that today. It’s not about waiting till we get there to act differently. No. We have to act differently NOW and do things differently NOW.
#3. Decision-making
When we struggle to make a decision that feels big, it’s because we’re scared. Whether it’s pivoting, adding new services, adding team members or investing, it’s hard not to look at these decisions through the lens of where you are right now.
If where you want to be looks different from where you are right now, you need to do things differently, and that involves you really understanding the person and the business owner you want to be in the future, and the type of business that you wanna build in the future. Your decision making has to match that.
When it comes to investing, we can be responsible and we can be realistic. But we also sometimes have to embody this unrealistic side that’s not tangible yet in order to get to where we’re going. And I know that’s scary. It really involves a massive amount of self-trust when maybe the confidence isn’t quite there yet.
When you adopt this “as if” mindset, you’re going to tick the needle every day. You’re going to make a big difference for your future. I get how hard this is because I’m still living this and it doesn’t ever stop. If you’re in this for growth and if you’re in it for big mountaintop dreams and you’re not willing to compromise on those – THIS is how we do it.
We embody who we want to be in the future, in every way. THAT is how you act “as if”!
Maybe “future you” envisions yourself going to an all-inclusive luxury retreat hosted by me! I still have spots available for the Connect Retreat that I’m hosting this September in sunny Orlando, Florida. At this retreat, we are really going to dive into who we want to be, imagining into our future selves and creating a plan around that so that we can take action and act “as if”! You can find all the details HERE.
