How often have you heard the quote, “Envision your best self, and start showing up as her”? We all have a vision and dream of who we want to be someday, and while we may think of that goal often, are we doing things every day in order to reach that goal or become that person? While having long-term goals are great, they won’t matter in the end if we aren’t working toward them every day. The person and life that we want in the future is only possible if we invest in that life today.
Relationships
Where do you want your family relationships to be in 10 years? Do you want to be closer to your parents or siblings? What do you want your relationship with your significant other to look like? What about your relationships with your children?
A successful relationship doesn’t just happen, and even once you have a good relationship with someone, if you don’t continually work on it, it won’t stay that way. Relationships take a lot of work and time to become what they are. If you want to have a trusting relationship with your significant other in the future, then you have to start building those foundations early.
If you want to have an open dialogue with your children now and in the future and for them to be comfortable talking to you about anything that may be on their mind, then you have to start listening to them today.
Think of what you want your relationships to be like in the future and start working toward that goal now; creating relationship-building habits as early as possible allows you to continue to build on that strong foundation.
Career
When you think of your career in ten or twenty years, what do you picture? Have you started your own business? Are you the CEO at the company you are currently working at? Or have you changed careers entirely to follow a different passion?
It’s likely that as you picture your future career goals, you aren’t picturing yourself in the same position and doing the same thing you are currently doing. Even if you love what you do, we all want to experience growth and to do and become more than we are right now.
While your career goals may seem far off, the things you do today will affect how successful you are at reaching your goals. The things you learn and the connections you make now will likely help you in your future career goals and ladder-climbing. I personally love all quotes that impart the message to start working today for the job you want to have tomorrow. Or to dress for the job you want, not the one you have.
If you want to be a manager or move up in your career today, look at the people in the position you hope to have someday. How do they act, dress, and work? Watch what they do and start taking steps to be like them. If you act, dress, and work like a manager now, when the time for hiring or promotions comes around then people in your company will recognize that you are ready for that position, whereas if you don’t look or act the part, you might be passed up for that promotion.
Finances
While money certainly isn’t the most important thing, many of us have goals and dreams for where we will be financially in the future. You may have specific goals or a set amount of money you would like to have at a certain age, or different assets that you would like to be able to afford. Or your financial goals could be achieving financial independence and living debt-free. Everyone has different goals of where they want to be in the future, but just like all of these other aspects of life, it takes planning and work to reach your dreams.
Finances are perhaps one of the easiest ways to see your investments from today pay off tomorrow. By investing in stocks or putting your money in a high-yield savings account, you can see your money compounding and growing. Despite our ability to see how our investments and work pay off easily with finances, it is still a challenge to take the money we are earning today to save for the future. Or you may be like I was, where you think that saving for retirement or purchasing life insurance is for when you are older. Don’t make this mistake and put off investing in these things! The earlier you start saving for retirement, the more money you will have in the end and the earlier you purchase life insurance, the cheaper your policy will be.
The future may seem far away and it can be easy to put off working on our goals, but by investing now you can reap the benefits and achieve your dreams for the future.