Living Your Future Self in Advance: 'How to Attract the Future'

Every time I saw someone I admired, I would unconsciously let out a sigh.

It's impossible for me anyway.

A safe, predictable tomorrow that I could calculate as an extension of the present.

By predicting the future in my head like that, I had been keeping a heavy lid on the depths of my heart.

Every time I sighed, my chest would tighten, my breathing would become shallow, and my steps would feel somewhat heavy.

At one point, I pondered the origin of the term 'subconscious'.

As the character for 'sub' (hidden) suggests, it is a realm that breathes quietly beneath the surface.

While the conscious mind on the surface kept hitting the brakes, saying 'Don't do it because you'll fail,' a small heat deep in my heart—a desire for 'who I really want to be'—was still faintly smoldering.

When I realized that, the tension in my shoulders, which I had been forcing myself to accept, eased a little.

A future that is predictable and calculable by the mind is safe, but it feels suffocating.

The switch to change the future was not something to be pressed dramatically with a fanfare.

What I am conscious of in my daily life now is the accumulation of very small actions.

It is about trying one thing today in advance that the version of me living my ideal future would likely do.

I open a book that someone I admire might read, and I trace the print with my finger while reading just one page.

Pretending to be my ideal self, I straighten my back just a little and slowly inhale the steam of a warm cup of coffee.

Without denying the small passion deep in my chest, I gently write it down on the edge of a notebook.

It is okay to be my uncool self, or my self that is full of failures.

The modest behavior I chose today will eventually soak quietly into my subconscious, gradually changing the timeline I am meant to walk.

A great future lies beyond the modest choices of today.

If there is a place you want to reach someday, you just need to start today by choosing one small action as the person who is already there, and take a quiet, deep breath.

▼Articles you may also want to read