Become your ideal self

Are you the person you want to be?

 

Who would you ideal self be?

When I was asked this, my ideal self was someone that was in good shape, comfortable with their body, healthy, had energy, was happy, well traveled, worked remotely doing a job that I loved, had brilliant stories to tell, good advice to give to others, lived in different countries and spoke more than one language.

Not so long ago, that person seemed a very far cry from what I felt I was. I thought it would never happen, as I lay in bed in my tiny apartment, dreading going into work and looking into the mirror grabbing my belly and sighing – I thought it would be impossible. 

Fast forward less than a year, and now that ideal self that I dreamed of back then is more or less me. The only thing missing is the new languages and I am still working on that part!

It was a natural transition that took me a little by surprise. It was a slow and steady process, but I never felt like I was forcing myself or punishing myself into it.

How you can do it too

Via various inspirations, reading materials and soul searching, I’ve found that you can become that person with relative ease…

The initial trick is to visualise.

Don’t roll your eyes and shake your head and think “new age phooey”. Hear me out…

Imagine the sort of person you want to be, and be realistic about it as this is the best version of you that you want to be, so don’t “visualise” yourself as Jenifer Aniston.

We can’t all be super models as we all have a different genetic make up. Every body is different; the best version of my body will be very different to someone else’s. Accept that there is nothing wrong with the way that you are, but we can always strive to grow and improve.

Think about what your best version of you would look like, act like, feel and do.

Then think about how they would go about actions in their daily life.

So for example, if your ideal self is healthier/slimmer, what would that person do to maintain the way that they look? Which conscious decisions would they make? Drinking lots of water? Eating healthier meals? Taking the stairs instead of the lift?

Now act as though you are already that person. You already reached your goal. Imagine you already had that body – what would you do and eat to maintain that body if you had already seen all your hard work come to fruition?

Surround yourself with things that encourage you, look at inspirational photos every day – I saved this as the screensaver on my phone so that I look at it all the time.

You may scoff and say well obviously, I will know that I am NOT that person when I look in the mirror or step on the scales.

My first suggestion would be to avoid both of these things.

If that is too difficult then try and see beyond that, beyond your current reflection, and visualise the way you WANT to look.

Do not focus purely on the physical aspect but the decisions behind it, such as eating habits.

If you want to be a well-travelled person, then obviously you need to travel. You don’t have to quit your job to travel, do what is most suitable for you, just get out there and do it!

Steer away from negative influences, people or places that will tempt you to make too many wrong decisions, however, thst being said, allow yourself treats.

Using visual aids every day helped me a great deal in staying focused on visualising what I wanted to do with my life, how I wanted to live it and how I wanted to be.

It’s applicable to any aspect of your life, be it your mental health, fitness, work aspirations or anything else!

And it is really that simple. Granted, it won’t happen overnight, the change will be slow at times, but the point is not to focus on the time it takes because if you focus cortectly on visualising, you are already there!

Have you tried this method to reach your goals and become your ideal self?