Building Your Future Self Through Visualization-Lessons From Two Navy SEALS
It was David Goggin’s first ultra-endurance marathon. His kidneys had failed. He had shin splints beyond bearable to most humans. His feet were riddled with small fractures. He was 240 lbs and he was in what he called “the greatest pain of his life.”
It was at this moment David Goggins who was becoming the David Goggins we all know today-quite arguably the toughest man on earth.
"I believed it enough to where my body said 'He's not gonna stop,” Goggins said.
“I believed it enough to where my body said ‘He’s not gonna stop.’”
This mindset has helped Goggins become one of, if not the best, endurance athletes of all-time. He is the only person to have completed Navy SEAL training, Army Ranger School, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller training. He has completed two Navy SEAL Hell Weeks, run 100 miles in 19 hours, run 135 miles in just under 26 hours, done over 4,000 pull-ups in 24 hours (a Guinness World Record), and completed the Ironman World Championships in just over 11 hours.
Here’s the good news. Most of you reading this as well as the guy writing it will probably never go through this sort of pain. But we will absolutely be faced with challenges, heartache, being pissed off, let down and utterly disappointed in life. So who’s going to show up in these moments?
Allow me to introduce you to your future self. Who is your future self? Well, that’s where it gets tricky. I have no idea. I just want you to know you’re going to me him or her one day. Who will you find when you get there? That’s for you to decide. You need to now start developing a vision of that future self. You need to see how that you handles adversity and pain. Did you notice something about Goggins quote that was a little odd? He said his body said, “He’s not going to stop.”
It was as though David Goggins (his mind) and his body (his physical being) were two completely different things. For him to be able to utter this quote it’s apparent he had separated himself from himself. It was as though in this moment of desperation he became a witness to the pain and suffering instead of a pain stricken and suffering man.
This is because David Goggins visualized himself as the toughest man on earth. He had determined long before this race he wouldn’t be defeated by pain. He had a vision for his future self. As the title of his best selling book suggested (“Can’t Hurt Me) he visualized himself as someone no outside force could hurt.
In order to become who we ultimately want to become several things have to happen. First, we must decide who it is we want to become and see that person. Who is our future self? Is it the best version of ourself we can imagine today? My mantra is to improve always in all ways. Why is this? It’s because I’m striving toward a future self that is the most highly optimized, compassionate, disciplined, healthy, calm self I can possibly imagine. The key word there is imagine. I visualize my future self and who I want to find when we meet.
There’s something that has to happen before all this. It’s what Frederick Nietzsche called the “why.” It’s what sustained Viktor Frankl in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany during WWII. It’s the mindset James Stockdale exercised to survive the prison camps of Vietnam. It’s one’s ultimate purpose for their life.
Once we find our “why” we then must start to visualize a future self that is capable of fulfilling that purpose for our life. It is the only thing that will ultimately sustain us through the hard and difficult times guaranteed to happen.
To get here you must define what retired Navy SEAL Commander and founder of SEALFIT Mark Divine calls your 3P’s and Your One Thing
Your Passion:
What are you passionate about in a way that defines who you are?
What makes you feel as if your hair is on fire (without your hair actually being on fire)?
What unique skills or talents do you have that you love to use and that make you feel different?
If you won the lottery today, what would you do differently?
Your Principles:
What is it that you truly value in your life?
How can you move toward those things you truly value and away from the things you don’t value as much?
What do these values say about what you are passionate about?
Do these values point to an overarching purpose in life?
Can you make a habit of the big, positive values so they become part of your character and then your destiny?
Your One Thing and Purpose:
What have you been conditioned to think you are supposed to do with your life?
What do you think you are really supposed to do with your life?
What do you feel you are really supposed to do with your life?
Is thee a tiny voice of doubt deep within you suggesting you are on the wrong track?
Is that same voice nudging you forward with the sensation that you are on the right track?
What One Thing do you think you are here for? What One Thing would you focus on if you had nothing holding you back?
What would you do differently if you knew you had one year to live?
In order to mold and truly visualize your future self you must have an action plan. Don’t like Divine’s? No sweat. Create your own. However, you need to be someone who when faced with pain, suffering anger, sadness is able to take that feeling and say, “He won’t let this get to him. He just won’t quit. His future self would never allow it.”
Visualizing the person you are becoming makes today training day. This is and every day after is a day to improve always in all ways. It may sound like some silly little catch phrase I came up with for a podcast, but it’s more. It’s my life’s mission and the theme of my training in the development of my future self.
While some days training is good and others are bad I’m always reminded it’s just that. It’s just training for future me. It’s a moment of building the future self I envision.
When you want to get down, pissed or angry tell yourself, “That’s not who I am. I take these things in stride. I learn from them, make a course correction and move on.”
I recently had a close friend unsubscribe from my newsletter. His reason, “too spammy.” That’ right. My newsletter that doesn’t sell anything was too spammy for a friend who I had encouraged, helped and tried to support getting into the business world completely and flippantly rejected me.
I was faced with a choice. I could get pissed, get hurt or instead get better. You see, future me doesn’t get upset by rejection. He learns from it and gets better. He separates feelings from who he really is. Feelings are just cues and signals. What he does with those cues and signals is up to him. Shaping future me hopefully makes me improve upon present me day in and day out. When the words sneak into my head after such rejection as, “You suck. Give this up. Your newsletter sucks. You can’t even get one of your best friends to stay subscribed.”
I say back, “Stop! That’s not who I am. Whatever I write or create today is only a building block for tomorrow. I will get better and better. I will not stop.” In other words I make negativity my bit**.
Know who you are and define your purpose. Then visualize the type of person you must be to reflect that purpose. This is what improving always in all ways is all about.