How to Become Yourself

The biggest part of creating the life of your dreams is to become the person of your dreams. This person is the one who will drive your ideal life, not someone outside of you that you hope to meet or marry. You will never achieve your personal best as anyone other than the ideal you. Think about it: when you start your first job out of college (or start the first job of your career) are you the same person as when you took your very first job as a teenager? Would that teenager have been a person capable of doing the job you are doing today?

Chances are the answer is no. We cannot achieve greater and greater things in our life while we remain the same person we always were.

That’s why if you are looking for significant and lasting change in your life, you have to become someone else.

One of my favorite transformational speaker/writers is Joe Dispenza. In a speech after the release of his book Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, he tells his audience that in order to get the change they want to see in their lives, they need to not get out of bed in the morning until they are a different person than the one who went to sleep, until they are the kind of person that has the life they want to have. If you are the same person you were yesterday than you are going to have the same day today that you had yesterday.

As I was mulling over this concept I did a little exercise for myself. When I started it I didn’t really know where I was going with it, but the end result has been a powerful force for transformation in my life. Give this a try, and hopefully you find it as empowering as I did!

Imagine the kind of life you want to have. You don’t have to be incredibly specific at this point, but have a general idea of what you want to be doing and feeling. Imagine a person that already has this life. What are they like? What are their attributes? Start a list and write down descriptions of this person. Here’s a few from my list:

 

She is regal, a timeless, ageless beauty.

She is graceful and filled with ease.

She is slow to judge and quick to listen.

She is giving and compassionate.

She is using adversity to her advantage.

She is enjoying life’s good things with no guilt.

She is concerned with quality but does not obsess over perfection.

She is commanding respect.

She is loving toward herself, both body and mind.

She is leaving others feeling inspired, appreciated, and recognized.

She is making others better for having known her.

 

Once you have a good list describing this person who is already enjoying the perfect life that you want to have, this is the person you need to become. Go back over your list and change every statement to be an I AM statement, thusly:

 

I AM regal, a timeless, ageless beauty.

I AM graceful and filled with ease.

I AM slow to judge and quick to listen.

I AM giving and compassionate.

I AM using adversity to my advantage.

I AM enjoying life’s good things with no guilt.

I AM concerned with quality but do not obsess over perfection.

I AM commanding respect.

I AM loving toward myself, both body and mind.

I AM leaving others feeling inspired, appreciated, and recognized.

I AM making others better for having known me.

 

Now read your I AM statements out loud. Every day. At first you may feel like a big fat liar when you say some of the things on your list. That’s ok. Keep saying them. Keep reading them. Feel them. They will become such a part of you that it will become more and more difficult to have thoughts to the contrary of your perfect you. Eventually these statements will become true…your perfect you.

Give it a try. It could change your life.