[00:00:00] Episode 29. Welcome to the Aligned and Thriving podcast for ambitious female entrepreneurs where we align systems, strategies, and self for more sustainable success. My name's Jada. I'm your host. If you are new here, a very big welcome. If you're a regular welcome back. I love having you, and I am so incredibly grateful that you come here to share this time with me, and I look forward to sharing this week's episode with you because it is a very, very powerful one.
One that is going to help you move from where you're at, to where you want to be in yourself, in your life. In your business. Let's dive in. In this week's episode, I wanna take you through a really powerful exercise that will help you to align the way that you see yourself, the [00:01:00] way that you think about yourself with the goals that you have.
There's a lot of information out there around goal setting. The thing is that we need to also be aligning ourselves with those goals, with the life we desire, with the business that we desire. And with the kinds of daily habits that also align with that life and business that we have a goal to create for ourselves.
And this is so important because really our external world, the results, the circumstances, the relationships, they are a reflection of our inner world and the way that we see ourselves. Or in other words, our self image. Now I'm not gonna take credit for this, uh, exercise. I will give credit where it's due.
I learned this exercise and this concept through Bob [00:02:00] Proctor trainings and information. Which I received and was first introduced to by some of my business and video marketing mentors from a while ago now, Rachel and Michael from a girl director. And they were really the people who introduced me to Bob Proctor back in, oh my gosh, like 2017.
2018. 2018, I think. Yeah. Around then, and I wanted to share this with you because it's a, an exercise that I realized I haven't done it for a while, and that I was thinking would be super powerful for me to do again. And so I thought that I would share it with you as well so that you can do it alongside me.
So. The thing is, is if we want to see change in our external world, in our results and our circumstances, we need to make that shift [00:03:00] internally first. So what I'd love to invite you to do is to get a notebook. But also to set aside some time, put aside what you're doing either throughout this episode or you can have a listen to the exercise and then likely come back to it, bookmark it, and come back to it so that you can actually work through this exercise.
You can listen to what I'm sharing and then you can do the written parts of the exercise either now. Or you can come back to it, but it is going to take some working through and writing down of, of your answers and I am gonna give you a little bit of homework. It's simple, yet hugely profound homework.
Which I'll share with you as to how you can use this to make a really big difference in your life and your outcomes and how you feel about yourself. So to start with, think about the way you project yourself to the [00:04:00] outside world. Is it a true image of how you feel about yourself? Or are there differences between what you project and how you really feel deep inside about yourself?
Often there are differences, right? There's even a difference within ourselves of how we would like to be or how we would like to feel about ourselves, or even matching, say, evidence that we have or how other people say that they see us and that we would like to feel and be. But sometimes there's even a gap between what we then really truly believe about ourselves or feel about ourselves or how we see ourselves.
So it's important to be, have an honest reflection there, because this is so important. You don't have to tell anybody else, but have some honest reflection on that. And then ask yourself, do you truly [00:05:00] have a positive self image of yourself, or is there room for some improvement? Now, most oftentimes, even when we've done a lot of personal development, even when we do lots of consistent exercises and things like that, we're ever evolving.
So generally speaking, there's some room for improvement and also because we're so multifaceted. Right? So there may be particular areas that you would like to improve AB about the way that you see yourself or around your self image. Your self image is your inner dialogue about yourself, from yourself, to yourself, about yourself, and we want this to match who you truly want to be and how you want to show up.
When there is a mismatch in those things, in how you're seeing yourself and how you want to be showing up or the things you want to be having that is not helping you. [00:06:00] It's kind of like when we want to put into place new habits. A lot of people go about that by starting off with the habit itself and then trying to create consistency in putting that into place.
But actually you will be able to. Create consistency in new habits and form new habits fully. If you start with your identity, when you align your identity and the way you think about yourself, IE your self image, the way you see yourself as a match for those habits, it's gonna be a lot easier to stick to those habits, which in turn is going to help you to be behaving in a way.
And doing the things on a daily basis that are a match for that bigger life and business that you wanna create. So, assuming you would like to improve your self image, let's go through this exercise now to create a really powerful self-image script that is [00:07:00] aligned with the life you'd like to have, the person you want to be, and therefore flowing into the kind of business that you want to have, because we need to be the person.
That is able to hold and lead that business. Right? So the first step in this exercise, if you've got your pen, you can write it down, uh, or you can listen in and then do the exercise. The first exercise is to write down the things you like and love about yourself now that you want to carry forward. So I am not going to pause and give you time to do that.
If you're doing the exercises right now, then pause and write down in your journal what are the things you like and love about yourself right now that you want to carry forward with you. So pause and do that now or else make sure you do come back to this and actually answer these questions. Maybe if you're in the middle of something else, you're driving, you're at the gym, you're washing up, [00:08:00] whatever, maybe you wanna think about those answers at least, but definitely come back to it as a journal exercise.
Once you've done that, the next step is to call to mind a person or some people that you admire and respect. People who have likely got a positive self image, or at least they are projecting, being, doing, having some of the things that you admire or that you would like to have, be, do, and think about the qualities that those people have, who they are and the qualities that they have that you would also like to embody.
That you would like to see in yourself, that you would like to have, and write them down in the present tense. So instead of it being kind of in the future, write them down as they are. These are [00:09:00] qualities you admire, ways of being, things they do, how they hold themselves, the way that they communicate, uh, how you believe they might see themselves or feel about themselves.
All of this in the present tense. We are kind of borrowing, kind of looking outside to borrow some of those. Areas, qualities that you might like to step into more. So again, pausing and answering that question. Writing down the qualities that you admire in the present tense about those people that you admire and respect the things they do, how they communicate, maybe how they hold themselves.
It might be how they dress, it might be how they. How you believe they might see themselves or they might feel about themselves to take some time to do that. That's the second step. Now we're gonna take a moment to [00:10:00] actually pause, and I'd invite you to close your eyes and just totally relax. So again, if you're in the middle of doing something and you're just listening through, that's fine.
Obviously don't do this if you're driving the car, but ideally going through this exercise, we need to next take some time to close down your eyes and just completely relax. Take in some deep breaths. Feeling your body relaxing, letting go of the noises around you, the things to be done, just pausing, taking those deep breaths in and out of your nose.
And as you breathe in, you might like to hold it a little bit. And as you breathe out, just feel your whole body relaxing, letting go of those outside distractions,[00:11:00]
and then begin to see yourself as that person, that person that embodies. All of those characteristics, traits and qualities, ways of being and doing things, seeing themselves that you just wrote down about those people that you really respect and admire. See yourself. Put your face on those characteristics.
See yourself as that person embodying all of those things you just wrote down. Acting as those people, as if you have become that person or those people living out that part of their lifestyle or doing the kinds of things they do, having the kinds of things that they have, being the kind of way that they are, those qualities and traits that you love, really [00:12:00] see if you can imagine yourself fully embodying all those traits and qualities.
And then really pull it back into yourself and think about a future you that you want to step into. Imagine. Your days. You could imagine a day in the future, life of yourself as your ideal self, or just your life generally, and your business even. What are you doing?
How are you behaving?
How do you feel? And remember, this [00:13:00] is the future you. So it can be anything you desire. It could be different to what these things are. Now, some could be the same. How are you thinking? What kinds of thoughts does your future self have in as your ideal self? Who is embodying the person you want to be? Who is living the life you wanna have?
Who has the business you desire? What kind of thoughts is she thinking? What are your days like? What do you do when you first get up? Where are you? Who do you have around you?
Really imagine and visualize as many details about this future version of yourself that is a match for the life and the business that you desire and the self that you want to be. [00:14:00] Take your time to fully imagine and visualize this future version of yourself,
always seeing it as the present tense.
And you can take as long as you like with this, and maybe it's something that you wanna come back to. But once you're ready, taking a big, deep breath in again and starting to wiggle your fingers and your toes, and as you exhale, opening your eyes slowly, and then again, picking up your pen. And now in the present tense, again, not the future.
Writing this down in the present tense in [00:15:00] full detail, write out a description of the ideal self you want to be and step into you. Now what we've just done is we've borrowed from other people because sometimes. Our future self. We haven't met her yet, right? So sometimes it can be hard to just imagine this different version of yourself, but when we borrow those images and some of those qualities and ways of being and living and, and behaving from people we admire or that we look up to or respect, we can start to see that more clearly.
Paint a, a more clear picture. So from what you've just visualized. Write that down in full description. Again, in present tense. That's really important. So you wanna write down the things that you're doing, the things that you're feeling, the things that you're thinking, how you are behaving, [00:16:00] how you are showing up, really with write it down in full detail.
Make it so that it creates a vivid image. When you read it, be really descriptive to bring all of the of your senses into it. Who, who's around you? How much money are you making? What kinds of things are you wearing? How do you spend your time? What do you do for fun? What are your hobbies? What does your business look like?
In as much detail as possible. You can even write down things like what your core beliefs are, what your core values are of this future you, this ideal self that you can imagine as fully as you can at this time. So really take some time on this and [00:17:00] write out this in as much detail as possible. Maybe you wanted to also sh write down what impact you're making and what does that look like.
Maybe you need to pause this and take some time to write it down. Once you have everything there, maybe it's a big list, maybe it's a really detailed description. We want to then turn all of that that you've written down. Into a script that you're actually going to be able to read and record, but it's like someone has written a script that describes you.
It's your self image script. So maybe you wanna rewrite it out, and it doesn't have to be perfect. You can always revise it. Maybe as you listen to it or as you read it regularly, you're gonna wanna add things into it. That's okay. You just wanna get a first version of it. So you wanna write it out in a way where you can [00:18:00] read it in full and really get that full vivid picture of this future you, or where you could record it and be listening to that.
Always in the present tense. So I am statements. I'm doing this. I feel this, I think this, I do this. I have this. And so it's a big description. It might kind of go all over the place. That's okay. You might jump from describing yourself to what you're wearing, to how your days go to what your business is like, to how much money you're making, to what you do with your friends, who's around you, where you live.
Doesn't really matter, but it needs to be that really full description. It might be a full page long, it might be a couple of pages long. Might be short as descriptive and vivid as possible. Once you have done that, the homework for you is to record that. So you just take your phone out and you'll have a voice memo app on your phone and read this out to yourself.[00:19:00]
Name it, and then listen to this every day. This is my challenge and my homework for you. Listen to this every day for the next 30 days. At least you could continue to listen to it. It, and again, maybe as you listen to it, there are things you want to add or or change a little bit. That's okay. You could rerecord it, but listen to it every day.
Or alternatively, you could read it every day, so keep it somewhere where you can come back to it and you can read it on a daily basis. Or so that you can listen to it on a daily basis. You can even listen to it on a loop multiple times a day. Next level, next level homework or next level action would be to actually write it out in full every day.
So that's pretty big. That might take you. 10, 15 minutes. It's very, very powerful. But at the very least, read it or listen to it every day for at least 30 days [00:20:00] and see what happens. What this does is it starts to shift. How you perceive yourself, it starts to have you feeding your subconscious mind with an image of yourself and a belief of yourself that is aligned with the kind of self life and business that you desire.
And so what starts to happen is that your subconscious believes that because it believes everything that you tell it. And so you'll find that the actions that are aligned, the habits, the daily actions that are most aligned with creating that reality will feel easier to do. Maybe you'll even start doing them without thinking about it.
The small habits you might have been trying to put into place will be easier to do. So watch what happens when you do this because it's extremely powerful. If you are not sure you know what, what [00:21:00] that, that person, that life, that business is in the future, this is a great thing to work on and you can always evolve and update it.
Okay? So this is gonna help you to bridge the gap between where you are right now. In yourself and in the external world towards where you want to be. It's an extremely powerful thing to do. So I would really, really, really love for you to reach out to me and tell me, yes, I'm going to do self image script, and I am committing to listening to it or reading it or writing it out, whichever one you choose for 30 days.
And then I can check in on you for some accountability. I can be your accountability body, so please reach out to me via DM on [email protected] Mentor, and let me know if you are going to do this for some accountability and if, [00:22:00] which of those options you're going to choose to continue on for those 30 days.
And I'll be able to reach out and check in on you. Because I know that it helps with these kinds of things when you've got some accountability. Uh, if you are someone who likes to share about these things, absolutely share with a friend, a business bestie. It's so incredibly powerful. As always, if you've enjoyed this episode, I would love for you to give me a five star rating and share this podcast with a business.
Friend, and as always, I would truly love to hear from you. So I hope that you have paused and done this exercise, and if not, bookmark this and come back to it and do this exercise in full. You can do this once a year. You could even do it twice a year or quarterly. Uh, you know, and come back to it because it will evolve.
That's okay. But please take action on this. Don't just listen and move on. Take action because that [00:23:00] is how you make change. All right, my friend. I hope this has found you safe, well, and happy and I look forward to sharing more on the podcast with you next week. Bye for now.
