A New Identity for the Year-That-Is-Now

The Character-Who-Gets-What-We-Want is behind the Aquamarine Door.

I throw open the Aquamarine Door on the Present Floor of the Time Traveler Hotel with barely a pause. After my time on the Past, Future, and now Present Floor I am starting to understand what lies just behind each jewel-hued door.

I get it. I get what this theatrical room represents now, I tell my Present Self. This is where my character resides. The roles that I am playing, the character I am becoming.

In a traditional story, this would represent my character arc. Character arc is the trajectory of change a character makes over the course of a story in the pursuit of getting what they want.

So how do I want to grow and change this year? And what goals and habits will help me become the character who gets what I want?

I look around at the various costumes and masks bursting at the seams of this colorful theater room. So many choices, and yet I default to a select few every day. Characters that keep me safe, that don’t ask anything of me. And sometimes that is okay. Healing from a challenging year can sometimes mean playing safe restful characters that wear cozy comfortable invisibility cloaks.

And sometimes it is time to break free and pull spotlight.

To become the character who gets what I want I need a new costume.

Confident. Generous. True.

Those are the costumes my future character would wear the most often.

I try a Confident mask on, fierce and regal. It doesn’t quite fit and I feel more than a little like an impostor. The spotlight it pulls is blinding. And more than a little exhilarating. My heart beats faster. I feel bold as if I could leap first. Not in an impetuous way, but more like a hunter who goes boldly for the prize.

I grab a few more costume pieces to complement the mask. A golden cape and lasso, some really awesome boots. My heart is racing even more. I am a presence, a force with which to be reckoned.

I shine.

From the edges of the spotlight my invisibility cloak shimmers at me temptingly. To disappear behind the scenery. To observe, to stay contained, to stay small.

To remain unseen.

A hand captures my own and stops me from stepping toward my comfortable cloak.

You have all year to become this confident character who is not afraid to shine. Small daily steps in the direction of your future are all that are needed. What are the habits that will move you from behind the scenes and into the spotlight? asks my Present Self.

I take a deep breath. I have to say Yes to being Confident, Generous, and True.

We become what we say Yes to

Because we are becoming whatever we say yes to. Think of all the yeses in our day. Likely you, like me, have said yes to most of the following activities on this list:

Yes to information and learning. Yes to relationships. Yes to daily meals. Yes to some kind of fitness activities. Yes to work and creative projects. Yes to some types of purchases. Yes to entertainment and leisure activities. Yes to housework.

Are we saying Yes to the learning, relationships, meals, fitness activities, work, money spending, leisure activities, and housekeeping that align with our future version of ourselves? Or Yes to our past version of who we have been?

Let’s say Yes with all our heart to things that align with who we are becoming.

This means we need a clear view of our most desired future. A vision of our future that is so compelling that we will do what it takes to reach it, and NOT do the things that steer us away from it. We will learn, relate, eat, move, work, buy, rest and relax, and organize our life to align with our shining Future Self.

And that means we have a very clear Future identity that we are ready to live NOW.

A Story-based Identity

Our identity is based on the stories we tell about ourselves. When asked to introduce ourselves, we go straight to our past. But now we choose to identify as our desired future.

To create our amazing future, we not only create a list of future experiences we want to have, we also choose to see ourselves as the type of person who has those experiences. And that means we make our daily life match up with the experiences we wish to have.

Let’s make our daily life a path to our most inspired future. The future we most wish to live. That means identifying the key activities we will engage in every day.

If Future You and Me are published writers then we write every day. If Future You and Me are in committed loving partnerships then we spend time expressing lover-like commitment every day. If Future You and Me are athletes then we eat and train like athletes every day.

We do the thing that we know we want to become every day. Let’s practice becoming our most inspired future. Right Now.

TIME TRAVELING AT HOME

Open the Aquamarine Door into your Present Identity. Here you commit to the habits and actions that will make your future identity a reality.

This can include keystone identity actions like running if your Future character is a runner, writing if your Future character is a writer, etc. Actions that help you commit to your character.

What character habits do you choose? Write it down on your Postcard from the Present.