Visiting the Future

Did you know that you could borrow from the past to help create the future? Since the events from our past, and how we feel about them, have a tremendous influence on our futures, we can take advantage of this to create success and improve our performance.

There’s a special technique developed that can help you do your best whenever you want to. It’s called, “flick-back, flick-up” and it works like this:

Let’s say you are going to give a talk at someplace unfamiliar. You are feeling a bit nervous. Mentally, you “flick-back” to a triumphant situation in your past – a time when you did a good job and felt really in control. Now, visualize that past situation and see yourself doing a great job. You purposefully remember the good feelings attached to it and how it felt to be poised, confident, and competent.

Then, “flick-up” to the future, and “borrow” those positive emotions and project them into the new situation. If you have plenty of time, do it over and over again, visualizing yourself in the room where you are going to give the talk, feeling poised, confident, and competent. The emotional satisfaction is key to bringing a past success into the present – and the future.

It will help to write an affirmation for yourself – something like, “Whenever I give a talk in unfamiliar surroundings, I feel comfortable and I really connect with my audience.” Then, when it is time to actually give the talk, it almost feels like déjà vu – you have been there before, just in your mind. It’s visiting the future, but in the present.

You can do this with virtually any situation. You can do it on the spot, in just seconds, if you have to. Throw yourself into the positive memory for a few moments, and then flick it up to what you are about to do. (You might think about having a ready-to-access library of past successes, for these very situations.)

Try this technique the next time the pressure is on. You will be surprised at just how well it works.