Stop Writing About Your Past—And Start Writing About Your Future by Chris Widener

"The history of free men is never written by chance, but by choice—their choice." — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Many people spend a lot of time on their history. Some do it purposefully with such hobbies as journaling, while others simply write and rewrite their history over and over in their minds. Depending upon the way you go about this, this can be good or bad. If you are doing it so you can reflect back on your life, that’s good. If you are doing it so you can learn from your past, that’s good, too. Unfortunately, many people do it simply as a subconscious act of running themselves into the ground over and over.

What you "write" in your mind is an act of mental discipline, just as what you write on a sheet of paper is a discipline. Keep that in mind.

So if this is true, that we can make a choice as to what we want to write, both literally and figuratively, we have an extraordinary opportunity. Instead of going over and over our past, we can choose to write our future. Have you ever thought about writing your future before it even happens to you? Well, now you can—and you will!

Here is a process that will let you determine and write your own future:

Choose to choose your own future. If you don't make the decision to accept responsibility for your own future, then you are choosing to not write your future. You must choose to choose. Do you?

Determine what you want your future to be. Be specific. What do you want to earn? Where do you want to live? What do you want to weigh? What do you want to do for a living? What do you want to do in your leisure time? How much do you want to retire on?

If you don't know the answers to these questions, then you may as well not even begin to write your future. Take some time to answer them fully.

Get a good understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. If you are going to write your future, you will have to have a sober understanding of what you are good at and what you are not particularly good at. Maybe ask a good friend or your spouse to give you an honest appraisal of your strengths and weaknesses.

Focus on playing to your strengths while ever improving your weaknesses. Be sure that what you are doing is utilizing your strengths to their fullest. And you don't want to forget your weaknesses, even while you are trying to stay away from them. Instead, set smaller goals for improvement in your areas of weakness while you set grand goals for the areas you are strongest in!

Get out a three pieces of paper. On the top of one, write, "One year from today I will…" On the next write, "Three years from today I will…" On the last write, "Ten years from today I will…" Then begin to fill them out. Make commitments to yourself. As you write them, end each sentence with a transition to how you are going to do it. For example, you may write, "One year from today I will… Have $4,800 in my savings account by saving $400 per month."

Start putting only information into your mind that will benefit the fulfillment of the kind of life you are writing about.For example, if you have a hard time spending money rather than saving it, you should probably cancel all of the catalogues that come each day that entice you to spend. Instead, spend the time you would have spent thumbing through catalogues going through financial growth material instead.

Discipline yourself to spend your time in a manner that will help you get to your goals. For example, cut out five hours of television a week and spend that time on your goals instead. That would be a difference of 260 hours in the next year. Wow! What could you do with another 260 hours? Almost anything!

You do not have to be a paper cup blowing to and fro in the wind. You do not have to live at the whims of other people or circumstances. You CAN choose your future. You can write it out just the way you want it to happen. Yes, ups and downs will come, but you will outlast them and eventually arrive at your destiny. Then, when you get to the end of your life, you will know how it all turns out because you will have been the author.

Get going—write your own future!