Why Acting Like Your Current Self While Expecting Future Results Won't Work {4.01.26}

Your goals require a version of you that doesn't fully exist yet — and that gap between who you are today and who you need to become is exactly where good goals quietly fall apart. 

In this episode, Jen breaks down why identity has to shift before results show up, not after.

• Your brain defaults to familiar habits, thought patterns, and time usage — all calibrated to where you are now
• The primal brain keeps you in your Comfort Cave: safe, comfortable, and doing what you've always done
• Signs your current identity is running the show: saying yes to draining clients, scrolling instead of posting, over-preparing on low-impact tasks, making decisions based on fear of loss
• Your future self makes different decisions — not because they're more talented, but because they've built self-trust through consistent follow-through
• The identity shift has to come first; results follow

Join Jen's FREE Q2 Momentum Reset 5-Day Challenge, April 6–10! Sign up at www.jenlaffin.com/mrc

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Transcript

0:44

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Goal Getter Guide podcast. I am your hosting guide, Jen Laine, and this week we are talking about why acting like your current self and expecting future results just does not work. It would be wonderful if it did, but it doesn't. So let's get started. By talking about what we all did in January. So back in January, you may have set yourself a revenue goal that is bigger than anything you've ever hit before, and then you mapped out a plan and you told a few people about it, and everything was great. And then you went right back to checking email and Facebook first thing in the morning to saying yes to projects that drain you to putting off the visibility opportunities that would actually grow your business. I see this. With almost every struggling business owner who comes to me for help, their goal changes, but the person making the daily decisions doesn't. And that gap right there is where so many good goals quietly fall apart. So when you're building towards something that you've never done before, your brain does not have a reference point for it. So it defaults to what's familiar, your habits. Your thought patterns, the way you spend your time, and all of these things stay calibrated to where you are right now, even though you are expecting much different and probably much bigger results. Right now, your primal brain loves. When you don't change, by the way, its entire job is to keep you safe, comfortable, and doing what you've always done. That's what I always say. Primal brains main goal is to keep you safe, alive, and lazy. And so this is why your comfort cave feels so appealing, even when you know that staying there is costing you momentum and revenue. So what does acting like your current self actually look like? Well, you might not recognize the gap in your identity shift in the moment because it doesn't feel like anything has changed. And quite honestly, that is the problem. Your current self prides itself on being responsible and practical and realistic. And this could look like saying yes to every client request because turning something down, quite honestly feels risky to you. It could look like scrolling instead of posting, because being visible brings up a lot of fear and anxiety. It could look like over preparing for things that don't move the needle because busy. Feels productive. I've been talking about that a lot lately. It could also look like making decisions based on what you can afford to lose instead of on what you are building toward. Finally, it could look like telling yourself that you'll do the hard thing. When things settle down, whatever that means. Do any of these things sound familiar? Well, that is your current identity running the show, and it is very convincing because it has kept you safe this far in your lifetime, but your future self already has a blueprint, the version of you, your future self, who has already hit that big goal. That version of you makes different decisions. They protect their time differently. They don't agonize over the same things you agonize over. Now they are not more talented or more lucky. They just stopped letting current identity make all the calls. This is what I mean when I talk about self-trust, your future self trust themselves to follow through on the things that they say they'll do. They've made enough deposits into their self-trust bank that taking bold action doesn't feel reckless anymore. It feels like the obvious next move. The real work of goal getting is closing the gap between who you are today and who you need to become to hold the results that you're after. And this means that your identity has to shift before the results show up, not after. And most of us, quite honestly, have this backwards. So. How can we start making that shift? Now, before you start getting nervous, I want you to know that you do not need to overhaul your entire life tomorrow. You don't need to do that. You just need to start catching the moments where your current operating system is making decisions that your future self wouldn't make. So I want you to try this. Before your next decision, whether it's about your calendar, a client boundary, or what you're going to spend the next hour on, I want you to ask yourself this question. Would the version of me who has already achieved this goal make the same choice I'm about to make? If the answer is no, you have just found your gap. You do not need a new strategy. You just need to start making decisions from where you're going. Instead of from where you've been. So the bottom line is this, your goals require a version of you that doesn't fully exist yet, and waiting until you feel ready to become them is the most reliable way to stay exactly where you are right now. Successful scaling entrepreneurs know the identity shift comes first and the results follow. Decide that you are ready right now to start showing up as your future self and see what happens, and this is what we'll be practicing in April in my Q2 Momentum reset five day challenge. I am running this challenge. April 6th through 10th, and during these five days, you are going to commit to taking action on the things that will move your business forward, and then you're going to show up and do the work. I will be there to support you with nudges. With reminders that you can do hard things and with a wonderful community of fellow business owners who are doing the work right beside you. Plus, I'm excited to tell you that there is a cool custom GPT that I created, and a very fun point system to really help you up your game. Now, this is the last time that I'll be offering this challenge for. Free. It is amazing and I have been told that I should be charging for it, so this is the last time the challenge will be free. Do not miss out. I want you to go and sign up right now. The link is in the show notes, but it is also on my website at www.jenlaffin.com/mrc. All right my friends. That is it for this week. I want you to be thinking about how exactly you're making your decisions and are you making them from the place of your future or from where you are right now. I will be back here with you next week, and until then, have a wonderful week.