Food Business Success® with Sari Kimbell

Ep #227 Befriending Your Future Self to Achieve Big Goals

• Episode 227

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When you think about the future - 12 months from now or 10 years from now - do you see a stranger? Most of us think of our future selves like a stranger and often do things in the present that we would never do to a friend or loved one. There are a lot of hidden costs including postponing or never achieving your dream of a successful food business!

One resolution I encourage you to make as we step into a new year is to befriend your future self and start making decision that will benefit him or her - this will be the difference between achieving your goals or just piling up consequences and delays that your future self will have to deal with.

Be Your Future Self Now by Dr. Benjamin Hardy

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Sari  0:54  
Welcome to your Food Business Success. This podcast is for early stage entrepreneurs in the packaged food industry ready to finally turn that delicious idea into reality. I'm your host, Sari Kimbell. I have guided hundreds of food brand founders to success as an industry expert and business coach, and it's got to be fun. In this podcast, I share with you mindset tools to become a true entrepreneur and run your business like a boss, interviews with industry experts to help you understand the business you are actually in, and food founder journey so you can learn what worked and didn't work and not feel so alone in your own journey. Now let's jump in! 

Sari  1:42  
Pura Vida, everyone. Welcome to the podcast. This is so fun. I'm coming to you from Costa Rica. It's my first time recording the podcast outside of the US, outside of my home office. So fortunately, we got Zoom backgrounds, and if you guys are watching on YouTube. Well, hello, hola. Buenas Diaz, and we're trying something new here with my hair, because not going to be doing what I normally do. So you guys can check it out on YouTube. The link will be in the show notes, but coming you internationally, and it actually pura vida. And this idea of like what I'm doing right now, being on this adventure, year of adventure, it actually ties in really beautifully into the topic today, which is about befriending and loving your future self as a way for you to become who you want to be. I ask this question of my clients, sometimes I say, who are you becoming, or who do you want to be? And it kind of stumps people. A lot of times, they're like, what are you talking about? I just want to start a business. I'm like, yeah, but you have to become a CEO. You have to become an entrepreneur. You have to change your identity from who you are today. There are things that a successful business owner is doing and not doing, that is different than who you are today. I love, love, love this concept of your future self and befriending your future self. In the 10x Mastermind for 2024, our last book was Become Your Future Self Now by Dr Benjamin Hardy, and I'll put the link in the show notes. Highly recommend this. It's a really short read. I think that he sums up all of the research, like the big, you know, high falutin research, that has lots of fancy terminology, and I think he breaks it down into language that we can understand, and great examples. And it's a fast read or a fast listen to, but it's pretty profound, right? It's a real big shift, and how we get and acquire, achieve, become, we create our goals by actually becoming friends with our future self. And I have another episode on future self, because I love this topic. And actually I think it was right about when his book came out in December of 2022 but it's called Hook Your Future Self Up, and it's Episode 119 I believe. But I want to kind of come at this a little different way for you today, and talk about how we need to close the gap between our current self and our future self. And it's perfect timing, because this is coming out on the 31st so the last day of 2024, which is amazing. Wow. This year has been incredible and flown by, and I am so grateful to my past self for hooking my future self up, to be here in Costa Rica, to be exploring, going on adventures in the spirit of hooking my future self up and also making sure that my, you know, my current self did the work. I have a zip line tour, or like a zip line adventure over this amazing waterfall later this afternoon. So I was like, I will get the podcast recorded today this morning, and then I get to go hook my future self up and do something really fun this afternoon. This is my last full day in the La Fortuna area. And I digress a little bit, but it's been an incredible, fun, very different experience. It's very rainforesty here. It's been very rainy, although the sun is out today, so it should be a really beautiful day. And any case, let's get back to future yourself. What the research shows us is that we think of our future self often. We think of our future self like a stranger, and this has bad consequences. How many of us were all guilty of this, right? Is like we eat that second piece of chocolate cake or delicious ice cream or an additional alcoholic beverage, or stay up later than you know, watching some Netflix show or playing on our phone, or we do things in the present moment, and we even forget that, like just tomorrow self, that far in the future, is going to suffer the repercussions of our decisions today. We are not always really great friends to our future self, and that's just like tomorrow's self.

Sari  6:58  
I have certainly done that, and I'm like, oh, it's okay. I'll deal with it tomorrow. It's not a big deal. And then tomorrow self, when I wake up in the morning, is like, thank you. Not that really was an unfortunate decision. Why did you do that to me? Like now I in my current self as I wake up the next day, have to deal with the consequences, and if we think about further, you know, a longer term, if we do that to our current selves in just like a 12 hour span, Jerry Seinfeld actually has a really great bit. You can find it on YouTube that's like, called Night Guy or something, but it's basically like, how night guy totally screws over morning guy. And it's a really great bit that kind of illustrates this, how we all do this to our future selves, and somehow we think of them as like, totally different people. But of course, it's us, and so if we look at ourselves even, you know, a year from now, or go out even further 5 years from now, 10 years from now, it's interesting, because we both think of ourselves as a stranger, like an unknowable person, and yet we also think that we're not going to change very much, that our future self will be very similar to who we are now. But the reality is like you can disprove that like you are going to change a lot, especially if you have big goals, especially if you want to become an entrepreneur, you want to have a successful business, you are going to have to change tremendously. And we know that this happens and that you will change. Because if you just go back 5 years or 10 years in your own life and think about how different you were in the past, and think about everything, your preferences that have changed, your values, some of the like, maybe where you live, maybe your partner or not partner, maybe you know, even physically, things have changed, like you will change the person I was 10 years ago. And you guys can go watch the 10x Goal Workshop right now for free. The link is in the show notes. And I talk about this, I show a picture of myself from 10 years ago, or roughly about and I mean, I was 60 or 80 pounds heavier. I was married at the time. I had a corporate job working for Whole Foods Market. Like things were very different 5, 10 years ago. And so we can extrapolate, like, do that thought experiment of yourself. Like, how much have I changed? You know that 10 year previous self? Yeah, I've changed a lot. So we can extrapolate and say, well, it's very likely that you're going to change significantly in the future, and let's actually change it on purpose. Let's do it with intentionality. So many of the time like I see so many people that just kind of let life happen to them and they they change, but maybe not in the ways that they intended, the ways. I mean, certainly the path I was on was just, you know, yes, there was change, but it mostly like I was just putting on weight, and I was getting more and more unhealthy, and I was certainly not hooking my future self up. And so, as an entrepreneur, you are making decisions, and you're like, I am going to become something different. I'm going after this big goal. And so thinking about your future self, what we want to do is to close the gap on this stranger hood of our future self. We want to start befriending our future self. I like this future of me. I care about this future me, I have a lot of compassion for this future self, like she or he is going to go through a lot to become the person that I want to become, right? You don't just wake up overnight and be like, I'm a different person, right? It's an evolution. It's a consistent new decision making model. It's thinking about the long term consequences. And we don't like doing that as humans. We have this brain, this primitive part of our brain, that I call it, you know, the lizard part of our brain. I'm seeing lots of iguanas here in Costa Rica, and it makes me think of this lizard part of our brain, right? All this iguana is doing that I've seen. They just like to lay on branches and sun themselves. And they are, you know, seeking pleasure, avoiding pain, and exerting the least amount of energy, like they're literally just laying there. You have a part of your brain that is doing this too. But we also, as humans, we have this amazing executive function of our brain that we can decide, we can say, I want these things. Think about it.  Your dog or your cat or your fish, like any of your pets have very short term thinking. They are not seeing a year, 5 years, 10 years into the future, the very most they're thinking about like their next meal, which is only a couple of hours into the future. It's called prospection, and it's something that only humans have, and it's this incredible ability to think about the possibilities. And I want to just offer, I call myself a possibilitist. That's not really a word, but think about, I love to drop in these possibilities for people, right? Possibility drops of like, what is possible for you? What if you have a beautiful business that you love, that you are helping people, that you are making great money serving others, that you are enjoying your life, that you are expanding who you are, and it's so fun, right? And so I want to drop that possibility in your life for 2025 and beyond, these things don't usually happen in perfect year increments, but if you think about the next three, 5, 10 years of your life, go to that future self. I love you, future self. Hey, I care about you. I'm thinking about long term planning.

Sari  13:57  
It's time to get off of the sidelines and into the game. 2025 is your year to make a big leap, to score big, but you have to get into the arena and start taking action. The fastest way I know to see progress and get momentum is to get expert coaching, to get great content that gives you exactly what you need when you need it, and gets you access to an incredible community that is cheering you on. I am telling you these are your keys to success, and going it alone is the slowest way possible, and it's when I see so many people quit. Do not quit in 2025. Get the support you need. All of the programs that I offer are open now for registration, including the original Food Business Success program to help you launch and grow to 100k. Master Your Business is open for applications, or if you're not quite sure you're ready to go all in, then commit to coming to Fuel member calls. Become a member of this incredible community with an amazing annual rate where you get some one on one calls with me as well. There are some incredible bonuses that I put together and discounts that only come around once a year. So do not miss this. Go to foodbizsuccess.com or check the show note links for individual links that'll take you to each of the programs. It's time to secure your success for 2025. Commit, make an investment, and let's make a big leap together. 

Sari  15:51  
This happens so much in money, right, when we're younger, how many of us did not think about our future selves when we're planning? We're not thinking about retirement, and I'm certainly very guilty of this. I mean, it took me until just a few years ago for me to get think about like, okay, let me get myself hooked up. Let me set myself up for the future. And it makes sense, because in our human evolution, I mean, 30 used to be old. We barely lived past 30, if we were lucky, and then 40 became really old, and now we live so much longer. But evolutionary speaking, our brains have not caught up, and so we love to stay present, focused, but for us to achieve big things, for us to expand, for us to go after big goals, we have to be thinking about this much longer term version of ourself. If we can start to think of our future self more like a friend or a family member, somebody that we love, that we care about. Think about how you treat others that you like, you would give them a lot of grace. You would offer them compassion and empathy. You would see them as a real person, and you would make sacrifices for them, right? Think about somebody that you love like you will take them to the airport. You might help them move, right? You will do things that aren't convenient for you, because you love that person. And so let's think about our future self in that way. It's a real shift, because we don't do this, and the research does bear out that the more we think about ourselves as a stranger, the less planning and the bigger the consequences that we don't want happen for our future self, right? And so let's bring that now into a different relationship. Let's on this day, this last day of the year, let's commit to creating a different relationship with ourself that we do the work in the present to think about our future self as that friend that we really love, that we really care about. And so many of us don't love our current selves, let alone our future selves, and it's work, but I promise you that it is work worth doing. As somebody who did not always love my current self, let alone my future self, I can attest to this and I was unhealthy and overweight and over drinking and not hooking my future self up, but it's possible for you to redirect, it's possible for you to get on a new path. And this is the year, my friends, like I want you to think about a year from now, your future self and all the things you're going to go through. I mean, you can just reflect back on 2024 and say, what are all the things that I went through over this last year? You may have changed jobs, you may have moved you may have changed or, you know, gotten married or gotten divorced, or things happen along the way. There may have been somebody that you love who passed away, or there may be new people that came into your life, let alone like all the physical pieces that happened along the way. Maybe you got sick, maybe you started doing a new workout, or you're training for a marathon, or you're doing something you know more physically active. We go through these existences and we forget about that our future self will have to do all of those things. And so I want you to think about, what is it I want in a year from now, what is my future self, right? And think about hooking your future self up. And I want to just offer that Fuel is open right now, FoodBusiness Success you can get right now and get inside Fuel for five months as part of the program, and you get everything that you need to launch that business or Master Your Business if you're ready to scale and really become a CEO, that future self, if you're like, I want to be that CEO by the end of this year, Master Your Business is definitely the program for you. I want you to think about a friend would think ahead. A friend would say, what would be helpful? A friend would say, I'm willing to make an investment and a sacrifice right now and commit myself to getting support, to not just operating in this vacuum. I just find making these commitments ahead of time is a way for you to benefit to and to befriend your future self. It would be like if you want to get in shape, or if you want to lose weight or you want to become healthier, you might join a gym, and you might join a gym that actually like will charge you if you don't go, right? To provide extra accountability, knowing that you're not going to want to go, you're going to have a lot of like fire at the beginning, and then after a little while, maybe it'd be easier to just sit on the couch, or it'd be easier just eat those delicious ice cream and we want to be doing things that are going to kind of lock us in, commit us more to what we want in the future. It'd be like, if you want to save money, that you're just going to have your savings, auto withdrawal, right? And so you don't even think about it just comes out of your paycheck. These are the kind of tools and mechanisms that that as humans, we can think about to get us locked in to make sure that we aren't just letting that primitive part of our brain overrun our lives, but we are actually like, really doing the planning and the forethought. And that future self of yours who wants this successful business is going to have to make a lot of hard decisions. She or he is going to have to make decisions where it's not going to feel very good, it's going to feel uncomfortable. You might have to say no to things that you really want to do in the short term to benefit your long term vision. So I want you to think about right now. What is something that you have been putting off, that you have been like, oh, my future self can handle that. And if we think about our businesses, it might be like delaying getting started. If you're just starting right, it might be delaying. Let's go ahead and get that bank account open. Let's start that LLC, like let's take the time now that doesn't feel great to do the research, or let's hook into Food Business Success and start the program, and start watching the modules, and take the action so that I have what I want down the line. It might be having difficult conversations. It doesn't feel good in the moment, but down the road, it's going to really benefit you, right? We often just like, leave these messes that, like future self, for some reason, will be totally fine with but you know that's not true.

Sari  23:25  
You know that it's sucks when you've done that and now you have this pile of stuff to deal with. It might be that even putting off equipment purchasing or putting off learning how to understand your financials. I work with a lot of people who say things like, I'm just not a money person, or I just don't love social media, like, maybe need to go get that course with Kayla and I, that's starting in January, right? Like, what are the decisions? What are the things that you keep putting off, that you'll do tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, and either tomorrow never comes, right? You just add up a whole bunch of tomorrows and nothing happens, or your future self just has a big pile of stuff that isn't fun to deal with. So what is it you need to do now? What is one action you can take that will really befriend your future self, that will get you like, it's the end of the year, last day of the year. What is one thing you can do? Go to foodbizsuccess.com would be a great suggestion, and get started like, commit yourself to doing things differently, because that future self is doing and being and saying and behaving very differently than you are right now. But it doesn't happen overnight. You start taking small, tiny actions right now. And one exercise I love, which would be a great exercise on today if you're listening live on the 31st or anytime, of course, is to write a letter to your future self, telling your future self as a friend all the things that you are going to do differently, all the ways that you're going to hook your future self up, all the things that you are like this year will be different. And here's what I'm doing to change that relationship. Here's what I'm doing to close the gap. And another way you can do it, which actually can be even more effective, is to write a letter from your future self to today. Write that letter that says, in 2025 this time 2025 or this time 2030 which is wild to think about 2030 that thanking your past self for everything that you did along the way to hook that future self up. And it can be very powerful. It's an identity shift, and it starts to close that gap, which will make you so much more effective right now, because this is where it starts is you making different decisions. So befriend your future self. Take a little time to reflect, make new commitments. Get into the water, right? Get into the stream. I went on a river Safari yesterday, right? You got to make that decision to get into the water and start floating. Get into it, because you can think about it all you want from the sidelines, but it's not the same as being in the water. So that's what I have for you today. If you feel like you need some support, you want, like my style, you want to see what we're doing inside Fel, which is my incredible community, you want to get the programs that help support you and get you the tools and the knowledge and the strategies to help you skip the line. Go to foodbizsuccess.com. Your future self will thank you. Until next time have an amazing week. 

Sari  27:01  
The smartest thing you can do as an entrepreneur is to invest in a who to help you with the how to speed up your journey and help you skip the line. When you are ready for more support and accountability to finally get this thing done, you can work with me in two ways. Get me all to yourself with one on one business coaching, or join Food Business Success, which includes membership inside Fuel our community of food business founders, that includes monthly live group coaching calls and so much more. It's one of my favorite places to hang out, and I would love to see you there. Go to foodbizsuccess.com to start your journey towards your own food business success.