When I was a kid, I had a dress up box. It was made from cardboard and was filled with things that transported me to fictional realities, where I got to be anything I wanted: a singer, a dancer, an actor, a teacher, an artist.
I loved playing pretend. The thing I played most often was school. I had a chalk board and I used to make my brother, sister, cousins and friends sit and listen to me teach them stuff. (It’s no wonder I do the work I do today.)
I believed in Santa until I was 11. I remember being quite shocked when I found out he wasn’t real. Maybe I was a little naive, but I liked believing in magic and in magical beings.
I still believe in magic, even today. Just a different kind.
Because I’ve seen the power of the human mind and what it can create with enough belief. That’s magic of the greatest kind.
And the power to create whatever you want is available to you right now, in this very moment. You just have to get fictional with it.
You have to pretend whatever you want is already yours and then you have to act from that place, pretending your way into seeing it show up in your real life.
As a writer and creator, you’re good at making up stories and creating fictional worlds. So why not use that same creative power to CREATE YOUR LIFE?
There’s a journaling exercise I do every couple weeks where I ask myself: If I already had the success, the money, the body, the [insert whatever you want], I would…
And then from there I complete the sentence over and over again, with the areas of my life that I’m currently focusing on (or you could do every area—up to you), until I have a whole list.
For example… if I already had the success I want, I would:
- Be making a minimum of six figures a year from my books
- Drive a blue Jeep Wrangler
- Be disciplined around doing what matters every day
- Be disciplined around food and fitness
- Be a Hollywood screenwriter turning my novels into movies with big-name actors and actresses playing my characters and I get to make a cameo
So now that I have that list of what my life would look like and be like if I already had the success I want, I know exactly what I need to focus on and pretend about.
Because when you act as if something is already true—even if it’s not true at first—it will eventually become true. (This works for both things you want and things you don’t want.)
Here are the actions—both practical, physical actions and acting “as if” actions—that I’d focus on:
- Check my book sales numbers and income every single day (what you focus on expands)
- Write and publish more books—nonfiction and fiction
- Begin referring to my car as my Jeep (even though it’s not right now)
- Go Jeep shopping 1-2 times a month and get into the feeling of already having it
- Add all this stuff into my daily visualization
- Create habits and discipline around the 7 activities (4 bare minimum) I’ve identified as daily must-dos
- Create habits and discipline around making better food and fitness choices, and keeping the outcome/end results in mind when tempted to do otherwise
- Write a screenplay from one of my novels
If I began doing all of those things, I would start seeing more of the success I want showing up.
Why? Because I’ve identified who I’d be and what I’d be doing if I already had the success, so if I step into doing those things and being that person NOW, then what I’m asking for has to show up.
So while it may feel like fiction at first and while you may have to do some pretending, you can get yourself where you want to go a lot faster if you step into that identity of the already-successful version of yourself NOW.
That’s how I use fiction every single day to create the real life that I want to have. And that’s how you can too.
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What’s one thing you’d be doing today if you already had the success you desire?
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