Leveraging the Wisdom of Your Future Self (Julie's Birthday Reflections)

What if you could leverage the WISDOM OF YOUR FUTURE SELF to guide your present choices? What would your older self say to your "young" self? 
 
It's my birthday, and I'm reflecting! I'm going to be 39 this year, and it dawned on me that this is the last year of my 30s... a decade in which I've been growing a family, a podcast, a business.
 
It's the end of an era. What's the next phase going to be like? 

What if you could USE YOUR OWN WISDOM from your future wise, experienced older self (cuz let’s not say “old”!) to help you make decisions about:

• What do you want in your future? 
• What risks do you want to take? 
• Who do you want to connect with and surround yourself with?

I share a story about my awesome grandma, her “young” friends, and my birthday thoughts. I talk about how I’m thinking about this next phase of life as I head towards my 40s! I talk about the power we have now -- in the present moment (when we’re actually LIVING LIFE) -- to make intentional choices that will lead to a life filled with more joy, fulfillment, and purpose.

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Transcript

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We have this gap between now when you're listening and 15 years in the future, we you know, what is the wisdom that we can learn like of our future self? What would we want to reflect on and really put into place now put into motion and take some little steps towards some bigger things? Hey, everybody, I'm Julie, and welcome to Women with cool jobs. Each episode will feature women with unique trailblazing and innovative crews will talk about how she got here, what life is like now, and actionable steps that you can take to go on a similar path, or one that's all your own. This podcast is about empowering you. It's about empowering you to dream big and to be inspired. You'll hear from incredible women in a wide variety of fields, and hopefully some that you've never heard of before. Women who build robots and roadways, firefighters, C suite professionals surrounded by men, social media mavens, entrepreneurs, and more. I'm so glad we get to go on this journey together. Hello, everybody, this is Julie Berman, and welcome to another episode of women with cool jobs. So today it is just me yours truly, and I am here very excited to share it that it is almost my birthday, I'm about to turn 39 It is going to be my last year of my 30s which is very much mind blowing to me. And as such, I have been reflecting a lot on not only this past year, which has really represented like a lot of change. And a lot of transition in my life personally, with the fact that I have a baby who's just recently turned one, he's starting to really crawl now and move around so quickly. He's starting to walk with assistance. And I'm getting rid of all of these things that I've had for like eight years, with tiny babies like the baby swing, and that cute adorable chew toys, and the tiny socks and the tiny adorable clothes and Wendy's. And so I'm you know, we've just slowly been purging over the last few months, all of these things that represent really like babies and growing a family. And that's what I've been doing for most of the past decade for basically a lot of my 30s, which is crazy to think about. And then I'm thinking about Wow, this is my last year my 30s Like, what do I want it to be like, What do I want to do? What do I not want to do? And then the next year, I'm going to be in my 40s like a whole new decade? And what is that going to look like? And the fact that I went from growing my family to now this new phase where my family is going to be growing up? And what does that look like? And how does that feel. And I was just reflecting on all of this. And on one hand sort of being so grateful for what I do know, and where I'm at, like I love podcasting so much. And that was something that really was unexpected that I had no idea going into, if I would like it what it would be like, and of course I adore it, I think it's one of the best things I've ever done. I hope to never stop anytime soon. Because I've just met the most incredible women. It's like opened my eyes to not only different ways of thinking, but to different opportunities that exist in the world that I really never thought about and understood until recently. And then I've also discovered sparger types, which I love so much, because I know that it has such incredible power to impact people in a positive way to help you understand what really lights you up what really feels fulfilling, and joyful and fun and makes time fly by understanding those specific details for you. Like those innate parts of you that maybe you couldn't always put your finger on. Or you can always explain to other people, but that it's just who you are, and you can't not do it. You just end up always doing things a certain way. And I'm always attracted to certain things. And so really helping people understand first of all, like, what are those details of you? And then how can you understand more about what those specifics are in order to more of it in the future, like in order to do more of what lights you up and fulfills you and brings you purpose and also on the flip side to do less of what you do not like to do what does not feel good but feels draining, stifling and so on. So that's such a joy for me and I really see not only myself continuing with the podcast, but also growing my business doing the one on one coaching work and also working with teams of people Then groups of people to do trainings and team building workshops and all sorts of fun things. So I'm really loving that. And I think On another hand like it's also really crazy thinking about, what am I stepping into in this next phase? Like, I'm growing business? I'm building podcasts building a community, and what is that all going to look like? What is it going to look like to have kids getting older, you know, they're, they're not just going to be babies anymore toddling around, they're in school, and they're developing their own things that interests them, and really like becoming their own people. So it's, it's incredible to think about as well. And something that as I was reflecting something that I was remembering was my grandmother, who was super close to who's like such an awesome woman. And she passed away actually, about 10 years ago now. And she used to always talk about this couple's husband and wife, and they were her young friends. And I remember her always mentioning them in passing, like, Oh, my young friends and I were gonna get together, you know, and they would be doing XYZ activity, or they were having a chat about something. So she was always sharing, because she knew them for quite a while. And she was very close with them. And so I finally one time, I asked her, and I was like, Grandma, how old are your young friends? And she said, they were in their 70s. And at the time, when I asked her, I was in my 20s. And so I just remember being so shocked, like, what those are your young friends, they're in your 70s, they were 50 years older than me. So it was sort of crazy to imagine, but then, you know, I sat back and thought about it a little bit, and my grandma at the time, like she was in her older 80s. So it completely made sense, right? That someone who are people who were 15 years, your junior, that they would be your young friends, because you had just lived so much more life than them, you had experienced so much more. And so this idea got me really thinking about now where I'm at thinking in the future, thinking about this, this next phase of my life, and what, what it's going to be like, and I just thought it was so interesting, if we were to sort of take that example of right now, like if we were essentially our young selves, and in 15 years, what what would we want to have happen? What would we want to have done? Or experienced? Or who would we have wanted to contact or reach out to? What would we have wanted to, like, learn? What would we have wanted to take risks on? If we're looking back as our older, wiser, experienced selves in 15 years? Right. And essentially, like, we have this gap, we have this gap between now when you're listening, and 15 years in the future, you know, what is the wisdom that we can learn like of our future self? What would we want to reflect on and really put into place now put into motion and take some little steps towards some bigger things. And it's kind of crazy to think about in such a huge, a huge span of time. Because looking back, like I guess, you know, you can never really know about family planning and when things are going to happen. And so thinking about the past decade of growing a family, that phase is over and now like I have this whole new section of life where my family is going to be growing up, and what is that going to look like? And what are my you know, my personal family related goals? What are my goals related to my career, and entrepreneurship, and being a community builder, and all these different aspects that I am hoping to either continue, or to get into that are new for me? And so how can I essentially, like use this idea of like leveraging this wisdom of my future self in 15 years? And learn from like, who that older, wiser experience woman would be on what things would I put into place like right now or in the near future, that can help me going down a path that seems really purposeful and meaningful to me? So I'm sharing this because I'm in of course, this really reflective period, but I'm also sharing it because sometimes I feel like we get to these places in in life where We're telling ourselves stories. And sometimes the stories go like, Oh, I'm too young, oh, I'm too old to do this, or it's too late to do this, or it's too early to do this, like I'm not prepared or haven't done the research or whatever. So we go through and at different points of our life, right? We tell ourselves these stories, but they may not always be true. And so I want to ask you, are there things that you've wanted to do that have been like reoccurring whispers things that have come back to you that are important to you? Things that feel more like maybe a two by four hitting you over the head saying that you want to do something, but you've been fearful or holding back? Are there things that you start and then stop, that you just haven't really put the pedal to the metal, you know, and gone all in on? So I'm asking these questions, because I think at different points in our life, we are very clear about what we want to do. We may not be clear at all about how we're going to do it. But we're very clear about what we want to do. And then sometimes we have these these reasons that stopped us from doing it. And I think that a really interesting way of getting around those reasons. And those stories that we tell ourselves is like if we look way far into the future, right like that 10 years or that 15 years, to our future self, and thinking about the Wiser you the more experienced you. And from that perspective, from that vantage point, what would you tell yourself right now, I think we can really glean some insight. And maybe also put things into a different perspective where we give ourselves more permission, more freedom, more grace to start exploring. I hope that this episode gives you a little bit of food for thought. I so appreciate you being here and listening. And let me know. If you want more episodes like this. I don't do them too often, because I love doing the interview so much. But this one was a little bit more off the cuff and unscripted, because it's my birthday, and I'm thinking about all the things. And I hope you had an amazing July 4 holiday. I hope you got to spend it with people who you really love who are important to you, and that you are having an amazing summer so far. Hey, everybody, thank you so much for listening to women with cool jobs. I'll be releasing a new episode every two weeks. So make sure you hit that subscribe button. And if you love the show, please give me a five star rating. Also, it would mean so much if you share this episode with someone you think would love it or would find it inspirational. And lastly, do you have ideas for future shows? Or do you know any Rockstar women with cool jobs? I would love to hear from you. You can email me at Julie at women with cool jobs.com Or you can find me on Instagram at women who will jobs again that women will jobs. Thank you so much for listening and have an incredible day