In this episode, we are going to use our future to create and dream big. Listen in to find out how we often use our future and our goals against ourselves. Learn how to use the magic of imagination to create the future that you actually want. Let's go!
Visit our website and sign up for updates: https://www.womenfaculty.com
In this episode, we are going to use our future to create and dream big. Listen in to find out how we often use our future and our goals against ourselves. Learn how to use the magic of imagination to create the future that you actually want. Let's go!
Visit our website and sign up for updates: https://www.womenfaculty.com
Welcome to the thriving academics Podcast. I'm Ulya Tsolmon, a professor and certified coach, and I share insights on how to create your best work and live your best life. If you want to go from surviving to thriving without sacrificing what's important to you, then listen on To find out how. Hello, my friends, welcome to the time travel series. Today is October 21. The annual Back to the Future day. So this is the day when Marty McFly arrives in the future in part two of the trilogy. So it's purely coincidental that I'm doing an episode on time travel to the future on the annual Back to the Future day. So Marty McFly goes into the future on this day in 2015. But in this episode, I'm going to be discussing about coming back from the future. So just like we often travel throughout the day into the past, to reminisce or replay past events, we also make frequent trips into the future in our minds. So we try to imagine what the future might look like and try to plan accordingly. Or sometimes we go into the future and come back pretty anxious because we feel like the future that we want may not happen. So today, I'd like to talk about how we can use our future travels to either create big dreams and goals, or how we use the future to undermine our progress and really slow us down. So how should we use our this magical ability to imagine what is yet to come to energize us and not use our goals against us. So the ability to think and imagine the future is such an amazing thing that humans and maybe animals to possess, being able to imagine something that doesn't exist, and then work to create it is pure magic. So if you look around, pretty much everything you see was somebody's imagination first before it came to be. So the ideas are born in our minds. And then we work to bring ideas to reality. And this ability to imagine and predict the future allows us to do things that we haven't done before. So who knew just 50 years ago that pretty much everyone will have a small computer in our pockets that combines the functions of multiple devices and items in one. So if you think about it, what your iPhone can hold and all the functions it's incredible. It's a phone is a camera, it can play audio, it can record audio, it has a flashlight. It has it can have access to entire libraries and encyclopedias, it can store a lot of data. It's it's also includes a calculator, it's a computer, it can function as a TV, it has a clock. And also it can be a heart rate monitor. It has a GPS, it can tell you the weather, you can use it as a credit card. You can use it as for boarding airplanes. It's a photo album, you can play games on it. You can do banking on it, you can do shopping on it, you can even do real estate shopping on it, you can book flights, you can use it as a planner, it has a calendar in it. You can use this as a journal, and not to mention all the ways that you can communicate and share information over large distances using text and phone and email instantaneously. It's incredible. Someone had big enough imagination to think of ways to put all these things together. So a lot of people came together. They started dreaming big and eventually made it habit. So the concept of the future is very powerful. It can lead us to places that we could not even imagine when we first started out. And this is especially true for academics. So we generate new ideas and create new knowledge and the ability to look into the future is fundamental to the profession. One way academics can use this You try to derail their progress and creativity is by being overly attached to the outcomes, instead of letting the outcomes emerge and reveal themselves as they may progress one step at a time. So one way that this can manifest itself is when we define success in a very specific way. And we get too attached to that specific outcome. So let's suppose somebody had imagined today's iPhone 50 years ago, but they imagine having a portable device that could store and play large amounts of music. So 50 years ago, that'd be like 1972. So 1972 music came on cassette tapes, so one cassette could hold, I think it was like maximum of 60 minutes of music on each side. So that'll be I don't know about 30 songs, total Percocet. So let's suppose that the inventor, imagined and dreamed of a device that could hold 300 songs. So it's like 10 times as many songs as a typical cassette. And also they imagined it to be completely portable. So in 1972, music was not really portable, I think it was, the very first Walkman by Sony wasn't invented in 1979. So in 1972, it will be pretty big imagination to really think about the device that can hold 10 times as many songs and then be completely portable, there are a lot of different things that need to happen for that to come true. So then she's dreaming of this device at the time that the technology has come only so far as to have cassette players, and the players that are very portable. As I said, like 1979, I think 1980, Sony invented, introduced the first Walkman, and it still had the cassette in it, but it was small enough and use batteries that people could take the music with them instead of like having this giant boom boxes that they could carry around. And also, the magic of the Walkman was that it had that headset, so it was actually a private, the listening of the music instead of blasting it loudly or publicly. Maybe you remember the first time Walkmans were introduced? I don't know, time is going by so fast. Like, I feel like you know, sometimes when I talk about Walkmans and early technology to my students, they have no idea what I'm talking about, like, when it's tried to describe what a cassette player is. They're like, what what, what is that tape? What are you talking about? So, you know, hopefully, many of you can still resonate with this. And I think I'm afraid of the time when a lot of you may not know what it is. If you remember the first time Walkmans were introduced, it was really magic. So you could take your music with you can listen to it privately, you probably need also see loads of batteries. And also, it was still using cassette tapes. So basically, you take maximum, you know, 30 songs on each cassette tape. So but it was so much more portable than anything that we've had before. And of course, there was no streaming music on demand. So whatever came on the cassette player on the cassette, or whatever you burned on the tape was what you played. And also the cassette tapes had to be rebound. If you wanted to play the same song again, or, and also trying to find the exact song to play was also tricky because you had to wind the tape to just the right place. And, and and also, it was very sad when the cassette tapes were damaged. That meant no music. So until this creators dream can come true, where she is trying to create portable music device that can hold 10 times more music, a lot of things needed to happen. So first, Walkmans introduced the idea of portable device, they still use cassettes, then music had to be digital. So now we're talking about development of CDs, discs that storing the music, and then music came in mp3 format, so really digital format. Then iPods came in 2001, which was revolutionary in of itself. So compare it to discs and cassettes, the early version of the I bought could hold 1000 songs and had a 10 hour battery. And then finally the first iPhone came out in 2007. So a lot of technological developments needed to happen before this creators dream could be brought to reality. So at the time when the creative first dreamed of creating a portable device, and this is a hypothetical creator, by the way, with 300 songs in it, there could be many different ways that she could have imagined how this device may be brought forth. So one thing that you could think is like maybe cassettes could be miniaturized, or the tapes could be longer, the digital music hasn't been invented yet. So she's trying to predict how the device may work, given the knowledge and state of technology at that time. So cassettes could be miniaturized, maybe the player can be also smaller. And if the creator is very attached to this version of success, creating small enough cassettes with super long tapes, then she might be also frustrated to learn that long tapes are really not feasible, even if the size of the cassettes to be reduced. So maybe the material could be too thin and fragile. And then if she uses the same materials, then she cannot really achieve a smaller size. So although if she's really attached to this idea of creating smaller cassette tapes that could hold you no more music, then she might either give up because she could say, oh, this is just not possible. Or another way that she could approach this would be to just let go of the specific version she thought would be, and really widen her idea of success. So if you think about a device that could hold 300 songs, and be portable, it can come in different versions. So cassette version is only one. And obviously, when we're looking back, it's pretty clear that the digital version is another, but she won't see that possibility of this version, until the technology is created until digitalization is created. And And sometimes what we think is the ultimate success is not when we actually get there. So, you know, we may have thought it it's cassettes, but it's actually something completely different. So my question is, are you using your dreams and the image of your future as a reason not to do anything? Or to hesitate? Or do you use a very specific idea what the future should be, and using that idea against you? So one way that is possible is when you are too attached to the idea of what success might look like? What if success is more than what you thought would be? And you just don't know how to get there until you get there. So the idea of success that is too narrow and specific, you know, thinking about the portable device only with a cassette tape technology in mind, what if we need to collect information as we go and make progress. So there's so many things uncertain in the future. And it's really hard to predict. And it's not really possible to know how to make two steps, but only you can know it by making one step at a time. So as Abraham Lincoln said, The only way to predict the future is to create it. So the only way to know the future would be to get there, then once you there, then you look back and then say, Oh, so this is how I got here. So with many of our projects, we tend to have a very specific idea what the end result that is successful, might look like. So as we make progress, and finally produce the finished product, we very often our original idea what the outcomes might look like, is really nothing like what was actually produced. So the most important point here is to be open to what success might look like in the end, and still keep going to find out what actually it looks like. So once you're there, then you say, Aha, so this is what the final outcome looks like. I thought it would involve Old cassettes, but actually it is digital. So when we are too attached to specific outcomes, we try to control things that we can't. And that can waste a lot of time and energy and create a lot of frustration and result in feeling powerlessness. So instead, I offer you to let go of the specifics, stop being attached to the outcomes that are really beyond your control. Some outcomes require input from others. Other outcomes require the passage of time, using your imagination, and your future to inspire you, while minimizing your future travel to agonize yourself over things that are beyond your control. And the vision is the way to make your future work for you. Another point in using the future and imagination to work for us, instead of against us is to consider the very definition of success and the scope of it. Very often, we act as though career success precedes everything else. But what you actually want is an experience that has many elements of human life, that together would constitute success. So what does success entail? Is it only the finished project published papers tenure? What about your health, physical and mental well being? What about your relationships? What about your hobbies? What about yourself development? are you defining your future so narrowly, that you not intentionally including other things that are important to you? What is success to you, thinking in terms of your entire experience would help shape the future that you actually want to create? So the future is this amazing place where anything is possible? So how do you make sure that you are using this imagination, and your goals to get you on a path of joyful exploration and experience and not really use your future against yourself? The first thing is to stop trying to predict all the minut details, set the direction and intention and let the future reveal itself to you. You thought 300 songs in a cassette would be wonderful. But what you actually get is more than 1000 songs digitally. Then you also get flashlight, calculator, phone, video, camera, photo, camera, email, entire library, computer, TV, clock, heartrate, monitor, GPS, weather, you name it on and on and on. It's just mind boggling. So stop trying to figure out the exact way the future is going to unfold. There exists no simulations, or computer programs that can accomplish that. Many people desperately try to model the stock market to varying success. There's no one model that can accurately tell you what will happen with the economy. And this is what so many people having a very high incentive to figure this out. So the future is known only when we get there. When you travel to the future. Consider if you are imagining and dreaming about all the things that are important to you, or just the things that seemed to be urgent and sailing into you right now is your future full of only career related stuff. As far as intentionally you can really fill your future with whatever you want. The future is your property. It's your playground, it's your imagination. You can create the goals and visions however you want. Just make sure that it is intentional. And it has everything you want. Okay, so have fun in the future and in your imagination. Dream big and intentionally. And also, do not use your goals to stop and worry about things that are completely out of your control. Keep taking a step every day toward the destination. And once you get there, then you can look back and tell us how you got there. Every step is a discovery of the path that leads you to your future. So be sure to take that step. Don't just sit around wondering you know how many steps and where it's gonna go. Every step you take will live left more of the fog that surrounds the future. And then you can see the next step and the next step and the next step. That's the only way to proceed until somebody maybe you invents a future predictor that tells us exactly what to do with these papers and projects, and how to deal with this reviewers and editors so we can have them all completed to our satisfaction. Just take one step at a time. So until then, safe travels. Have a really beautiful rest of the day. And be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Until next time, create your best work and live your best life. Hey, if you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more about all the things you're talks about, check out women faculty.com Where we take these concepts and apply them. Come join us and do your best work and live your best life.