Regardless of where you are today you have the power to design your successful future self; also called “Visioneering”. I discuss the pitfalls to avoid and the strategies to embrace to do that in this episode with my guest, Barbara Daoust.

In a world where high achievers often struggle to break through the limits they impose on themselves, Barbara is helping leaders, entrepreneurs, and business owners step fully into their greatest potential.

Based in Los Angeles County, California, Barbara is a certified consultant with the Proctor/Gallagher Institute, guiding CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners to achieve measurable personal and professional results.

We dive into topics including:

The definition of “Visioneering”
How to get started with creating your ideal future self.
What your reticular activating system is and how to engage with it to create more opportunities.
Why your reticular activating system helps you notice opportunities that will get you closer to your desires.
The power of writing down exactly what it is that you want and why it helps you.
The fact that our subconscious mind doesn’t see words; it sees pictures and the power of visualization.
A look at “The Actor’s Technique” and how it helps you create your future self.
The first sign of transformation and how to recognize it when it appears.
The importance of creating “success habits” and how to do it.
How imposter syndrome sets in and how to overcome it.
Why there might be some truth to the advice “fake it ‘till you make it”.
How to solidify successful change in your life when it happens and not backslide.
The importance of taking inspired action every day.
Why seeking failure will help you grow in the long run.
How to keep on keepin’ on during the tough times.
The importance of acknowledging your successes, even the small ones.
The one thing, above all else, that you need to do to create your successful future self.

…and other golden nuggets of advice!

Barbara’s Origin Story

In what seems like a past life Barbara was director and ran a theater company. She had success in her field. She has a master’s degree in directing. She was also a personal acting coach for the Olson twins for ten years. Barbara also ran an acting academy, and a lot of her past students are now doing very well in the entertainment industry. She also had a show at the Kennedy Center.

Barbara directed one of the Olson twins’ videos and their animated series. She has a lot of experience in the entertainment field where people are constantly using their imaginations. And now she’s entered another field and works with high achievers, peak performers, and other people who really want more from life for themselves.

The comments Barbara hears often is “There’s so much greatness inside of me and I don’t know how to get it out of me.” “I’m so frustrated with Underearning.” They may not say that they have low self-worth or low self-value, but essentially that’s what they’re saying. Things like “I’m not earning what I think I really should be earning, and I’m not accomplishing as much as I know I can accomplish, and I just don’t know what’s in the way.”

Solving problems like those became her passion to pull performance out of a lot of those people who said that they wanted more and started showing people how to get into bold action and becoming their future self. It’s closing that gap between where they were and where they want to go, and doing it in a way that is a little bit more bold and radical.

Where does future visioneering start? How does one get started with it?

It starts with allowing yourself to fantasize and being honest with yourself; truly honest with yourself. Getting relaxed and allowing yourself to imagine all of the things that you would like to do in your life.

What are things that you would like to accomplish? What are some goals that you have in your mind? One of Barbara’s first goals that she started thinking about a while ago was having enough money where she could pick up the tab in any five-star restaurant across the world for anyone who was sitting at my table.

That was something that really excited her. So, in that excitement, she started to practice picking up the tab for eight people at the Hilton. It wasn’t a five-star hotel, but it was a start. A start of just starting to activate her imagination; how does that show up in her life? That then that pulled her in a direction of thinking about what is going to help me make more income in order to achieve that desire?

It’s really to sitting down with yourself and asking “What is it that I really, really want?” That means thinking of something that you want, not what somebody else wants for you. Not the idea of becoming the lawyer, the doctor, or something else that’s going to make you a lot of money because you were told that it would.

There’s an illusion of a title being the thing to go after, Barbara doesn’t believe that we are our jobs. She believes that our jobs are a vehicle for us to express who we are and what we’re here to do and what we want to accomplish in our lives.

How to Get Focused on and Create More Opportunities

Once you start to fantasize you select something that’s going to excite you and possibly scare you. It has to be something you’ve never done before. Because if you’re doing something you already know how to do, you’re not going to meet the parts of yourself you’ve never yet met.

You want to go after something that has been inside of you for a long time, that you want to let out, that you want to express. Then you decide that you’re going to go for it. The first step is to make a committed decision that no matter what you’re aiming for, and once you start aiming and focusing, you’re going to get your desire.

The purpose of the conscious mind is to focus and choose. Focus and choose. Once you get highly focused and you start choosing in the direction of your goal, then your reticular activating system in the subconscious mind starts to narrow the field so that you start to see things that were already there, but you didn’t notice before. You’re getting highly focused on bringing your desire to life at that point.

It’s like a red Dodge. You don’t notice them until your purchase on and then you see them all over the road. The same happens with opportunities to achieve your goals; you’ll notice what you didn’t notice before.

And that’s just the beginning!

Listen to or watch the rest of the interview to continue this story and learn more golden nuggets of advice!

You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”

About My Guest

Idea Climbing Podcast Barbara Daoust

In a world where high achievers often struggle to break through the limits they impose on themselves, Barbara Daoust is helping leaders, entrepreneurs, and business owners step fully into their greatest potential. Based in Los Angeles County, California, Barbara is a certified consultant with the Proctor/Gallagher Institute, guiding CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners to achieve measurable personal and professional results.

With over 25 years of experience in theater, film, and television as a director, producer, and acting coach, she brings a unique understanding of performance, leadership, and human behavior to her coaching. Barbara helps leaders close the gap between knowledge and action to unlock untapped potential.

She is also the author of “True Love, True Self: A Journey to Self-Love”, a keynote speaker, and creator of transformative coaching programs designed to expand...