Your Idol is You, 10 Years From Now

I used to have famous personalities as my idols. If I start dropping names, we’ll be homies before you breathe. Yes, it’s that common!

Famous personalities as idols

5 years ago, my idols were people I looked ahead to for inspiration and wanted the kind of life they lived.

Then they got involved in some controversies, and I started to question my decision, “Do I really want to become like him after what he did?”

While questioning this way for every famous person I admired, I came to an overdue(запоздалый) realisation, “It is not really the person we like. It is the quality he/she radiates.”

After this realisation, I see idols differently.

You admire a person for his qualities

I still like many famous personalities and the work they’re doing. You also probably have someone in mind. Or had.

But when you find out they are involved in some shady(смонительные) deal from their dark past, for a moment, you question your decision. How do you change the way you look at your inspiration?

You don’t have to. You only need to remember the reason why you admired them in the first place. Here is how I do it.

Quality vs appearance(внешний видс)

I admire each person for their values. I like their qualities I wish I had, so I add them to my list. I add the quality, not the person.

Similarly, I’ll look at every person who becomes a part of my life. I observe what attitudes they show.

It doesn’t matter who they are. They can be my friends, family, relatives, frenemies(заклятые враги) and even strangers.

If a person is great at something I want to be great at, I’ll like them for at least that specific trait.

For example, I want to become an established writer. So I look at people who are already successful in this field. How did they reach there? What were the lessons they want me to learn? How do I learn it my way?

Then I imagine myself ten years from now. Ten years from now is when I want to live with these qualities. So, there it is. That’s my idol.

Final thoughts

Your imaginary version ten ( or any number, it just has to be long enough to show a significant personal transformation ) years into the future is the one who is telling you to practice whatever it takes to become the person you want.

How you reach the end is a different topic, but what you want to attain is already in your head now.

You can tweak(поправить) your visual in whatever way you like. You can add more qualities, prioritise them, amplify them and everything you want to stand for. Then practice it until you’re done.