How do you live your life? If you're like most people, chances are you think of time in a linear fashion. What happened before was your past. What is happening now is your present. What is yet to happen will be your future. And we tend to think of it in that order, things moving forward from past to future. Well, I'm here to turn all that upside down for you! I'm proposing that life actually occurs in reverse - that we live from future to past. So sit back, open your mind, and you might just come away with something that could empower you for the rest of your days.

Let's examine a simple scenario of going to the movies. Assume that you saw a movie last night. From your present vantage point, that movie would be in your past - you went yesterday. In the present, you're doing something now. Tomorrow you'll do something else. And in our hunger for order, we assume all of this occurs in a straight line. Yesterday I went to the movies. Today I'm doing what I'm doing. Tomorrow I will be doing something else.

That's not actually how it went down though. You've had it all backwards. What really happened is you planned going the movies ahead of time. In other words, you first created it in your future. Then, when you actually watch the movie, you are living your present. And the moment the movie was over, it became your past. Think about it. If you had changed your mind at the last second and gone to dinner instead of a movie, dinner would have been your past. The movie didn't become your past until AFTER you experienced it in the present.

A lot to digest? Well hang in there, and consider it all starts with our misconception of time and space. We tend to think in terms of time passing, when in reality, time is not moving at all. It's YOU who is passing through time. That's why the whole concept of past and future is a big hoax. They don't even exist, except in your mind! The past and future are a story you make up, from your present perspective, and only come to life in our need for order (that's why clocks were invented!). The only truth - and all we ever really have - is the present moment. It's all happening right now. Or as Neale Donald Walsch puts it in 'Home With God', everything occurs "sequentaneously" (sequentially and simultaneously). Ask yourself, does anything ever happen outside the present? Was it ever 'yesterday'? Will it ever be 'tomorrow'? It can't be, because all there ever is, is now.

So the idea of living from future to past is mind-altering and life-changing. It means you get to create everything, that nothing happens by chance - and you truly can have anything you desire! This is what Law Of Attraction is all about. For instance, championship football teams don't first win the Super Bowl, then play like champions, then imagine being champions, do they? (that would actually be past to future) No, they picture themselves as champions first (creating their future), then they play like champions (in the present) - and only then do they win the Super Bowl (and in that moment, winning the Super Bowl becomes their past). So if you want something, you must first create it in your future. Allow yourself to see, feel, and experience already having it. Then, in the present, take action as though you are already living in the future you created. And guess what will happen? You'll get extraordinary results, which will ultimately become your past. So you see, you actually get to create your past too!

Living the 'old' way - from past to future - takes the control from us, leaving too much to the unknown. In that model, stuff happened yesterday, more stuff is happening today, and who knows what stuff might happen tomorrow. That's living by default, and it isn't very empowering. The future to past model places destiny completely in your hands. You get to imagine whatever it is you wish for yourself - anything at all - and once you put it out there, all you have to do is live like you've already received it. Your results will then be realized AFTER you've gotten what you want. And the best part is, things will come to you with much less effort than ever before.

You are always "prepaving" (a term from Esther and Jerry Hicks' 'Law Of Attraction') your future with your thoughts. What you think about today is what you will become. Your thoughts will literally materialize in the physical world. Or, as it is so succinctly stated in 'The Secret', "Thoughts become things!" So start building in your future first. Decide what you will have, do, and be. Then, in the present, live like you've already gotten what you want. Trust and believe it's already on its way to you. Finally, allow the results you deserve into your life, and be grateful for everything. You can receive anything you can conceive! And your past is not set in stone (even though you thought you couldn't change it!). You're creating it, writing your history, right now. So make it the best past you can imagine!

Until next time...

With love,

-Jeff

Ask Coach Jeff... Question: I've been feeling out of control with my eating lately. I'm not 'fat', but I'm not at my ideal weight either. I make some good food choices, but just as often, I pick foods that lower my energy and make me tired. And sometimes, I'll even eat to the point where I get a stomach ache. Please help.

-J.T., New Jersey It's interesting you start by saying you've been "feeling" out of control. There's bad news and good news here. Law of Attraction says 'Like attracts like.' So if you're feeling negatively about something (and I'm going to take a leap of faith and assume "out of control" is not something you desire), you're sending that vibration out to the universe, and by Law, it must send you back more of the same - in this case, more out of control feelings. Now here's the good news. You were able to recognize what you were feeling, and this means you can change it. So how do you change your feelings? By changing your thoughts. Thoughts immediately precede feelings. So if you start to think of yourself as a person in control of your eating, you will feel that way too. The key here is taking the attention off things you don't want (i.e. being out of control, having low energy, being tired), and giving attention to what you want. The Law of Attraction is impartial and doesn't care whether you desire something or not. It simply gives you more of what you focus on. So even though you know "not being your ideal weight" is bad, you're still thinking about it - and the universe is giving you back more of not being your ideal weight. The trick is to be positive with your thoughts, and ask yourself what you do want (i.e. I want to be thin, in control, energetic) At first, it can feel like you're trying to fool yourself, but you have to get past that point. Because when you do, you'll be amazed how you start attracting what you desire - because that's what you're giving your attention to! Try it, and let me know how it works for you.

-JTB