Your Before and After Picture

I am riffing on this idea that my friend Chris wrote about. He said that no one cares about your “before” picture unless you also have an “after” picture.

Some time ago I wrote about a friend of mine who gave a speech in which she did just that and how she left all of us in pain. She was really writing the middle chapter, not the final chapter. But the story she told made it feel like the final chapter (even though it was one heck of a great and moving speech).

But this idea has legs, and it’s too valuable to leave lie.

Before

Right now, take a picture. Take a picture of your results in sales or in business. Take a picture of a relationship you are working on. Take a picture of yourself. Take a snapshot of your financial picture. Each of these, and anything else you might want to add, are your before pictures.

And After

You can’t take an after picture unless you have a before picture with which you can compare it. A year from now, you can take another picture. What will you have changed during the time between pictures?

And In-between

You see, everybody wants to take the after picture, but too few want to do the transformational work that makes the after picture worth taking.

What beliefs are you willing to change to dramatically change your before and after pictures?

What new actions are going to produce those results?

What is going to drive you to carve away all the pieces that aren’t the very best version of you the world has ever known?

The things that you resist the most are the things you most need to do. And this is why most people never have the after picture they dream of.