Ep 58: Bring Your Dream to the Present Tense

In this episode, we're talking about bringing your dreams back to the present tense, so they're not somewhere off in the hopeful, wishing for, waiting for distant future, but that they're actually happening right here, right now. You ready? Let's do it. 

Hello, you are listening to the Love Your Life as a Performer podcast. I'm Kelli Youngman, and I am The Life Coach for Performers. I help actors, singers, and dancers love themselves and their lives way more, so keep listening to learn how you can love your life both on and off the stage.

Hello, and welcome back to episode 58 of the Love Your Life as a Performer podcast. I have been in full on moving mode. So much has been happening in my life and I am just so ready and excited and feeling so turned on and inspired by the new things that are coming in my own life. I've been talking to clients a lot about the magic of being in real time, being in the present moment, being in the now, and it just feels so delicious to come back to the simplicity. So that's what we're going to talk about today. 

But first of all, I have to just share that I am looking out the window at the most gorgeous, gorgeous, the most gorgeous sunset right now, and I am a little bit later with the podcast that I normally would be. Again, I've been in full on moving mode. It also has actually been a really interesting experience closing out a chapter. And I think that's what I'm going to do a whole other podcast on. Just the idea of transition and closure and giving yourself closure from any circumstance, conversation, relationship. I really do think that's a whole other podcast that I think is going to be so valuable, when I get around to recording it. 

But that's what I've been navigating in real time. Making space for new things, letting go of old, and also just acknowledging who I've became in the process. I actually have a couple of clients who are in the process of moving, and I know that that's been something that's coming up for them as well. The idea of using transition to fuel next level growth, to fuel, um, self concept expansion and to allow it to be this whole process of elevation and expansion. And again, I think that's a whole other podcast on its own. 

So I welcome anyone out there who's listening to again, compile these ideas, put them in a little email and send them my way if there are ideas that you're like, yes, Kelli, you said you're going to talk about this idea and I've been waiting for it. Please record that podcast next. 

But truly it's been so, I mean, I feel like I'm the queen of nostalgia. I love the feeling of looking back and celebrating and acknowledging. And one thing I do want to just share is that. You know, I was in my last building in New York for six years and Central Harlem was my neighborhood for eight years. And it's been really interesting to watch myself just have so much appreciation for every single thing that happened, knowing that every single thing that happened had to happen in the way that it did in order to bring me to this exact moment.

The same is true for you in your life. The things that you perceive as good, bad, right or wrong, all of them are literally bringing you right here, right now. And I think it just opens up this space to love who you are and love who you've become. I was telling my partner the other night, you know, I really feel like I've become the woman, the human that I always hoped and knew that I could be. And I'm really excited to see how that continues to expand into the future. And so with that, that's just a little bit of an update on what's been happening in my life, and let's jump into today's episode. 

So today I wanted to talk about this idea of bringing your dreams back to the present tense. And I've talked about this before, and I just think it's so, so, so, so, so important. Because really, truly it is so simple. Creating the life and the career that you desire requires energetic alignment and a vibrational output that matches the things that you desire, right? We know that. And we get to utilize our thoughts in order to create the feeling right now, even without circumstances changing. 

Now, the reason that bringing your dream, your goal, all of it into the present tense is because when we keep it as something that we see coming later, we a lot of times create arbitrary timelines. And when we do that without realizing, we keep the thing that we want as something that we want. I'm going to say that again. We keep the thing we want as something that we want, versus something that we already have, something that we already know is coming, right? There's such a difference between having your goal feel like hopeful, wishing, wanting, maybe someday later, hopefully. Versus I'm doing this now. 

We are powerful creators and the universe is responding to the vibrational output of who we are being today. Right. And I talk a lot about the being, the beingness in the sense of like literally the state of being right. The state of our vibration, our emotional output, our vibrational frequency, literally, however, it resonates with you, the energy that you're being, who you are being today is what's deciding tomorrow, right? Because when we decide when we're indecisive energy, when we know something's coming, we operate from knowing.

It's like if you knew you were going on a vacation, you knew that you bought the tickets for. the trip, right? It's on the calendar. It's happening. What are the next things that you'd be doing, right? You'd be looking at hotels. You'd be looking at the cities that you're going to. You'd be booking the hotels. You'd be like buying outfits for your trip, right? There's a certainty and a knowing that it's coming. And it's so interesting because if I asked the majority of people on the street, well, like what if you acted that way for your performing career? Most people would look at me like I am crazy and it might feel that way. It feels less tangible when it's something that we don't yet see or feel.

I want to invite you to try on what it feels like to operate from certainty and knowing that your next performing contract is coming. It's a different vibrational output of being a talented, booked, successful in demand performer versus treating yourself as someone who hasn't worked for years, right? And there's no shame in like, however much time has passed since your last contract or gig, right? The problem with that is that most people are looking at those metrics and deciding that as time keeps going, the likelihood of their dream coming true is less and less and less. 

And again, that only continues to be created because that's your predominant thought, right? If your predominant thoughts are it's hard to get work, that's going to continue to be your experience. Not because it is the truth of the universe. Because it's the truth of the universe that you are creating. It's the truth that you are carrying with you and creating over and over and over and over and over again.

This is why I talk a lot about being in real time. Being right here, right now. Because to be honest, if you've worked six months ago, a year ago, if you're coming up on four years, like literally no matter what metric you're at, it's irrelevant. It's in the past. That's like old information that literally does not have to contribute to the new outcome that's being created. The most important thing. And like, honestly, if you could erase your memory, if you could literally operate from like that has never happened before, that has no weight, no value, no pull. If you could actually let it go, it'd be so useful. It'd be so in service of you. Because then you just get to decide today what you want to create tomorrow. It's like literally that simple. I'm going to try to say it another way.

Right here, right now, literally right here, right now, being in real time, having your dream be in present tense in real time means that you are operating from the knowing and the positive expectation that whatever you desire is happening. Not maybe happening, not hopefully happening, but happening soon. Right? If there's any kind of like, I don't know, way that you want to support your brain, one of the best ways to allow your desire to be present tense is to just be in the soon. It's happening soon. You don't have to know exactly when but you can know that it's happening soon and you can be in certainty.

And I want you to imagine the impact on your career, and honestly your life, when you're deciding who you want to be. Like actually deciding how you're going to move, deciding how you're going to operate and how you're going to vibrate, how you're going to feel, right? You can use your emotional map to practice this. But like when you're really, really in the knowing, just like as if you knew you had already booked the tickets, you'd be preparing, right? 

So I want you to do this little exercise. Ask yourself right now. And I use Broadway as an example because I know that a lot of performers actually do hold the dream of Broadway. And some people have talked themselves out of believing that that's possible or believing that it's inevitable for them, because it hasn't happened yet. And I just want to offer that it at some point, everyone who's been on Broadway or anyone that is on Broadway felt that way. 

I said something to my client this week, one of my clients, I was like, with all the love in the world, you are not special. This is not unique. The thoughts you're having just are the thoughts that a human brain presents. And thoughts that a human brain that is a professional performer presents. Like every performer at some point is having the thought you're thinking. And I don't say that to diminish the feeling or diminish maybe the disappointment or the frustration. Only to say that like, of course you're having that thought.

It's totally normal, whatever it is, whether it's taking too long, or maybe it's not going to happen, or maybe I'm, you know, being unrealistic with my goals, like it hasn't happened yet, I don't have momentum, I'm not doing well this audition season, whatever the thoughts are, just know that if you have a human brain, if you are a performer, if these are your thoughts, it's normal. You're not special. I have the thoughts. Everyone is having the thoughts. And I hope that in normalizing that, we remove The Second Layer of shame or frustration that the thoughts are coming up. Like, of course they're coming up, right? 

But to get back to the point, right? It's like, if you're willing to right now, today, be in belief that your next contract is coming, that being on Broadway is inevitable. Or insert dancing with Beyonce, going on tour with, I don't know, anyone. It's like, whatever the goal is for you, insert here, even if it's becoming a millionaire or a multimillionaire, right? Like this same process is true, no matter what you're creating. And of course, we're here on this podcast to talk about loving your life as a performer.

So whatever the goal is, whatever the end goal is that you're desiring one, it's always going to shift. It's going to expand when you accomplish that desire, the next one's going to be born, right? And you get to just check in. If I knew I was booking Broadway tomorrow, and honestly, I do this for myself, even as I'm manifesting my third Broadway contract, I'm like, how would I be moving? How would I be vibrating? If I knew that tomorrow I was going to get the call that my next contract is starting. Or if I was going to get the next audition appointment tomorrow and I knew that that was happening. How would I be moving today? 

Right when we are in certainty, when we decide, when we are clear with our intention the universe has the opportunity to align everything for us and to bring it to us, right? The universe has the capacity to deliver as long as we are being clear and consistent with clarity about the things that we desire. The thing is, most of us are not doing that! Myself included, right? We get distracted. We see the thing that isn't working. We get frustrated and we start allowing that to be where we're vibrating.

And then, slowly but surely, the goal starts being, all right, maybe next year, maybe the year after that, I don't know, right? Especially if you've been like, oh, I thought this was the year something was going to happen and you're looking at the calendar thinking like time's running out, right? It's not good, bad, right or wrong. It's just not useful. And I said this to a client actually this week in The Performers Plan on our Live Call. If you join us, you get access to all the replays and you can go actually watch this specific coaching. 

But I was telling one of the performers in The Performers Plan if you started in January feeling fired up about your career knowing that you had all this momentum things were working out for you and right here right now suddenly, you're not feeling that way, it's not a problem. But it is an indicator that you're not plugged in. You're not still in belief of the thing you want to create. Because if the goal at the beginning of the year was like, book Broadway in 2023, why wouldn't it still be true that you could hold on to that right here, right now? 

Only because your brain is thinking three months isn't enough time to create it. But what if that's not true? Regardless of whether it's signing with an agent, booking your next contract, finding the love of your life, like, Why couldn't it happen in three months? So just notice if you're making up arbitrary timelines and telling yourself it's coming later instead of coming now. This is your invitation to bring it back into the present tense. To align with the frequency of the energy of the thing you want to create, like truly acting as if it was happening. And bringing it into today with certainty.

When you are certain and decided today about what is coming, that is what comes. Like, I wish I could download this thought to your brain. And this really clear knowing that what you imagine and decide today is your life, what you decide and intend as your identity what you create as your identity, right? This is what we work on specifically in the paradigm like leaning into Created Identity in a capacity to have it all. Like when you really are doing the advanced work of knowing that who you decide you are is who you get to be, it's so simple. 

You don't have to look to tomorrow any longer. You don't have to like create images of things taking weeks or months or years. The timeline is made up. And so the fastest way to receive is to bring it all into the present tense. Bring your knowing into today. I am a Broadway performer. I am making my Broadway debut. I am booking my third Broadway show. I am going on tour. Right? Whatever that is. Decide. And give yourself the opportunity to practice feeling what it feels like to feel something in the present tense even before it happens. 

I talk about this and I will continue to talk about it from so many different entry points because this really adds to and contributes and is derived from my concept of Belief Before Results. We have to have the belief before the result in order to inform our actions, our energy, and our certainty of what's coming. When you are doing that over and over and over again, you will have no other choice but to feel and vibrate and become a magnet for the things that you desire because it truly does not take time. It only takes alignment. 

Okay, so that's what I got for you this week. Check in with yourself. Are you really, truly holding your vision and your dream in belief, in real time, in the present tense? Just check in! Like, you can just literally ask yourself, How long do I think this is going to take? And why? What if it isn't true? How would I be moving today if I really knew a hundred percent certainty that what I desired was coming tomorrow? What would I allow myself to feel and know and believe about myself today with that certainty? And What else do I want to invite into my future by bringing it into the present tense today?

It's a totally different way of moving. All right. I love you so much. If you have not joined us in The Performers Plan yet, what are you waiting for? We just added to the Bonus Content, The #1 Belief Needed for Your Career. We added Prioritizing Pleasure, seven day challenge and exploration. Momentum Week is in there. On top of the four modules, The Performers Plan Workbook, our Live Calls, and a growing library of every single replay from every single coaching call. We meet every other week. You can be on the next call and you can guarantee that you create the career of your dreams.

Because inside of The Performers Plan, I'm going to teach you how to think on purpose. I'm going to teach you how to relate to your career in a way that feels delicious as fuck. I'm going to teach you how to start creating the life that you want today rather than later. 

Part of becoming the person that you want to be, part of the work that I have done has been recommitting over and over and over and over again and giving myself communities to plug into where I get to engage with people and feed off of their momentum, too. When you surround yourself with people who are like minded, with other performers who love what they do, and are actively doing this work alongside of you, like, it's so potent and powerful. 

And truly, that's why I created this community. Because there's so many performers that I know that are like, I don't know who else would get this. Like, everyone's doing the work separately, and that's great. But when you're doing it together, when you're getting coached every single week about your performing career, because not only can you join the Live Calls, you can also submit through Ask a Coach. You can be in belief. You can know that by the end of the year, whatever you want to create is possible, and you can actually full body bring your dreams back to the present. All right, I'll meet you back here for another episode. 

Hey, I want to invite you to get started because if this is blowing your mind, imagine the impact of when we actually worked together. If you're committed to loving your life as an actor, singer, or dancer, come join us inside of The Performers Plan. You get lifetime access to the program, the community, and high quality coaching for the rest of your career. Go to kelliyoungmanwellness.com/theperformersplan to join us now. I'll see you inside.