Say It in the Present Tense: Why "I Am Earning" Beats "I Am Going To"

The last session of a mentorship cohort does not review a book. It reviews the one each person has been writing over the weeks. I ask everyone the same two questions: what did you learn about yourself, and what is the work in front of you now? The answers vary. The thing I end up coaching is almost always the same, and it is the language people use about their own goals.

Clarity Is the Reassurance

Every cohort reaches a point where the work stops being mysterious. What to do is clear. The path is clear. What I never want anyone to forget is that all of it rests on clarity around the goal.

To someone outside the room, a person repeating their goal can sound annoying. For the person saying it, it is reassurance. Getting precise about what you want, down to the details, is how you get there. Leave the details out and you invite randomness. There is an old line in coaching that applies: follow the steps and this is what you get, skip the steps and results may vary.

If the page is still blank because you have too many options, start with the piece on definite purpose. Narrowing comes before everything else.

Going To Versus Am

During the session I took one participant through a small exercise. They said their goal out loud, and then I gave them a stronger version to say and asked how it felt.

The difference is a few words. "I am going to" pushes the goal into the future. It can quietly keep the work waiting on some later step, and you do not notice until a year has passed. "I am earning" puts the goal in the present. It changes the question your mind asks all day. Instead of asking what you will do someday, you ask what you are doing right now to earn. That question attaches the goal to the action in front of you.

Try it this week. Write your goal as a sentence where the verb is the activity, not the outcome, and put it somewhere you see it every day. The whiteboard in the room where you work is a good place.

Decide First, Then Borrow the Experience

We use a simple loop in the mentorship: motivation leads to a decision, the decision leads to action, and action leads to results. Then you run the loop again. Even a bad result is useful, because it forces the next honest question: am I still motivated, and have I kept the decision? The word decide means to cut off. Once you decide, the other options are gone.

That is also why I tell the room you cannot figure it out in advance. Figuring out is often the mind's way of procrastinating on a decision. Decide, take the step, and let the next decision come from what you learn. Clarity lets you compress this. With a clear goal, you can say no to most things quickly, because they do not fit. Do not focus on the how. Focus on what you actually want, and stay flexible on the route. If your desire already exists and is quietly protecting the status quo, read this next.

One more tool is to borrow the experience before you own it. Before I spoke on stages, I stood on an empty stage. After that, I stood on one as a guest. I built a short montage of camera angles from behind the speaker, and I watched it. When you record the experience and put yourself in your own vision, the feeling is easier to access. The goal stops being abstract.

Answer Fear With a Better Question

Fear usually means something is unknown. My answer is to educate myself about whatever is unknown. When fear comes into your mind, ask what question could end it, or what action you could take. If the answer leads back to fear, ask a better question: what would I have to do so this is never a problem? Then spend your attention on those things.

Pay attention to wording too. "I am now confident" works better than "I am letting go of fear." The second sentence keeps fear in the room, and fear spreads. Say what you want to be true.

Look for Strengths, Not Only Blocks

Finding what is blocking you is valuable. Pull out the baggage before you leave for the next destination. The risk is that finding problems feels productive, so you keep filing the same nail down. At some point you run with the nail you have.

Switch the question. What are my unfair advantages? What is easy for me, and what do I enjoy? For many people one of those things is looking directly at their money. A weekly pass through the Net Worth Tracker shows what is working and what to do more of, and it turns looking at the numbers into a game you play more often.

The Takeaway

Write your goal in specific detail. Say it in the present tense, with a verb that describes what you are doing now. Decide, act, review, and repeat. Answer fear with a question or an action. Then spend a week on your strengths instead of your blocks.

None of this is advice for your situation. It is a description of how one room worked through the material, and your circumstances are your own.

This is why we keep the mentorship small. When you know the faces in the room, you read differently. You wonder what someone will say about the next chapter, and you remember what they said about the last one. There is no hanging back in a group this size, and I tell every cohort at the start to expect tears. The last session is a good reminder that the work continues after the call ends.

Further Reading

• Say It Out Loud, But Choose Whose Garden You Plant In on the language you use and the room you say it in.
• Four Questions to Answer Before You Look at a Single Deal on questions that come before the property.
• Inside Week 3 of the Alchemist Nation Mentorship on how an early week in the program runs.

Inside the Alchemist Nation Mentorship

The mentorship runs on a book, a small room, and a standing assignment. We read, everyone shares what landed, and the coaching happens live on the words people use. If a working room like that is what has been missing, you can see how the program works at alchemistnation.com/mentorship. Bring your goal written down and be ready to say it in the present tense.

*Educational purposes only. Not an offer or solicitation.*