In this motivational talk, Shelley Young shares her personal transformation from a low‑earning nanny to a high‑ticket sales professional making $38K a month, and explains how she now teaches women to replicate her success. She frames the central premise as a dialogue between your present self and the future self you will become in five years—either begging you to act or thanking you for having acted. Young outlines the hidden costs of inaction—lost time, money, health, relationships, and mental capacity—and stresses that each day missed is a day you can never get back. She recounts her own habit of making excuses while staying in a “wrong vehicle” that limited her growth, emphasizing that taking action alone isn’t enough if the actions are misaligned with your true goals. The core of her advice is to adopt small, consistent micro‑habits (keeping promises to yourself, making the bed, reading daily) and to define a clear picture of the “future you”—how you act, speak, spend, and think when alone. She recommends creating a vision board, then working backwards from concrete financial, health, or lifestyle targets to identify the necessary income, spending, and behaviors. Throughout, she contrasts discipline with regret, urging viewers to choose disciplined daily actions over the heavier weight of future regret. Young also stresses personal responsibility: no one else will rescue you, and reinventing yourself may require silent, courageous steps. The talk culminates in a call to assess how badly you want your desired life, write it down, and commit to relentless, disciplined effort, promising that the results lie on the other side of perseverance.
Chapters
Right now, your future self 5 years from now is either begging you to take action and resenting you for not, or thanking you for doing so. Hi, I'm Shelley Young, and if you followed my story, you'll know that I went from a nanny making $1.8K a month, broke paycheck to paycheck, to making $38K a month as a high ticket closer. And now I teach women how to do the same. But there was a period of time where things weren't so amazing, where I was literally struggling to make ends meet every single month. I tried things, I failed things, I started things, I stopped things. This path was anything but linear. But what I always, always, always did was I took Action. And for a lot of people, taking action can be one of the most paralyzing things to do. And I want to share with you today how small little steps will compound over time to building your dream life. Me building my dream life, moving to Dubai, retiring my mom, being financially free by 26, didn't happen overnight. They happened with small actions over time. And your future self is begging you to do those small things. So let me show you how so you can actually stop talking and start doing to make your dream life a reality. Let's get into it. Things first, let's talk about what the cost of waiting actually does. So we could be talking about time, opportunities, money, health, mental capacity, uh, people in your life. The cost of waiting can decline all of those things I've just discussed rapidly. So obviously, like, less time, less money, less resources, less connections, less opportunity. And each day goes by that you're not taking that action, that you're not putting the stepping stones in place, your future self is dying. And not to be morbid, we both know that you only have a certain amount of time on this planet. We all do. We only have one life. And I'm not here to sit here and be like, we only have one life, let's just live it. I'm serious. You literally only have one life. The today you're living watching this is— you're never gonna get back. Today is today and tomorrow it's gone. And when you really think about that, when you truly deep down realize that you're only going to be 25 once, that you're only going to be 26 once, that you're only going to be 27 once, that each day goes by, you're only going to be able to live once and you're never going to get back— is if you truly embody that, that should be a wake-up call in itself. Yourself. Time won't stop for you. No one's waiting for you. Life will go on no matter what you choose to do, whether you choose to stay in the exact same position or whether you choose to actually do something about the life that you want. And I— reason I say this to you, and the reason I can so confidently say this to you with so much conviction, is because I've been there myself. I was making excuses after excuses of why I couldn't do something or why I shouldn't do something or this, that, and the other. And for what? It was because I was stuck in my comfort zone. And yes, at the beginning I told you that I always took action, sure. But I was also always clinging onto my comfort zone for so many years, taking little action in places that weren't actually going to make a difference. Trying to save that extra £50 a month, thinking that that was going to set me to financial freedom, trying to bargain for the pay rise of an extra £1 an hour, thinking that was going to build my dream life. And it wasn't. I was in the wrong vehicle and I was doing the wrong thing in the wrong vehicle for a long amount, long amount of time. And that cost me. Now, I am only 26. I'm very young. I have achieved a lot in this time. So I'm not saying that I wanted to rush or get there quicker, but in hindsight, The opportunity cost that I missed because I was in the wrong vehicle could have been detrimental if one day I didn't scroll on social media and see the vehicle that I'm in now to get me out of it, and if I didn't take action when I finally saw it. So yes, my action-taking abilities were always there, but the vehicle I was in was costing me my mental well-being, my financial freedom, my health, my happiness, my relationships. And I don't want that for you. But I always say, a person convinced against their will is of the same opinion still. I'm not here to convince you otherwise. I'm here to show you a different way of doing things that could really transform your life. What I want you to understand is that your future self already exists, for better, for worse. They already exist. Everything that you're doing now is a reflection of your future self. The quote that always goes around my head is— I think it's, 'Break the cycle today or the pattern will continue tomorrow,' or 'Break the pattern today and the cycle will continue tomorrow.' I always get it mixed up, but I always remember that. I heard it on an Instagram reel once, and I would recommend playing that over and over in your head until you break that cycle, because that is what it is. Your future self already exists. It's just which path of your future self are you taking. And if you truly want to build your dream life, and if you truly want the abundance that you're telling yourself and you're telling everyone, then you've got to do something about it. You actually have to stop talking the talk and actually start walking the walk. And you can do this in small little micro steps. You can do this in small little micro habits. First of all, keeping your promises to yourself, making your bed every single day, reading your 10 pages, whatever your small promises are, start keeping them. Start trusting yourself that you can actually keep your own word, because I used to lie to myself. In reality, you should be the only person that has the most respect for yourself, because how can you ask everyone else to respect you if you're not going to respect you. And I didn't know this, but for years I didn't have respect for myself, really, because I wasn't keeping my own promises. I was consistently lying to myself and consistently setting myself up for failure. And that is what I want to help you break. Stop trying to say that you're going to lose 10 pounds in a, in a week, or stop saying you're trying to be financially free in a month. Stop trying to rush to the finish line and instead put yourself actionable steps that are actually going to work towards your dream life. And in order to do that, you have to become abundantly clear on who you want to be. Who is the dream you? And then let time catch up. What does she do every day? How much money does she make? What does she eat? What does she wear? How does she talk? Where does she go? Who does she socialize with? Who is she when no one is around? And that is where I want you to start. Who is your future self when no one else is around? And act like her. For me to be able to get to this place, I had to spend like my future self. I had to talk like my future self. I had to act like her in every possible capacity so then time could catch up. There is no point having your dream life on your vision board if you're going to do the complete opposite. There's no point having your dream life and your vision board that you want to be financially free if you are actively buying the most expensive makeup, going on the most expensive holiday, living this designer lifestyle that you can't afford. You have to live in alignment to her. What I would recommend doing to actually take something actionable away from this is create your vision board, of course, but then work backwards. So for example, if I have a financial goal, let's say if I want £10,000 in my bank account, what would that have to look like for me? What would I need to be making? What would I need to be doing? What would my spending habits look like for that to become a reality? If I want my dream body, what would that look like? If I want my dream lifestyle, what would that look like? And work backwards, and that in itself will help you create a roadmap and an action plan to actually help get there. It is a marathon, it is not a sprint. Small actions compound over time. Don't try and rush the journey, embrace the journey, because the woman who you truly want to become is embraced on the journey. I always thought when I am financially free, I'm gonna buy X, Y, and Z. So not true. I spend less and buy less things than I did when I was making $1.8K a month. Um, you don't actually want the things that you think you do. You're trying to fill a void. You don't necessarily want the life you think you do. You're trying to fill a void. And when, when I realized that, when I truly saw that, something clicked within me. So don't focus on the materialistic things. Focus on how you feel and, and put in the small actions every day, like keeping promises to yourself. Educating yourself, pouring into yourself, pouring into your own cup a little every single day. And I guarantee a month from now, 2 months from now, you will not recognize yourself. Trust me when I say regret is bigger and heavier than discipline. Do not live in regret. Going back to what I said at the start, You have one life. One. You'll never get today back, so actually take matters into your own hands. You don't have to follow your friends, you don't have to follow your family, you don't have to follow your colleagues. You can reinvent an entirely new path. You can disappear and reinvent yourself, just like I have done, and just like hundreds of women around me. You can do that. You don't have to necessarily move to a new city, or you don't have to cut people off. You can move in silence and you can reinvent yourself, but it takes you. It takes your discipline and fighting your own fears and fighting your own battles and getting up and doing the thing even if you don't want to, even if you're tired, even if you're finished and done and can't be bothered. Because no one is coming to save you. You have to, have to realize that. No friend, no family, no man, nobody. Only you are alone with your own thoughts at the end of the day. No one is coming to save you. I really had to get personal with myself. I really had to ask myself, how badly do I want this? Because I'm talking the talk, I'm saying this, I'm saying that, but how badly do I truly want this in my heart? And what am I prepared to do to get there? Write that down, make a note, and ask yourself, how badly do I want it? And be honest with yourself. Finally, be honest with you. Who you are and what you want. And it's okay, you may realize that you don't actually want it bad enough and you're happy in your situation. But if you're watching this and you realize that you want it more than you can breathe and failing isn't another option, then you have to create that plan and you have to get your boots on, strap them up, and get to work. Because having something that most don't have is not easy, or most Yeah, most don't have. It's not easy, it's not, okay? And if you want what you've never had, you've got to do what you've never done. You've got to embark on a journey that's scary. You've got to pour into your own cup when you don't feel like it, and you have to just never ever quit. And I promise you, everything you want and more is on the other side of that. But don't quit. So yes, your future self is begging you to take action. All you have to do is ask yourself, how badly do you want it?
