Be kind to yourself, now, and in the future
You’ve been on a journey. You’ve had your ups and downs. You’ve learned, you’ve loved, you’ve failed, and you’ve succeeded. You’ve lived.
Everything you are now, you owe it to your past self — your skills, your knowledge, your habits (good and bad), your health, your connections, your wealth, and your happiness.
Perhaps you could even write a letter to your past self to express your gratitude for all the benefits you are reaping now.
Of course, you could also express your disapproval for the bad behavior, the bad habits that you engaged in, for which now, you have to pay the consequences — all that partying, the junk food, the wasted time binge-watching tv, etc.
You should actually write that letter as a mental exercise. It would be surprisingly revealing. Refer to him/her in the third person. S/He is not you, he is somebody else. Think of him as a friend you used to look up to, as an old role model.
You’re probably thinking: “What’s the point of all this?”
The point of this mental exercise is to realize than in 5 years, there will be a future you and he’ll have to live with the consequences of the decisions you are making right now.
That future self is not you. Think of him as a Junior friend, as somebody who looks up to you and listens to your advice.
Everything that you do now will affect him. It’s a big responsibility. You don’t want this guy to be disappointed. You don’t want him to suffer because you are lazy, undisciplined, or irresponsible.
You don’t want to fail him.
Well…don’t!
You know exactly what you have to do and what you have to avoid.
Identity
This exercise, of thinking about your future self as a third person, is not just a psychological trick to make you behave. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that who you are now, and who you were 5 years ago, are two completely different people. Physically, mentally and spiritually.
If you were to meet your past self, you would see many similarities but also clear differences. When I think of myself 10 years…
