I recently heard someone say that we should live each day in a way that our future self will be proud of. I thought to myself, how does one do that? What does living for your future self even mean?
After giving it some thought, I began thinking about how my actions today can impact my health and lifestyle tomorrow.
If I eat crappy food today, I could get sick tomorrow. If I stay up too late tonight, I may not be able to function well at work the next day. If I drink too much tonight, I may be hung-over tomorrow and unmotivated to write and workout. All of these actions can impact the health and lifestyle of my future self.
A year ago, I set some fitness goals for myself. I wanted to reduce a certain level of body fat, and essentially get in the best physical shape of my life. To accomplish this, I had to monitor what I ate each day, and workout in a way that would burn fat. Each day I had to be intentional about my food consumption and workout regimen. I did these things because I had a goal I wanted to achieve by a specific time. I had a future self in mind. Fast forwarding to a year later, I achieved my goals and I am quite pleased with the actions of my former self.
This is one example of how we take actions with the future self in mind. If you want to begin living each day with your future self in mind, it starts with first creating a vision for yourself. Once you have that vision, set a goal and a time frame for completing it. And once you have a goal, think about what steps you can take to achieve that goal. Finally, once you’ve identified the first few steps, start taking action. Live each day working towards your goal. Your future self will thank you for it.
