Questions For You #3
Vishal Thacker
Find the red thread, re-direct your career | Visiting Lecturer: Career Narrative Authoring at World Top 20 MBAs | Strategic Narrative Designer
What can you do right now, that Future You will thank you for?
This is a very useful question to ask yourself if you’re looking to do one of two things: build a positive habit that adds up to a better future for yourself, or even drop a negative habit that you’re looking to kick. Or simply, live a better life.
Our life is essentially a collection of our decisions, and what you live now is the result of all the decisions you’ve made in the past. It is easy to recognise this in hindsight, as hindsight is always 20–20. But if you extend this knowledge to the future, you’ll find that you can take decisions today that determine the nature of your life tomorrow.
The proven psychological importance of postponement of gratification is testament to the importance of asking yourself this question. Because it is super easy to do the thing now that gives you pleasure, or that is comfortable for you now, but not have it add up into something you shall reap in the future.
It might be something as small as not having an extra beer on Friday night, so you won’t feel ridiculous on Saturday morning. Or saying no to your social obligations and investing the time in something you really want to do. Or working a few hours every weekend on your passion project, so it can become something that you can actually do full time.
Big changes are not born over night. They’re born of little things planted over and over again over time.
What can you do right now, that Future You will thank you for?
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