Dear Future Self,

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

I have tilled the soil.

I have planted the seeds.

I have watered the saplings.

I have done all the things I need to do for you to have a good life.

You now just have to keep it going.

If you stick with the habits I have set, you will be in good shape.

Sleep a minimum of 8 hours.

Do cardio and strength training.

Carve out time for healthy activities in your routine.

Maintain the diet that is right for you.

The one that was right for me was a low carb diet.

I dodged the diabetes bullet by doing that.

Keep stress at bay.

Mental health is as important as physical health.

Use tools to calm yourself down when you get anxious.

Take a walk or have a shower or a massage, do some stretches, or play a game. Talk to someone on the phone.

Remember, no matter what you do to prevent bad things from happening to you, you can't avoid bad things altogether.

Our Younger Self didn't know how to deal with bad things.

She fretted and fumed and over reacted to each crisis.

She had to say or do something  almost immediately.

Whereas I have found that if you let hours (and sometimes days) go by without saying or doing anything, things that seem bad when they happen, become something you can move on from and forget.

Meditation and having a spiritual life has helped me tremendously in this regard.

I wish I had learned to meditate earlier.

Our Younger Self didn't have the benefit of meditation, or a spiritual life, unfortunately for her.

Regards work, including housework, try to approach everything you do with a service heart and a servant heart.

I do that regularly in my Commissions Consulting work, and outside of my Commissions Consulting work.

It has won the hearts of many people in my life, including my clients.

Value is another mantra you should adopt.

Look to deliver value in everything  you do.

Now by that, I don't mean show off how clever and smart you are.

I mean look to being useful to other people and being concerned with their problems rather than yours.

Value may be as simple as lending a ear when other people have something to say without stealing the conversation back to your concerns.

Live simply and be prudent with money.

I have been wise, careful and frugal, to ensure you will be okay.

Slow and steady and restrained is the way to go.

Stick with my prescription for simplicity in investing - as in life - and you will be okay.

As to your free time, spend it doing the things that mean the most to you.

One of my favorite things to do costs no money at all.

I like to write.

I currently write a blog.

I also write for my Commission Administration clients.

Commission Process  documents, User Guides, and FRDs may not sound creative and fun, but they are extremely useful and valuable to my clients.

There is a chance it will be your hobby too. Who knows where that hobby will take you.

Life is full of surprises.

Thanks to an old advertising friend, I was able to dip my toe back into advertising copy recently after many years. I was able to write two brochures all in the span of a few weekends.  One of the clients when he saw the brochure immediately said it was brilliant.

It made my heart sing to know I still had it in me.

Our Younger Self has to get some of the credit.

Our Younger Self wrote a Money Workshop for 4th - 6th graders.

Our Younger Self completed a Toastmasters CTM.

Speeches and course content could lead to new avenues.

I keep a ear out for new avenues.

For example, on a recent Being Freelance podcast, a freelancer mentioned he uses his Virtual Assistant to help him with some of his communications.

I said….aha now there's another avenue.

You should do this too.

Keep a ear out for new avenues - to contribute, to make life more interesting, to make a little money, to have fun.

Finally, focus on being the best human being you can be.

Not the best writer, or best dresser, or best cook, or best host, or best homemaker, or best church goer…but the best human being.

I am talking about patience and honesty and kindness and humility and forgiveness and understanding and being a good listener, those kinds of things.

You won't get it right immediately.

If something as simple as cooking rice takes several tries to get right, imagine how many more tries might be involved in becoming a more patient or a more understanding human being. Maybe a lifetime.

Don't be afraid of making mistakes, or messing up.

I make mistakes and mess up all the time.

When I make mistakes or mess up, I get back up on my feet and keep trying.

You need to keep doing that too.

I sincerely believe life gets better as we get older.

Lovingly,

Your Past Self

Acknowledgements:

I would like to acknowledge 2 sources of inspiration for this post, both recently discovered, and both wonderful.

The first is a website called Future Me. On Future Me, anyone can write a letter to their Future Self, and read the letter in the future. I loved the concept, and initially toyed with writing a letter to my Future Self on Future Me. Then, I decided my blog would be just as good a home for this letter, since many more people other than myself would be able to read it.

The second inspiration for this Dear Future Self, post was a book called Notes To Self, which I also read in the last few days.

Notes to Self contains 20 letters from people to their Younger Selves.

Oprah, Jimmy Carter and Danica Patrick are some of the people who have written letters to their Younger Selves in Notes to Self.

So being exposed to both Future Me and Notes to Self within the span of a few days is what ignited this post.

How wonderfully inspiration works!