| What's Up With Me
It’s hard to believe that in my last message to you just two short weeks ago, I was sharing about the polar vortex that held my hometown of Ohio in its freezing grip of subzero temperatures for over three weeks. Today it’s 70 degrees
Fahrenheit and the crocus flowers and other flower bulbs that I planted with my wife and business partner Agnes Vishnevkin last fall are starting to come out.
I remember that chilly day in November over four months ago when we spent over three hours in the cold planting all those flower bulbs. We did so in the cold because you need to plant flower bulbs when the weather definitely turns so that they don’t bloom before the arrival of Spring.
It was really hard to motivate myself to go out there and do the planting. All I wanted to do was sit at home in a warm sweater reading a nice book and drinking a cup of hot tea. Agnes and I motivated ourselves to go out into the cold with the mental image of how our future selves will be so grateful to our past selves for putting in the hard work. And indeed, I’m very grateful to my past self for doing so and creating such beauty for my current self: imaginary high five, past self!
What can you do today to get an imaginary high five from your future self? It doesn’t have to be four months from now. It can be four minutes, or hours, or days, or weeks, or even years. The key is differentiating your current self from your future self, or selves if you’re thinking about an activity with a lasting impact. For example, my tomorrow self will also enjoy the crocus flowers; my week-from-now self will enjoy the daffodils and hyacinths that we planted, as you can see in the picture of our flower bed below.
Be a friend to your future self(ves). Care about them and take care of them.
You can do so whenever you’re deciding what you should do and how you
should do it. Ask yourself: what would my future self feel about my choices, actions, and words? In addition to this reactive approach, take a proactive one as well: at least once a week take a few minutes to ponder how you can improve the life of your future self, whether by planting flower bulbs, doing some professional development, or planning a fun get-together with your friends after you and they get fully vaccinated.
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