Gift to Future Self Exercise

Yesterday, I caught up with an old coworker who works in a different department. We hadn't seen each other for several years and caught up over lunch. One thing that we stumbled upon was a shared interest in self-improvement. We were both sharing how we had discovered what works best for us over time. Knowing your nature and working with it and not trying to work against it. 

I shared how I had found the conscious act of reframing things really helped. And that the more you actively do this the better you get at it and as a result are less stressed and for me personally, since I'm very empathetic and pick up other people's energy easily, I could make sure I was only absorbing positive stuff and letting the negative slide right off. 

We both had grown into being more realistic with our own personal expectations. Instead of trying to get a hundred things done in a day, really just focus on a few items and be more realistic about how long things take. Basically managing expectations...of our own selves. 

I've been pretty happy about what I expect I will be able to do each day. I'm a lot less demanding then I was a few years ago and don't have as unrealistic expectations of myself. I have to remind myself as I ramp up at work, what I can do in a day and how long things take. And on the home side, I just remind myself, "focus on the fundamentals". The core stuff is basically making sure I eat healthy and am presentable for work. I have a long running list of things to get done and I constantly ask myself if it's essential, or just nice to have done. The core stuff is pretty minimal and the "it would be nice" stuff I try to keep track of deadlines and no deadline stuff and some things just don't get done or get missed and it's ok. I also ask myself if it will improve my quality of life overall. So watching tv, not so much, but playing with the cats - yes. It helps me to keep the energy supply in the positive. 

Out of this, last night I was reminded of something I had learned awhile back. Thinking of doing stuff for your future self. When you postpone something until later because you think you will have more time or energy, you are piling it onto your future self and on the flip side, anything you can do in the moment, ahead of schedule, is a gift to your future self. 

Yesterday I was yawning all day, probably because of the rain, but also I was wiped out when I got home. I was tempted to just curl up in bed and hunker down for the evening. But instead, I did two chores I wasn't intending to do that evening which only took a half hour.  Getting them done ahead of when I had anticipated gave me a little surge of energy which in turn helped me make a good dinner. And then, I kept the idea of gifts to my future self in mind and just before bed, I had gone to the bathroom and noticed the paper roll was getting low and pulled out a new one before I went to bed. Something I could have easily skipped since I was tired and could put off until tomorrow. But it was so nice this morning not to have to deal with this minor issue. It was a like a gift from yesterday me. 

So, this week I'm going to try to keep an eye out for a little gift each day I can give my future self.  One act per day, five total.  And I'll try to report back.