Be an advocate for your future self

Maybe it's time to talk about being an advocate for your future self.

I guess the difficulty with this idea is that your "future self" is abstract. She does not exist yet. It's hard to empathize to someone non-existent.

My initial idea is that I should help Future Janeth (FJ) to get there. How can I help FJ to realize her existence?

The rationale behind this approach is that I seem to do more when I help other people than when I help myself. Maybe it's the lack of accountability when I let myself down. Or maybe it's my people-pleasing tendencies. Whatever it is, I seem to be more motivated when I'm helping other people than when I'm "helping" myself.

I go out of my way to help someone any way I can. So why can't I extrapolate this idea to help the "future me"? The one that doesn't exist yet. The one that I can't visualize and only see as a haze.

I talked about it when I studied for algebra during my "shadow" episode. Thanking Past Janeth (PJ) for creating the note cards and promising Future Janeth (FJ) that I will pay it forward by studying.

For her. That sounded weird because I'm doing this for me too.

But why is it more compelling to do it for a "different" entity than for yourself?

And most of all, am I the same person? PJ and FJ, are they the same? If not, how different can they be?

Which reminds of this idea that change is continuous. That's why we don't notice it at the moment.

But not all change is good. Sometimes we regress. One step forward, two steps back.

Can you help me advocate for FJ? That still sounded weird. FJ, whoever and wherever you are, may we meet soon. I hope you'll be proud of me. I'll approximate myself closer and closer to you so that we may merge at some point in the future.

That's weird. Maybe because I'm addressing myself? Or maybe because I'm being kind to myself? It shouldn't be, right? Advocating for yourself should be automatic. But more often than not, we put ourselves down.

That has to change.

Comments

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