How to be Nicer to Your Future Self Now
Thinking about the future is something that crosses the mind of all millennials. We wonder who will we be when we grow up (which in all honesty is a question I will be asking myself way after I become an adult), what are our big kid goals, and who will still be in our lives to see the process. I personally am one that constantly thinks about my future and the ways in which my actions today will affect my tomorrow.
And sometime in that thinking, we can be very harsh to ourselves. These thoughts now are only guaranteed to affect our future. So what could be done to ensure you are nicer to your future self now? Just sit and hope for the best? No!
There are many steps you can take now to be nicer to your future self, ultimately ensuring a much more successful future! So stick with me here and check out these tips on how to be nicer to your future self now.
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Learn from the Past
I am a big believer that any and every occasion or person was put in your life for a purpose. Whether it is a success or a failure, that situation occurred so that you could learn from it. Take notes from your past and see what went wrong and how this has helped morphed you into the person that you are. Not all lessons from the past are going to be a positive one but I can guarantee that they will benefit you in the long run.
Self-Love
This is one of the most important lessons. I used to hate when people would say that no one would ever love you unless you loved yourself. I thought this to be a lie because obviously in all movies, the guy would make the girl see how wonderful she was and then she would come to love herself.
Here’s the deal.
Life is 10,000% not like the movies. You do need to know yourself and what you want before you could ever expect someone else to understand. Now I know you may be thinking, “yeah, of course, I know life is not like the movies.” But sometimes your soul may still not be getting the message. I could say out loud that life is not like the movies but there was always this niggling hope in the back of my mind that things would work out that way.
That is not the case! You have to be at peace with yourself before you could find someone else. Hell, putting relationships aside, you must come to love yourself because you are stuck with you for the rest of your life. I know that self-love is most definitely easier said than done, but you are pretty great and deserve love from everyone, including yourself.
But honestly not to even make this about relationships, loving yourself is the best and most effective way to be nicer to your future self. So what steps can you take to ensure you are loving on yourself? Practice self-care, take yourself to the movies, meditate a bit. Find activities that encourage you to deeply reflect and learn more about yourself.
Guy Winch, psychologist, and TEDx presenter, look at self-care as more of practicing good emotional hygiene. “We’ll go to the doctor when we feel flu-ish or a nagging pain. So why don’t we see a health professional when we feel emotional pain: guilt, loss, loneliness? Too many of us deal with common psychological-health issues on our own, says Guy Winch. But we don’t have to. He makes a compelling case to practice emotional hygiene — taking care of our emotions, our minds, with the same diligence we take care of our bodies” (TED).
Check out his TED Talk called “Why We All Need To Practice Emotional First Aid”
If you enjoyed his talk, Emotional First Aid: Healing Rejection, Guilt, Failure, and Other Everyday Hurts”
Mind-Body Connection
You must be in tune with your body and take care of it because your body is your transportation, if it does not work, you do not work. This is not like Stephanie Meyer’s The Host where you can suck out your soul and put it into a new body. You must take the necessary precautions to ensure that you are able to live a long life.
I once did a challenge with a close friend of mine to go on a sort of 30 day cleanse. We had to stop drinking alcohol during those 30 days and work out at least once a day. We did not set a time limit to how long the workout had to be but had to commit to do something. It is the little steps like this that help leads to big results. I can honestly say I felt more refreshed at the end of the 30 days.
Now if you are looking for a different type of mind-body connection, you can always give yoga or meditation a shot. Both can do such wonders! Plus there are so many websites that can provide you with helpful courses at any time and any place.
One of my favorites is Yoga Download because you can access thousands of yoga classes based on your skill level from anywhere you are. You could take a quick course during your lunch break or at home after dinner. Whenever is best for you, Yoga Download is there to help and provide with ultimate Zen. So you have an array of options on how you want to find that mind-body connection.
Whichever you choose, both will help you, in the long run, to be nicer to your future self now
Educate Yourself
Always, always, always educate yourself. There are so many ways to access information and to continuously educate ourselves every day, whether this is going to school, TED Talks (like the one above), or even taking Groupon classes (Yeah, Groupon offers some online classes!). Their classes can range for a whole array of different courses. Whether it is philosophy, enhancing relationship skills or woodworking, Groupon has a whole host of course.
Our mind is one freedom that can never be taken away from us and is beneficial in all walks of life. Through learning, you can travel the world, learn about others’ lives, or travel throughout time. Out of all of my tips, I stress this one the most because claiming an education can lead us to become a better world.
Personal SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is typically a term applied to business or big events, but your life is one big event! For those of you who do not know, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
How can I use this?
I occasionally like to take a personal inventory of my life and when doing so, I use this. What are the strengths in my life? Do I really have things going for me? What is working?
Then I have to look at the opposite end. What is not working out so well? What needs to be eliminated? Sometimes this could mean a personal habit or a relationship.
Then we move to the opportunities. What could I utilize in my life to make it better? Maybe I could turn a volunteer opportunity into a future internship.
Finally, there are the threats. What am I doing that can threaten my success? For me, this would be my procrastination in school work.
I know this seems like such a silly analysis to do for your personal life but I promise you it works. Just like we talked about before with the taking time to reflect on your life, this SWOT analysis can help with that.
Sometimes it helps to break our lives down to the nitty-gritty details so we can continue to better ourselves. So pull out a piece of paper, or in my case a conference size sticky note, and take the time to do your personal SWOT analysis. This is one simple step to take to being nicer to your future self today.
Check Your Crew
Look at the people around you. These are the ones that will heavily influence you and either helps you become a better person or a terrible one. In order to be nicer to yourself, you have to work on those around you who will constantly boost you up and put you in your place when you need it. But not just that.
That’s not all.
You also need people around you that challenge your ideas and make you consider different perspectives. This way you can only continue to grow versus remaining the same.
As I said in the first point, each person is put into your life for a reason and you can gain a lesson from each of them. However, with that said, you do not necessarily need to keep them permanently in your life if they do more harm than good. You will know which ones are worth keeping and which are just passing through.
If you feel you are not able to tell which are which, just stop and see how your life is doing now. Are there certain people that are influencing you negatively? Well, those are the ones that need to go. You need to learn from your past.
So there will be nothing to learn from if you remain the same. The ones that are there to stay though are the ones who can help you. These people can also help you work towards your self-love. They should push you to be better and achieve great things in life.
Go back and check out an article I wrote a few years back on achieving big things in your life with your friends. It will definitely be beneficial in figuring out the ones to stay and help you be nicer to your future self.
Big Kid Goals
Make some big kid goals. You know, the ones back in the day when you would imagine yourself having a house made of candy when you became a big kid (was that just me?). Obviously, you should try and modify them to something that is realistic, but it is so crucial and beneficial to have goals that you can work towards every day.
Plan them out to be your 5 years, 10 years, or 15-year plans so that you can realistically hold yourself accountable to a date and plan. After I graduated from graduate school, it was my 5-year plan to live in Scotland for a while. While I did not live in Scotland, I did live in Ireland for a while! Seemed like a nice compromise.
With that said, make goals but be open to altering them a bit. As long as they still take you in a direction you want to go. So take the time to think about what your big kid goals are.
There is never a finish line….
You need to remember that you are an ongoing process, there is never a finish line. Every day you must take the small steps to continue bettering yourself and setting yourself up for a better future. This obviously takes work, but just try to address these steps day by day to come to a place where you are nicer to your future self. Sooner rather than later you will come to love and appreciate yourself more.
**This article contains affiliate links, and we will be compensated for any purchase made by clicking on them. Thank you for supporting Miss Millennia Magazine!**
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