I ran across this idea from a Twitter post from Alethia Kontis and it’s all about showing gratitude toward your past self.
That’s right: actually realizing when Past You has done Present You a solid and thanking them for it.
No this post isn’t about Time Travel – although that would be pretty cool, initially.
I say, “Initially” because, as it turns out, I’d be doing it a lot – to the point where if I hopped back to Past Me and thanked them, every time, I’d get annoyed with myself.
And that’s what I want to focus on. I can sometimes get pretty down on Present Me when things aren’t going (or I *Think* things aren’t going) so well. So this week, I’m going to not leave any room for that and focus on acknowledging all of the things that Past Me got right.
And I want to get granular about this. I don’t want to simply focus on the major stuff (Thank you, Past Me, for making the hard call to choose to undergo surgery. We wouldn’t have known we had cancer until much later…) but also the not-quite-so-major stuff (Thank you, Past Me, for taking the time to wash the French Press yesterday, so that I didn’t have to do it this morning.)
So what’s the point of all this?
Well there are a couple of them. One is, simply, to realize – and to recognize – that you’re doing all right.
If you’re anything like me, you tend to focus on the stuff that Past Me (or Past You) got wrong – and Past Me is going to mess up. We’re human, but if I can say to Past Me, “Yes, you got this one decision wrong, but you did these five other things that really helped me out, so Thank You!” It puts things into perspective and I’m less likely to get stuck on that one thing.
Additionally, making the effort to thank “Past Me” will help Present Me get stuff done for Future Me, knowing that, in the future, I will truly appreciate the effort now.
So that’s this week’s project: Giving Past Me their due whenever I can.
I wonder what Future Me will think…
Thanks for reading.
Be safe out there. Be Excellent to Each other – and yourself.
I’ll see you on Thursday.
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