When Past YOU Meets Present YOU

When you envision future you, don’t you always envision you as being someone who’s got life figured out? Future you has a job and a balanced cheque book and a steady relationship and all those other fun adult things.

And then, one day, you become future you. And in those brief moments of clarity, when you recognize yourself as ‘future you,’ you realize you don’t have anything more figured out today than you did yesterday.

I had that moment of blinding clarity this week. On Tuesday. I got an email telling me I was now the newest employee – a writer no less – at one of the internet’s fastest growing websites.

Becoming a professional writer is everything I’ve ever wanted since I began getting my work published in my high school newspaper in grade 11.

I must have it all figured out now that I'm officially employed as a writer. Right?

Man, past me would be so disappointed with present me; which leads me to strongly believe that 99.9% of the stuff happening in your head is going to prove to be false. All the worrying, all the hypothesizing, all the weighing of pros and cons, it’s all mostly futile.

When I was 15, I thought that by 25 I’d be well-established at something in life. And by that I mean I thought I’d have a career and a good paying job and a car and a house, all of which I could easily afford.

But it didn’t pan out that way.

Good riddance.

I don’t want any of that stuff. Not right now, at least. I like living the poor man’s grind. I think there are important dues to pay in any art or career and right now, I’m payin’ them. So not only was the vision of my future-self wrong, it isn’t even what I want in my life right now.

With all this in mind, I think it’s important to remind myself not to get too hung up in the future of things. Situations change and so do desires. But if I were to close off these changes for the sake of fulfilling a past model/ideal of my present-self, well, I wouldn’t have backpacked Europe, proposed to my fiancée, ran for mayor or landed my first professional full-time writing job at 25-years-young. And frankly, I kinda like how this has all turned out.

For better or for worse, sorry, 15-year-old me. You were wrong and that’s okay.

#futureyou #becomingyou #goalsetting #predictingthefuture #mindfulness #staypresent