Hey everyone,When I was a teenager I used to always ask myself "how can I help future Tintin here?" I would use the question in any situation, but often with things that I didn't want to do like make my bed, do my homework or annoying chores, and it was so effective.I would basically treat my future self as I would a friend, and try to be really nice to them. I would go out of my way to be extra helpful to my future self, making his life as easy as I could, because I found it so satisfying when I arrived at that future state and I'd already done the thing. The epitome of this was with homework at secondary school. I always did it on the day it was set. Yes, I was that guy. I thought to myself, well obviously I should do it now, because then afterwards I can relax. And if I don't do it now, it'll come back to bite me later.But over the years, I've forgotten about it as a tactic. It slowly slipped from my mind, maybe as I became more indulgent at university. But for some reason it has come back to me recently. Mostly with the small stuff.I'll get undressed and leave my clothes on my bed, and then think "no, that doesn't help future Tintin, I should put them away now."Or I'll be procrastinating over something annoying at work and think "just imagine how nice it'll be when that's done and how good future Tintin will feel."It's really simple, but it's amazingly effective.I try to treat future Tintin like my friend, and go out of my way to make his life as easy as possible.The hard part is remembering about your future self. It's so easy to be consumed by more pressing issues.I might make a reminder on my phone or stick a post it note on the wall. It's a kind of variation of lots of other self-helpy type tactics, but it's one that worked so well for me in the past.A nice stoic quote to summarise it is:“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”Meaning if you make the hard choices now (e.g. do exercise and eat healthily) you have an easy life later, and vice versa.Definitely a skill I want to get better at.Have a great week!TintinP.s. I pivoted a little with my content on YouTube this week. I've always loved these videos on YouTube from channels like Mike Boyd and MikeShake about learning new skills, so I tried my hand at it this week, and learned to type faster. Check out the vid and let me know what you think. It's a little bit silly.
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👏 Being Kind to My Future Self
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Hey everyone,When I was a teenager I used to always ask myself "how can I help future Tintin here?" I would use the question in any situation, but often with things that I didn't want to do like make my bed, do my homework or annoying chores, and it was so effective.I would basically treat my future self as I would a friend, and try to be really nice to them. I would go out of my way to be extra helpful to my future self, making his life as easy as I could, because I found it so satisfying when I arrived at that future state and I'd already done the thing. The epitome of this was with homework at secondary school. I always did it on the day it was set. Yes, I was that guy. I thought to myself, well obviously I should do it now, because then afterwards I can relax. And if I don't do it now, it'll come back to bite me later.But over the years, I've forgotten about it as a tactic. It slowly slipped from my mind, maybe as I became more indulgent at university. But for some reason it has come back to me recently. Mostly with the small stuff.I'll get undressed and leave my clothes on my bed, and then think "no, that doesn't help future Tintin, I should put them away now."Or I'll be procrastinating over something annoying at work and think "just imagine how nice it'll be when that's done and how good future Tintin will feel."It's really simple, but it's amazingly effective.I try to treat future Tintin like my friend, and go out of my way to make his life as easy as possible.The hard part is remembering about your future self. It's so easy to be consumed by more pressing issues.I might make a reminder on my phone or stick a post it note on the wall. It's a kind of variation of lots of other self-helpy type tactics, but it's one that worked so well for me in the past.A nice stoic quote to summarise it is:“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”Meaning if you make the hard choices now (e.g. do exercise and eat healthily) you have an easy life later, and vice versa.Definitely a skill I want to get better at.Have a great week!TintinP.s. I pivoted a little with my content on YouTube this week. I've always loved these videos on YouTube from channels like Mike Boyd and MikeShake about learning new skills, so I tried my hand at it this week, and learned to type faster. Check out the vid and let me know what you think. It's a little bit silly.