The Unfair Battle Between You and Your Future Self
Coffee Thoughts are short reflections on life direction, self-improvement, growth, and loosely formed general ideas that are designed to make you think. Subscribe and receive a new one every Saturday, along with a blog every Wednesday!
The moment you decide to work toward a goal, you start a war. Not just because you have to fight to achieve said goal, but because it sparks a constant battle with your future self.
There’s a reason you set the goal for the future instead of just simply achieving it: you’re not yet capable. You have to first do what is necessary but also be what is necessary.
Therefore, the moment that goal is set, you birth the version of yourself capable of achieving it. The only difference between them remaining imaginary and becoming a reality is the actions you take. Hence the battle.
Often, what your future self needs and what you want are two completely different things.
You want to sleep in, they need you to get up.
You want a rest day, they need you to work out.
You’re afraid to fail, they need you to be brave.
There’s a reason the word unfair is in the title, and it’s because the future version of you has no say in the matter whatsoever. They’re not real, at least not yet, so the responsibility is all yours.
All it takes is one excuse, and they cease to exist and are forgotten about forever. Well, at least until the next New Year's resolution is set or gym membership is bought.
But while it means that it’s an unfair battle, it also means that the scale is completely tipped in your favour. You have all the power. And whether that’s a good or bad thing depends on what you do with it.
I’d like to remind you that every time you do something that reduces the likelihood of them existing is not just letting some hypothetical, imaginary and make-believe person down, you’re letting yourself down.
Regardless of how far removed and vague the “future version of you” seems, time comes for us all, and you’re going to be a version of you in the future, but who that person is depends solely on what you do going forward.
Not only that, everything you currently are, do and feel today is a consequence of what you’ve done in the past. Don’t like it? Change it.
This means putting your feelings and comfort to one side for the sake of finally becoming who you said you’d become. It’s being disciplined, consistent and relentless towards your goals until they’re achieved and your future self is no longer an ideal. It’s who you are.
Will you finally become the person you said you’d be? Or will they just become yet another ghost?