{"id":346,"date":"2016-10-20T17:09:33","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T17:09:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/?p=346"},"modified":"2016-10-20T17:09:33","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T17:09:33","slug":"just-ask-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/just-ask-future.html","title":{"rendered":"Just Ask \u201cFuture You\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever my daughter is about to make an obvious bad choice, she\u2019ll say to me, \u201cIt\u2019s OK. That is something Future Me <\/em>will have to deal with.\u201d\u00a0 It is amusing when she says it, but there is some truth to her approach.\u00a0 When we make decisions, we should consider what our future selves would think of those decisions.<\/p>\n

So, for example, Future You is not going to thank you for eating that second bowl of ice cream. But Future You is<\/em> going to thank you for giving up caffeine and taking up tennis.\u00a0 Future You definitely will not thank you for watching two to three hours of television each night.\u00a0 However, Future You will thank you for taking that night class that allows you to advance in your job.<\/p>\n

It is an interesting exercise to wonder what our future selves would want us to do today. It certainly helps to clarify how we want to spend each day.<\/p>\n

Another way of looking at it is this: What would you say to Past You? What advice would you give?\u00a0 Probably the same advice that Future You would give.\u00a0 I would have a lot of advice for Past Me.\u00a0 I first would tell Past Me, \u201cDon\u2019t worry so much.\u00a0 You will have some bumps in the road, but that is the nature of life.\u00a0 Just keep working hard and doing the right thing.\u00a0 It will all turn out just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

I also would tell Past Me to judge people by what they do, and not what they say. It has taken me a long time to realize that what people say doesn\u2019t mean much.\u00a0 It is what they do<\/em> that tells me what type of person they are.<\/p>\n

I would tell Past Me to be more confident. I would tell her, \u201cYou are more amazing than you realize.\u00a0 Ignore the negative comments of others.\u00a0 Believe in yourself.\u00a0 You can do anything that you set your mind to do.\u201d\u00a0 So often, we don\u2019t achieve all that we should because we listen to the wrong voices.\u00a0 Sadly, it is the negative comments that stick with us rather than the compliments and words of encouragement.<\/p>\n

I suspect Future Me would probably give me some of the same words of advice. And she would probably tell me, \u201cDon\u2019t give up!\u201d\u00a0 \u201cKeep working hard.\u00a0 You have wonderful years ahead of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, take some time to think about Future You. What are you doing today to pave the way for a big \u201cThank you!\u201d from Future You?\u00a0 Think of what you can do now to make Future You grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whenever my daughter is about to make an obvious bad choice, she\u2019ll say to me, \u201cIt\u2019s OK. That is something Future Me will have to deal with.\u201d\u00a0 It is amusing when she says it, but there is some truth to her approach.\u00a0 When we make decisions, we should consider what our future selves would think…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-decision-making"],"yoast_head":"\nJust Ask \u201cFuture You\u201d - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/just-ask-future.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Just Ask \u201cFuture You\u201d - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Whenever my daughter is about to make an obvious bad choice, she\u2019ll say to me, \u201cIt\u2019s OK. That is something Future Me will have to deal with.\u201d\u00a0 It is amusing when she says it, but there is some truth to her approach.\u00a0 When we make decisions, we should consider what our future selves would think…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/just-ask-future.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Your Morning Cup of Inspiration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-10-20T17:09:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Meerabelle Dey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Just Ask \u201cFuture You\u201d - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/yourmorningcupofinspiration\/2016\/10\/just-ask-future.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Just Ask \u201cFuture You\u201d - Your Morning Cup of Inspiration","og_description":"Whenever my daughter is about to make an obvious bad choice, she\u2019ll say to me, \u201cIt\u2019s OK. 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