A letter sent back in time
Hi me,
If you’re reading this, in 2018 Earth has fallen and we are the only person left, I’ve sent this letter 10 years into the past just before the chain of events that caused this began. You’re the only one who can save us. I’m just kidding of course, you’ll be glad to know that your sense of humour doesn’t change.
A week ago, we turned 23. Straight off I want to say that I have no idea what being successful means. You might have thought that by this point we’d have figured this out and would be making something out of ourselves, we’re not quite there yet. We have, however, learned a lot about being a person in the last 10 years. Growing up, you’ll learn so much about interacting with people, confidence and taking care of yourself. You’ll also struggle with motivation and finding purpose like most people your age. This is okay, all you need is a guiding hand.
“23 is a weird age. Some people are married & living on their own. Some are still 100% dependent on their parents and & some are in jail”. – An internet meme (though you have little clue what that is yet).
This is something that you’ll identify with strongly in 10 years’ time. It’s strange for sure but I think 23 is a great year of life; it’s the year when you finally get to think about yourself and work on big life transitions. Others might find it scary but when you catch up, take this challenge on with excitement. I’ll tell you a few practical things that I’ve learned retrospectively to help you along the way, some of them may seem obvious but I know you don’t know about them. Let’s get right into it, I don’t want to hear any complaints.
Waking up can be a battle, winning it is precious.
Wake up earlier than you would naturally but with an aim in mind – This one just works and often is the biggest difference between getting nothing done in a day and getting a lot done in a day. It’s like the feeling you have when you’re eagerly anticipating something early in the morning. Imagine you’re going to Disneyland tomorrow and that you must wake up at 4am to make your flight. Of course, you’re going to be able to wake up for that, you’d be mad to miss Disneyland. In the same way, enthuse yourself about waking up to do something in the morning, you may not do anything else in the day but that one thing you woke up to do, you’ll do damn well.
Without an end in mind there’s no way that you’ll reach it. Seems straightforward but I know you’re not the best at thinking of goals right now. It’s tough to home in on the one thing you need when you want everything. You’re going to have to prioritise out of the things that you want and clarify with yourself your own intentions. The next hurdle is lack of information; it’s near impossible to sit down and say, “I want to be in exactly this location in 10 years’ time”. This is something that needs to be practised. For you we’ll have to start extra simple; begin by simply planning just the current day with an end in mind. Once you’ve clarified your intention to have done something by end of day, you’re so much more likely to do it. Without that, you’re hoping that you stumble across the best outcome without setting it up yourself.
Exactly what you shouldn't do!
“If you’re not going to do it well, then don’t do it at all” or “If you’re going to do something, do it right”. I know that you have heard this one before. It sucks! It’s even deceptive because it seems like a positive statement, surely it’s a good thing to always produce things that are of high quality. You’ll begin to think “Why should I bother doing this, it’s not going to be good” and often nothing will get done. Alternate approach: if you’re going to do something, do it. It doesn’t matter how badly you do it, you’ll improve every time. Arguably this is the true meaning of doing it right. You’re going to have many awful sessions at the gym, blog posts that aren’t perfect, some failures and then even more failures. In all these cases, it is much better to fail than to not make any effort at all and you’ll learn great things from each f*ck up. Try everything out, especially the things that you feel you know you won’t be good at. You will surprise yourself, or at the very least, you’ll have a lot more fun.
This last one is important to you as there’s no doubt that you’ll have to make many important decisions growing up. If you’re doing something simply because you feel like it’s the thing that you should be doing, turn back and run. To us, even saying “I should” do something is synonymous with never doing that thing. Take some time to figure out what it is that you want to do with your day/week/life and do that instead, you’ll always be too young to be listening to logic and reason.
So that’s it, hope you can take these little pieces of information and use them well, I think they’ll greatly impact your life. Honestly, they are just tips and I wouldn’t think any worse of you if you can’t make them a reality just yet, I’ll happily pick up the slack and follow this advice into the future. I just want you to know that I’ve got your back.
Yours Truly,
Future you.
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