Comments on: Past Me and Future Me

By: Dana Helland

Dana Helland — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:37:33 +0000

(Oh, and the random comment a bazillion months after you wrote this, is thanks to your linking to it in your most recent post!)

By: Dana Helland

Dana Helland — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 20:36:44 +0000

This reminds me of a book I’m reading… Called Stumbling Upon Happiness. The author brings this up. I’m always planning for future me – making decisions based on who I think I’ll be. But.. who is that, even? If I compare now me to old me, in some cases it’s so disparate, it seems silly that I ever tried to make decisions based on what the now me wants to do. Regardless, the fact that we can even spend time ruminating on this makes me feel really fortunate in general :)

By: Alexia

Alexia — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 03:58:04 +0000

Wow- that’s a very… useable way to look at it. It’s the sort of concept that I sensed somewhere under the surface but couldn’t really put into words. As I was putting away the Christmas tree this year, I was thinking of how few of the resolutions of the previous year had been met, and how I was thinking the same exact thing LAST year when I was un-decorating and putting away the tree. So I wrote all my “resolutions” down, plus a statement about how another year was wasted if I disregarded them as usual- and stuffed it into one of the stockings… that way i’ll REALLY feel like a jackass if I haven’t accomplished them. Great post!

By: Hani

Hani — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 09:09:55 +0000

I understand where your’e at with the present self. Many-a-times I find myself there too! :P
However, I usually look to the future me, cuz the past me used to be the present me, so not exactly a great point of reference. And I don’t want my past experience and fears to shape my present and future decisions. So I usually look to the future as a point of focus – like even if i’m feeling lazy, as long as I have a focus point I know where I’m headed..

I have no idea what i’m saying. Does this make sense? o_0

By: Ben Aldern

Ben Aldern — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:37:01 +0000

Julien, I can’t tell you how much I dig your posts. You consistently pick out observations I’ve made and then phrase them elegantly and slap me in the face for not realizing their importance.

Thanks.

By: Ben Ziegler

Ben Ziegler — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:47:07 +0000

Very interesting Julien. Not sure I got my head around your idea (if it took some time for it to gel with you, I’m almost certain I don’t!). Part of connecting past to future though reminds me of an Indian concept of time – imagining time as a spiral (vs. our western linear picture of time) – which opens up the possibility that answers to the future may be somewhere behind us!

By: John McLachlan

John McLachlan — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:59:08 +0000

This is a really fresh way of looking at it and it sure got me thinking.

I spend a lot of time with present me but I think one of the big reasons for this is that the present me is also where I really am, right now. The challenge seems to be, giving time amidst the turmoil of easy distractions to let those other two be a part.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:00:50 +0000

I regularly write notes to my future self and at every milestone in the future, when I arrived at it, my present self reports back to my past self and revise the notes to my future self. I wonder what it’ll be like to talk to my next life.

By: Tamsen

Tamsen — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:20:52 +0000

There’s danger in letting any of the three take over, of course. Each has their siren song: Past Self dwells in what could have been, Present Self dwells in the lush tactility of now, and Future Self sees all that could yet still be.

But each also has lessons: Past makes us what we are, Present sets who we’ll be, and Future shows us a galaxy of lodestars from which to choose. Perhaps that’s why it’s so easy to forsake the Future Self: it deals in abstraction and reality not yet lived–and holds Present accountable.

By: Julien

Julien — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 21:02:41 +0000

Thanks Andrew. It actually took me forever to figure this out. It’s one of those tips I feel like people should be taught it grade school, that’s how much it’s helped me.

By: Andrew Frenette

Andrew Frenette — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:58:35 +0000

Present self has largely obliterated the other two in my life. I’ve become so focused on just day-to-day survival, cloaked in a mask of self imposed limitations, that past and future selves are struggling for air.

Thank you for pointing this out to me. I will endeavour to allow the suppressed selves more frequent opportunities to voice their concerns and aspirations.

As usual, a great post.