Adulting Right with "Future Me"

 "Future me will thank you for this."

It's become my mantra of late. We're in the process of saving up for a house, so I've really been trying to keep my spending at a minimum. Whenever I find myself browsing Steam games or pondering my next electronics splurge, I have to remind myself that future me (i.e. the me still renting in five years) won't be happy.

Money is an easy example, but I'm finding this advice pretty useful in my daily life. I've been trying to motivate myself to write more, but I'm never ready to hit the "publish" button. To overcome that hurdle, I wrote as a quick post as I could about the first thing that came to mind. Even then, I continued to procrastinate until I told myself, "Future me will thank you!"

My initial reward came the moment I woke up the next day. Upon remembering that I'd finished that post, I smiled and thanked past me.

It's a very meta experience.

Only at that point did it occur to me that future me is a psychological substitute for an authority figure. Instead of doing something for a parent, teacher, manager, etc. I'm doing something for a different me who has already made this decision. My obligation is to myself, but not my present self.

It starts with an exercise in positive visualization: in this scenario, I am subordinate to a hypothetical future version of myself. Since present me is smart enough (usually) to learn by judging past actions, my theory (hope) is that my future self will continue to improve. With that in mind, I try to extrapolate what future me might think about my current situation.

On the other end, I also get to play the authority figure. I can look back at the goals I've accomplished so far, nod approvingly, and take pride in my achievements--I really do end up thanking myself. Often repeatedly. And it's satisfying every time.

Making assertions about future me is just a reminder to myself that perspective is always skewed toward the present. It's a great way of mapping out my goals, because it forces me to recognize the personal consequences of my actions: Would future me approve of this?

I had a dream recently that I was looking at a bank account with half a million dollars in it. Clearly, future me is dropping hints.

But right now, I'm thanking past me for the inspiration to write this post. If you found anything here insightful or helpful, leave a comment and subscribe! Future you will thank you.