I had one of those rolling around mornings where I woke up, laid in bed, started to think about getting up and then drifted back into dreaming. Rinse, repeat. Eventually when I was more awake, I started indulging in one of my bad habits which is imagining that I can go back in time and right all our familial wrongs and tragedies.
I take a messed up relative to a good NLP practitioner. (This requires forward as well as backward time travel.) I warn the other relatives about the plane. It gets more complicated as I realize that I am going to have to bring other current people back with me because they are so darn stubborn that they will never listen to some stranger that looks sort of like me who says they come from the future.
It gets further complicated because, say I save my dad from dying, well, what about the man my mom is very happily married to now? What about babies that have been born that might not have been born if “mistakes” hadn’t been made in the past. At a certain point the present has enough good in it, that you can’t mess around in the past anymore… I give up on those difficult questions, come back from the past, and finally decide to do the sensible thing and go forward in time to when I am about 50 and then travel back in time and give my current self some advice I can use.
50 year old advice to my 33 year old self:
1. Protect your skin, do facial exercises, start yoga now! It’s so much more enjoyable to be flexible. Eat healthy and exercise, but don’t stress- do it in moderation. Eat yummy food.
2. Learn something new. Develop your talents. It’s fun to be skilled. It leads to some of the greatest joy in life to do something well. Then you can do it with others. Then you can improvise and know the joy of creatiing.
3. I know you want to contribute to the world in the absolute best way. Choose something now! Don’t agonize. You can always change your mind. Everything you learn now will lay the foundation for the next thing you do. The only time wasted is the time spent agonizing over a decision.
4. Money. Save your money girlfriend. Don’t be fooled by compound interest. It is not linear. Get out of debt and save your pennies. Invest (in companies that you can fully support) and stop renting as soon as possible.
5. You know those relationships, jobs, etc that you justify? Get out. If you will look back and wonder why you stayed so long, get out. At the same time, take advantage of the good things in whatever situation you are in.
6. Inner work. Every bit of inner peace, increased skillfullness, etc that you gain will make every single day of your life better. You know that from past experience. It is worth spending the time to develop emotionally and mentally.
7. Relationships-all you need is love, da, da, da, da, da. I know hanging out with your Grandad doesn’t seem important. You like it, but you feel like you should be doing something to benefit humanity. Don’t worry, love is where it’s at, sister. Love your family, spend time with them, spend time with your friends, develop more and more real connections. I don’t know if it’s important in a cosmic way, but it is vital in a human way. It is the thing. It is the important thing.
I love you! Have a great time! Don’t waste any time being miserable when you can help it! Life can really be beautiful when you are sensible.
(Oh yeah, also, be sure and save your work, ’cause on November 28th your computer is going to disconnect from the internet and if you don’t save, your going to have to retype all my advice.)
Love,
Your imagined 50 year old self
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