What Are You Doing Now to Make Your Future Better?
Somebody once told me the definition of Hell:
On your last day on earth, the person you became
will meet the person you could have become.
- Anonymous
The future…she’s a-comin’. Want her to or not, she’s already barreling down on you—a locomotive made of time and space. You can’t stop her. You can’t beat her. There’s no defense to slow her down, even a little, and keep the passing of time farther away, the passing that leads to our future.
But, BUT, there is something you can do.
It doesn’t take bravery. It doesn’t take courage. It doesn’t take money or effort. All it takes is the amalgamation of three things—that beautiful device we call a “brain”; that amazing, ethereal spark we call a “mind”; and the unique and wonderful “you”—to become ONE, and in one understanding. That understanding is… “the future is coming.”
That’s it. Completely and utterly understand that the future is coming. The future is coming. THE FUTURE IS COMING! And, the greatest gift to you, to me, to us all, the greatest gift is it isn’t here yet! Ya get that? She hasn’t come yet. What does that mean to you? What do you do with that information, that understanding?
You get to make the future what you want it to be!
You get to stand in your own shoes, a day from now, a week, a month, your life, and live the life you created for yourself. You get to build your future-self! You get to make you. You get to make your life. You get to shape your life, your family’s life, the lives of those around you, and possibly the lives of the whole breadth and width of civilization.
You get to be quoted by people in times and places you can’t even imagine. You get to have your likeness literally blasted with dynamite into the side of a mountain and turned into a National Park for people to visit and pay homage. Or, if mountain faces aren’t your thing, guess what? You don’t have to go down that road. You know why you don’t? Because, it’s your choice. Make what you want, and all you have to do is completely understand the future is coming.
The future is coming, and you get a say!
I have a future-self. I call him “End-of-[insert month] Adam.” As of the day I write this, his name is “End-of-April Adam.” And, End-of-April Adam is a kinder, more loving, more giving, more happy, more healthy, and more fit version of, well, let’s say “Now Adam.” Now Adam is a sloucher. Now Adam would like a Whataburger sandwich any time. Now Adam would like to tell his wife he “worked out for the day” and just really lock himself up in the room, wasting time online, just skirting by until the morning coffee’s ready.
That’s what Now Adam wants. But, BUT, Now Adam knows, he understands, End-of-April Adam is waiting. End-of-April Adam is standing at the end of a road (when I say the name of my future self, this is literally the picture that comes to mind), and he’s looking back down the road, looking back at Now Adam. End-of-April Adam has his arms crossed, slightly leaning, with this smirk on his face. That smirk is saying one of two things without End-of-April Adam actually speaking. It’s saying, “I knew you had it in you all along, my boy!” Or, it’s saying, “Really? Again? Are you ever going to get it right?”
And when I imagine End-of-April Adam and Now Adam at the same time, I also see the road blurring passed and that time when Now Adam will become End-of-April Adam, that merging. It will be the time when I will literally become the me from a month from now! I will get to become End-of-April Adam, and I will get to look back at Now Adam, who is in the past, and I get to relive all the memories, all the successes and failures, I experienced.
What will I think of myself at that moment?
You know what else happens? Because, remember, the future…she’s a-comin’. End-of-April Adam, in a brief movement, turns to look forward down the road, to the future. End-of-April Adam will become Now Adam. And that Adam will be looking at End-of-May Adam. And, he’ll be wearing that damn smirk.