Be Kind to Your Future Self

If you've read my book or various articles I've written on habits that lead to a happy, successful life, you'll find organization and predictability as recurring themes that set the stage for mental and physical well being and therefore, a firm foundation from which happiness can grow.

But how do we create this firm foundation for ourselves when the world around us is indeed, so unpredictable?

While it is true, there are some aspects of human life that are beyond our control, but most respond quite well to our intervention. That is, if we learn and employ habits that demonstrate compassion and respect for our "Future Self".

We may not be aware of it, but much of our day is mindlessly spent in self-sabotaging activities that undermine our future safety, success and happiness. Here are some examples:

��� Stretching an extension cord from a wall to a space heater that spans a traffic area in your home. thoughtlessly setting yourself up for a future accident.

Solution: Plan a route for the cord that will heat the desired space, while remaining safely tucked under furniture or adjacent to baseboards. 

��� Going on a spending spree for gifts or personal items and thoughtlessly placing those purchases on a credit card. Only later, when the bill comes, does the reality of that indiscretion hit home, knocking your budget for rent, food and other expenses out of whack. 

Solution: Plan ahead for needed or desired items by placing a few dollars a week into reserve. For an example, start in June, socking away money for Christmas gifts. 

��� Letting laundry, dishes and clutter pile up in bedrooms, hallways and the garage. Convinced you lack the time to clean and put things away in a timely manner, you spend mental energy attempting to ignore the accumulating mess. You're eventually forced to deal with the piles when friends or family call to request an impromptu visit. 

Solution: Wash dishes after meals, keep bathroom counter tops clean and organized; spend 1 minute cleaning the bathtub ring after a soak; deal with bills and other documents at least once a week, keeping files up to date and desks clear of clutter. 

��� You feel disliked or misunderstood by family, friends and associates. Isolated and alone, increasingly unable to relate to those in your midst. As you review the past year, you recall being angry and unrestrained in your dealings with others. You've come to the realization that your frustration and dissatisfaction with life has caused you to lash out and drive important people away from you.

Solution: Maintain business and personal relationships in good standing. Clear up outstanding debts, work to resolve disagreements, stay in touch by phone or email for no particular reason, reach out, letting loved ones know how important they are. 

Conclusion: Our lives, like our cars, homes and pets, require ongoing maintenance. By attending to these various aspects of our lives, we are in essence extending compassion to ourselves in the future, as well as the present.

Conversely, by ignoring or deferring tasks until "later", we force ourselves to cope with an even bigger problem when it is much less convenient. 

It can sometimes seem as if life is overly complex and unmanageable, but in reality, we have much more control over how our daily lives play out than we often assume.

By developing good "organizational hygiene" we ensure that our lives hum along like a well-tuned engine.

When we no longer have to waste our energy dealing with emergencies, those personal resources can be spent on creative, fun and spontaneous activities that contribute to a happy life. 

-Shane Eric Mathias