Why do we treat our future selves so badly sometimes? And why don’t we trust our past selves?
I was just thinking about this because I decided to set myself a calendar reminder to do something (marketing stuff – boring!) once a month. I thought that was a good thing for my future self – she’ll be glad I reminded her of something she should be doing but always forgets to.
My first thought was “I’ll probably ignore it” (as I usually do).
Do you do this? How many reminders pop up on your phone or PC and you select “Dismiss all” every time without reading them?
My next thought was “I wouldn’t ignore someone else’s advice, why do I ignore my own??!”. Doing that task monthly is a GOOD IDEA. I know it is, that’s why I want to set the reminder. But then when I get the reminder, I’ll think “Meh, whatever”. I will not trust my past self enough to do what she said. I will not respect my future self enough to put in some work for her so that her SEO doesn’t drop away.
So I’m going to write that reminder, and schedule it. And in it I will write in caps: “STOP DISRESPECTING YOURSELF”. Maybe that will remind me of how important that task really is!