Episode Details

Most people never think about that person. The one waiting out there in the years ahead. They live for the week in front of them, for the feeling they want right now, and they leave the future version of themselves to clean up whatever they didn't want to deal with.

Uploaded 15-10-26

Tonight I want to talk about the opposite. The small things, the ordinary things you can do today that the person you become will look back on with gratitude. Not regret. Gratitude.

Here is the truth: your future is not built out of grand gestures. It is built out of what you do on a Tuesday afternoon when nobody is watching and nothing feels urgent. The future self is the sum of today's small choices, repeated.

This seminar walks through 10 things you must understand about the gifts you can plant today for the person you are going to be.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro — the person waiting for you
2:01 #1 — Move your body
4:07 #2 — Save a little money
6:37 #3 — Read every day
9:21 #4 — Say the words to the people you love
11:21 #5 — Learn a new skill
14:23 #6 — Protect your sleep
17:51 #7 — Keep a promise to yourself
20:35 #8 — Forgive someone
23:51 #9 — Handle the thing you've avoided
25:54 #10 — Be present where you are
28:20 Close — pick two and begin tonight

THE GROUND GIVES BACK WHAT YOU PLANT

The person who plants carefully, day after day, year after year, ends up standing in an orchard. The person who plants nothing ends up standing in an empty field, calling it bad luck. That is a hard law, and it is also the most hopeful one there is, because it means you are not at the mercy of fate. The person you will be at sixty is being decided right now, in the choices you think don't matter.

WHY THE ORDINARY EVENING CARRIES THE WHOLE WEIGHT

None of these require money you don't have or talent you weren't born with. They ask only that you take the long view — that you act today on behalf of somebody you haven't met yet. A body built one walk at a time. Self-trust rebuilt one kept promise at a time. A heart made lighter by setting one grudge down. Each gift is given or withheld in the present, and that future self cannot go back and do what you failed to do. They can only live inside whatever you leave them.

WHAT TO DO TONIGHT

Take a short walk before the day is over.
Set aside a small amount of money, automatically, before you can spend it.
Read ten pages of something that grows you.
Make the call you have been putting off and say the words out loud.
Keep one small promise to yourself, no matter how little you feel like it.

—
Inspired by the teachings of Jim Rohn.

#jimrohn #motivation #selfdevelopment #discipline #futureself

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