Be Your Own Butler 🧐

Or, let your Future Self thank your Present Self

“Tomorrow Tsh will be so thankful for Right-Now Tsh.” I can’t say that I’ve ever said this out loud, but lately, I have been thinking it. I’ve recommended this idea to my students for years now, but only recently have I noticed my need to make this notion more real in my own life.

The Kitchen Maid, by Jan Vermeer (1658)

The concept is simple: What small thing can you do right now that your future self will be glad you did? After all, we only have control over our present selves—the best thing that regret over our past selves can do is serve as a teacher to the here and now (and a good teacher it is, if we listen!). Our future selves don’t exist yet; they’re there, if you believe in the idea that time isn’t linear and/or that God is the author and perfecter of our faith (and therefore already has that whole future stuff mapped out)¹. But the only version of our selves that we have any agency over is the present.

So. What can our right-now selves do to make our future selves proud of us? What can our past selves teach us? Here’s a quick example.