What gifts are you giving Future You?

You know that marshmallow test they did with a group of kids back in the ‘70s? The one where they tested ability for delayed gratification by saying, “You can have this one marshmallow now, or you can have two if you wait.”

I would have been one of the one-marshmallow kids, no doubt about it. I might not have even waited for the end of the instructions before gobbling it down.

Living for the future at the expense of what I want right now has never been my forte. It’s like it’s always a surprise that tomorrow shows up, and it’s still me – only now I have to deal with the decisions I made yesterday.

To counter that tendency, and to help me develop a little more of a future mindset, one of the things I started doing is “giving gifts to Future Curt.”

Those gifts might be just about anything, from investing in developing skills and expertise I can use in pursuit of my vision for changing the world from the inside out, to deciding to forego an impulse purchase because I’m saving for something I really want, to something as small as bringing my reading glasses from my home office over to my reading nook so I have them available when I settle into my reading chair.

I try to recognize myself for the gift to reinforce that future orientation. “Thanks Past Curt!” has become a regular refrain.

I love the idea of creating a kind of relationship with our present (and soon to be past) selves and our future selves as a way of shaping and guiding the decisions and directions we take today.

Try this: Do a daily Future Self gift experiment.

Start by making a list of all the ways you can think of to give Future You a gift. It might be seeds you can plant that Future You will reap the rewards of (like saving money, or exercising). It could be something that makes your future life a little easier (like cleaning or organizing). Or it could be doing something now so you don’t have to do it then (I’m always delighted when I don’t have to get up out of my reading chair and go over to my office to get my reading glasses).

Each day, try to do one thing that is a gift to Future You. More is fine if you’re consumed by a gift-giving frenzy, but at least one.

You might, for example:

Get the coffee ready to brew the night before, so all you have to do is push a button.
Add money to a savings jar.
Eat something healthy, or refrain from high-sugar crap (OK, I’m still working on that last bit).
Refrain from buying that thing you don’t need and put that money in the bank instead.
Sign up for a course to develop a skill that will be beneficial to where you want to go and achieve.
Reach out to connect with a potential mentor.
Spend five minutes meditating.
Say no to a request so you have more time for something you care about.

The possibilities are pretty much endless.

One way to start priming the pump for noticing gifts to give Future You is to scan through broad areas like: