 |
|
|||||
Don't forget gifts for your future self
In this season of gift-giving, with so much emphasis on packages we wrap or open, I'd like to call attention to a different kind of present: the kind you give yourself that defies wrapping, no matter how much ribbon you use.
For lack of a better phrase, I call these the gifts your current self makes to your future self, and I try to set aside presents for the "next me" on a daily basis. A lot of these gifts lean toward the mundane: "Will my future self be glad I kept this knickknack, or will it just have to be dealt with later?" And many are affirmations, such as "If I can take care of these papers now, I'll save my future self a lot of trouble."
OK, so maybe there's something missing in my Wheaties if I'm going around talking about myself in the third person and in more than one tense. That's a problem I'll take up some other time.
Kooky or not, I gain a lot from the idea of making things smoother for myself down the road. If you think about it, the concept of making gifts to our future selves is embedded in our culture. We earn college degrees in hopes of better jobs later, we buy houses to "grow into" and we dutifully tuck away dollars for the retirement we pray will be ours.
These are the kinds of tasks we take on almost without thinking, so certain are we that the prize will justify the price. But if these grand efforts belong to the tradition of gifts we give ourselves, they are not the whole story. The other gifts we "open" at a later date are less measurable but no less meaningful. Some are character traits that we consciously develop. Others are friends we intentionally cultivate, and still others are talents or interests we encourage to blossom.
Are you interested in wrapping a few presents this year for your future self? The following list may help you customize a set of gifts you'll be pleased to open in the decades ahead.
Patience. For job-seekers, this includes the patience to try a strategy for long enough to accurately measure its worth. For career-changers, patience is needed to work at long-term plans, knowing the payoff may not come for years. Like other personal attributes, patience isn't the easiest thing to develop. When you're ready to give up on something, try asking yourself questions such as "How do I know I've waited long enough?" and "What do I gain by giving up now?"
Trust. A close sibling of patience. The ability to trust our own decisions and move forward with confidence is a tremendous gift. To cultivate trust in yourself, start with small decisions that have small consequences and do the work upfront to make the best choice you can. Once your decision is made, don't go back to it; assure yourself you'll have the skills to deal with whatever new outcomes the decision will bring.
Money saved and debts avoided. The money you don't spend now and the debts you don't take on today become the foundation of your financial health in the future. How difficult this simple rule is to follow! If you can't seem to set aside money for savings, at least concentrate on not accruing debt. To help, try this: Sit quietly and imagine how good it would feel to have no debt right now. Savor that feeling, and then vow to make it a reality for your future self by not taking on any new debt from this day forward.
Skills learned. Wouldn't it be fun in five years to speak another language fluently or to be able to swim effortlessly across the lap pool? Maybe you've been held back at work by not having supervisory skills or not understanding technology well enough. Remember that every skill you have was learned. If you're glad now for skills you learned in the past, plan to give your future self similar gifts.
The list of possible gifts to a future self is long and varied: friendships made now that can be enjoyed for a lifetime, health measures that will give you more strength or stamina in later years. Even a good book that you read today can give unexpected returns later.
Gifts to a future self keep on giving.
- Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com or at 1071 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, MN 55102.
