With Valentine's Day coming up, I thought I'd write about one of the most important and complicated kinds of love. The idea was inspired by a different episode of Dr. Laurie Santos' The Happiness Lab from the one I based the last five posts on. This episode is called "Does the You of Today Hate the You of Tomorrow?"
Think for a minute about how much Halloween candy you might have eaten as a child had no adult put any limits in place. Most little kids live in the moment, doing exactly what they want without thinking about the repercussions. Once we hit a certain age, however, the balancing act always seems to be between how much I allow myself to enjoy this moment knowing the consequences and how much I control myself so that future me will get everything she wants. Similarly, when I'm deciding about upcoming events, I have to guess how much Future Carita will be excited about that activity.
As a planner, I always lean more towards taking care of Future Carita, but I get that Present Carita also has needs and desires. The one place I don't love Future Carita as I should is when I commit her to things that Present Carita has no desire to do. I liked the reminder in the podcast that if I'm too busy to do something now, or if Present Carita has no desire to do the activity, I should NOT agree that Future Carita will take it on. She's likely to be just as busy as I am. She's likely to have similar tastes to mine.
In what ways can you take care of and love Future You today? Please share your suggestions in the comments.