Who do you need to be?
How Reflection on Our Younger Selves Shapes Our Future
Be the person you needed when you were younger.
When we’re young, we have our whole lives ahead of us, and we scramble to piece together what we want that life to look like. We decide in our minds which car we’re going to drive, how big of a house we want, what type of partner we want, and what job we want to work.
These questions are quickly answered by reality. We get out of high school, go to college, and life hits. We lose track of the person we want to become.
I think that’s okay, though, because life isn’t meant to be rigid. It’s a wave of ups and downs, blessings and burdens, pain and joy. It’s a beautiful thing when looked at in retrospect.
Epictetus said, “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
But when life finally slows down, and we reflect on the life we’ve built so far, and we decide what type of person we want to become moving forward, I encourage you to remember the person you needed when you were younger.
Who is that person?
The person you wish you could’ve talked to for hours.
The person who would’ve listened to your problems and struggles.
The person who would’ve given you advice without ulterior motives.
Can you picture that person? I bet you can.
I think the phrase “fake it till you make it” is kind of interesting, because that’s how life is. We act until we become.
An example of this is going to the gym for the first time. You want to be a fit person, so you act like a fit person would—you exercise, you eat healthy, and eventually you become that fit person. You faked it till you made it. You weren’t that fit person when you started, but now you are.
Marcus Aurelius said, “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
So who is the person you needed when you were younger?
Write it out, and live each day as if you were that person. Because if you needed that person when you were younger, I can promise you someone else does right now. And if you can make a difference in one person’s life, that ripple spreads.
At the end of your life, you can look back on the impact you made by becoming the person you needed when you were younger.
1 Timothy 4:12 (KJV) says, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers.”