Here is my quickly and anxiously written summary of this Ted Talk:
Motivational videos, audio, etc creates the ideal version of yourself in your head. It’s a lovely goal to strive for and it will get you sprinting at the beginning, but it’s unsustainable due to the unpredictability of life.
However, once you fail to meet your higher goal
(because your partner drank too much last night and now you feel you must forgo your planned day to attend to her needs),
you pass today’s responsibilities to your future self, which, seems okay. Because you were on fire and you think you can always recapture that intensity tomorrow.
But what’s tomorrow? Like, the word
tomorrow.
What does the word tomorrow mean?
Tomorrow’s definition will remain the same tomorrow as it does today, which is the day after today. So today tomorrow appears like it’s going to happen today, but it’s happening tomorrow, and when today comes, as it’s happening right now, it’s still not tomorrow. And it never will be tomorrow today.
To be direct, right now is the only thing you can control. It’s nice to make a plan for tomorrow and consciously modify them today , but they are nothing but mental masturbation if the plan is ignored when it should be implemented.
Then that will weaken your self-image, by a little, which will make your next goal a little smaller and your plan
a little easier to ignore.
Do what’s best for you at this moment, be the good co-worker and take an hour of your future self shift today, he will be thanking you for tomorrow’s yesterday’s kind gesture.
With Love and Sincerity,
Jose Michael Rubio