Thinking Ahead

It seems that so many things that you should have done earlier in life become obvious to you only later, perhaps even “too late” with regard to doing certain activities. Some examples are, for example, that I wish I had taken certain classes and read more of the assigned books when I had all of the free time I had in college. Another example is that you might wish you were more comfortable and aggressive with meeting new people when you were younger, now that you understand that there are a lot of lonely people and you have a better idea of the type of things they are looking for in others.

A thought experiment I sometimes use to avoid this scenario is to imagine that I am 20 or 30 years older than I am now. I think back to the things I am presently doing with my time (as limited as it may be), and then I think about the things that perhaps I “wish I had done” with the time instead. It is like having a conversation with myself in the future. It is surprising how quickly I can come up with a handful of simple things to consider. Likewise, I think that if I had tried this thought process when I was younger, in some cases I would have made some better decisions on a day-to-day basis.