Future Proofing You

We’re wired for growth and progress, but we sometimes get so wrapped up in the striving and the goals and the ambition that we fail to meet ourselves where we are.

Feeling stressed? March on.
Feeling overwhelmed? It’ll pass.
Leg/arm/any pain? Ignore it and carry on.
Brain fog? Try to work as if.
Tired? Drink all the coffee, watch all of the Netflix, bedtime
Nervous? Beat yourself up for it.
Burnt out? Don’t renegotiate your expectations of yourself.

All of that stuff is your internal messaging service sending you notifications telling you that all isn’t well. And these are not the sorts of notifications you want to switch off, mute, or snooze-on. They’re the sorts of notifications you want to sit up and really listen to because they really do start getting louder and louder until you do. It’s these notifications that you want to pay attention to, way more than the inbox/social media/app ones, for they’re saying ‘ you’re not feeling totally great, we need to rectify that with immediate effect’.

Meeting ourselves where we are gives us the opportunity to get to the bottom of the ‘why’s’ of what we’re feeling whilst it’s still mild. It gives us the chance to reflect on what’s happened to be the cause so we can address the cause as well as the symptoms. It gives us a juncture to get a handle on the stressor, the habit, the feeling, the choices, before they get a handle on us.

How we deal with, say, stress, matters. But what matters more is identifying the cause to see if there’s anything we can do about that. Jumping in early and quickly with curiosity allows us to make meaningful changes whilst we still have some spoons left. Limiting the stress of that particular stressor, now and in the future. Leaving more for now-you to give to future-you. More progress is made when we meet ourselves where we are – the planned and precise pause instead of the painful and prolonged one we’re so often forced into when we keep on carrying on.

Unlike all other external notifications, when the internal ones start notifying you that somethings adrift and not quite right, jump/react/take care of it. Future-you will thank now-you loads.

Kim Fry
UKSA Welfare Officer