As a teacher, I work to inspire, excite, and encourage the minds of my students. Most of the time we end up having Life Lessons Seminars. I make sure to label it as the Language part of English Language Arts and Reading. Today we dove deep into communication and how it is a two-way street, how to make sure we communicate effectively, and more. It was great.

But one thing I say to them is, “Your future is calling and they want to thank you for what you are doing right now!” 

I use this line to let them know I see them working hard or a clever way to say, you are not doing anything productive and I need you to get to work.

I have to do this with myself in all areas! Over the weekend, my body was shutting down. Although I felt I needed to do so much work, an image flashed of me going to the hospital or super sick if I didn’t rest. So I allowed myself to rest for the most part and I can imagine my future self, thanking me to take that much-needed rest.  

While in a program called City Year, I learned this idea called, a Ripple Effect, and it has stuck with me ever since. I realize that the moves and the choices I make will cause a ripple effect not to only myself but to others as well! My health and how I take care of it affects my future children, my family and me. Not stepping up to the plate can affect the future career choices that will be available for me. Not investing in myself now can send you down a whole other path. 

Although we do not know what the future holds, the things we do in the present can and will affect us and our future. 

So I ask you, beautiful people, what are you doing NOW where your future self could call you and thank you for? 

7 Things You Can Do Now That Your Future Self Will Thank You For

1. Change How You Let People Talk To You– This can look so many ways, maybe you are letting too many people get to close which distracts you from going a direction you really want to go. It could be literally how they talk to you, maybe they talk down to you or complaining to you about others, or whatever, start shutting that down because the wrong people in your ear will drain and distract you. 
2. Don’t Make Excuses, Make Adjustments– Many people complain just to complain, but the issue is they don’t try to solve their problem. If you are going to complain about something be sure to have solutions to fix the issue. One of my students that hate school and learning will try to prove to me why homework is bad and why school is not useful by showing me videos of what others say. I told him he hears what he wants to hear, but as a way to support him, I said don’t complain to me or make excuses as to why you didn’t do the work, come up with a solid plan with supporting FACT BASED evidence and I will support you. Crickets… 
3. Tap Into Your Gifts and Skills to Take You Places- Don’t be afraid of those God-Given gifts! I know it is hard putting yourself out there, but you have those gifts for a reason. It definitely isn’t for you to keep it wrapped up, it is for you to connect and help others. Do you know how many people you can help and how many opportunities you will have if you really honed in our your skills and talents and ALLOWED them to take you to higher heights?
4. Be Kind and Love On Yourself More- There are plenty of people that are mean to you and hate you and you may or may not even know it, however, you cannot control what they think about you. You can only control what you think and how you treat yourself! Give yourself grace and encourage yourself, I promise you will feel so much better. 
5. Expose Yourself to New Experiences– One of the prompts we talked about today said, “Write an essay explaining why learning helps people become more tolerant.” and one of the reasons they came up with was that you can gain new experiences. Exposing yourself to new experiences promotes growth mentally and spiritually. How do you learn new things about yourself if you don’t put yourself in situations that take you out your comfort zone? You never will tap into all that potential if you stay safe doing the same things over and over again. 
6. Braindump– One of my students overthink everything, they can never get what is in their head and heart out. They struggle with finding the right words which trap them in their own prison. I encouraged them to braindump daily! Write in a journal about anything. Get the thoughts out of your head so you can free up space. You will feel so much lighter.
7. Get Some Rest- Our bodies weren’t made to always be on the go. Our bodies need time to revitalize and heal after the beating it has taken from the many conversations we have with people, the stress from crazy drivers, being overworked and underpaid, inhaling the chemicals and germs floating in the atmosphere, the toxic chemicals we consume from the food we eat, and so much more. Our bodies deserve rest so it can reset! Don’t get that rest, your body will force you then time on this earth will become shorter, and we want to make sure your future self that is calling is alive and well! 

Those are just a few tips I wanted to share with you so that you can cause a ripple effect, a POSITIVE one, where your future self will be thrilled to call you and say thank you soooo much for doing XYZ, it allowed us to ______________ and we are doing some dope things here in the future! 

Hope you are encouraged and ready to take steps into making your future brighter! Be sure to head over to Bougie University where we are Designing a Life We Love! Remember we have a Podcast and a Private Facebook Group! 

Let’s connect!!! 

Peace and Blessings! Be sure to share this!! 

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