When Will [I] Ever Learn?

I wrote a letter to myself about ten months ago. It was a reminder to myself about how I get lost in the day-to-day of my life and, conversely, how powerful I can be when I take care of myself. 

I didn’t open the letter for months. 

In fact, it arrived sometime in January and I’ve just looked at the envelope too afraid to open it. I wasn’t ready to open it because I knew I hadn’t been living in the way the author of the letter hoped I’d be living. 

In any case, I opened it yesterday. There I was speaking to my future self trying to get the point across. For me, a core value is freedom. In a quest to find it in entrepreneurship, I’ve ironically given it all away. Thankfully I’ve got reminders like this and much more awareness and many more tools to navigate times like this. Nonetheless, I still fail to learn from my own painful experiences. 

I write all this because I think I’m far from special in this regard. We’ve got to protect ourselves from our own worst habits at times. If you think you might have a bad habit that’s getting in your way, I’d encourage you to write yourself a letter when you have a moment of clarity. Hand it to a friend and ask them to mail it in a few months. If you’re like me, you’ll need to hear it.