March 2 | Debts Earned

If a debt is a mortgage on the future, what is the opposite of a debt? 

The easiest answer would be to save. Instead of mortgaging the future, you save in the present so that your future self has more available to them. 

Whether it’s money, health, time, or mental energy, we constantly negotiate with our future selves. We know sitting down to play xbox or watch youtube early in the day will only run up the tab on our afternoons—but sometimes, we make that trade. 

There’s a different way of looking at the same question though. Because saving for the future is not precisely the same thing as incurring debts—to get technical, it would be much closer to say, “spending what you have from the past” is the opposite of “spending what you do not yet have.”

So what if, today, you enjoyed the bounties of your past self?

Did your past self move the seat you were sitting on to it’s current location? Pay for the screen you’re reading this on? Set up the room you’re presently enjoying the comfort of—and enjoy every day?

Looking past the tangibles, what work did your past self do to build the life you now lead? Not the ever-growing list of things to fix, but the undying steel core of those things about yourself that you love—whole, intact, protected at all costs by yourself from the past. 

So no, don’t go running up the credit card on the future…

But maybe take some time today to think about the past, your past, and the brilliant, crazy-hard-working person who made it possible. … Read the rest