Making friends with your past and future selves

Instead, when I need to make a decision, I try to look to the future. I look to the one-hundred-year-old version of myself. The version of myself near the end of his life. The person who understands what it’s like to be on the doorstep of death.

I have to let go of dreams I entertained in my younger days, not solely because the clock is ticking but also because those dreams don’t make sense to me anymore.

• I’m always torn between what society says someone my age should be doing, the fear of not knowing what my future self might need and living in the present.

couldn’t possibly do this” syndrome only grows stronger with age. It also creates a formidable sense of path dependency, or the narrative that you are on a certain path, and the best—if not only—option is to stay on it. But path dependency prevents you from exploring opportunities that could lead to a better and more fulfilling life. You’ll never k

You can also imagine an older and wiser version of yourself—perhaps ten, twenty, or thirty years down the road.