Five or ten years from now, you’ll look back on the choices you made - your efforts, your risks and even your hesitations. Will you be grateful for the discipline, learning and persistence? Or will you wish you had been bolder, kinder to yourself, or more willing to take chances?

It’s easy to think of our future selves as distant strangers, but they’re not. They’re just you, shaped by what you do today. Skip the workout and they’ll feel it. Put off learning a skill and they’ll struggle because of it. Stay in a situation that drains you and they’ll be the ones living with the consequences. Your future self isn’t watching from a distance; they’re the one who will deal with whatever you leave behind.

The real question is: What kind of life do you want to hand over to them? Will they have options, freedom and confidence because you laid a strong foundation? Or will they be burdened with problems you avoided, struggling to undo the damage of choices you refused to make? Every moment counts and the sooner you realize that, the better your future will be.