Listening to Your Older Self

Many of the most important decisions I ever made were made in my teenage years or early twenties. 

Whom I would marry? Would I follow God? Where I would go to college? What I would major in? Where I would work? 

These were critical decisions that have had a huge impact on my life. 

Fortunately, I had some wise people to help me make the right decision. I refer to them as “my older self.” They are people who have been where I am and are currently where I want to go. 

Here are just 3 Reasons to Identify and Listen to "Your Older Self."

1. They have already navigated through the issues you will face. 

NBA legend Kobe Bryant recently wrote a letter to "his younger self" saying that he would not purely give money and material things to his siblings and friends. After 20 years in the NBA, five championships, millions of dollars, and even more mistakes he realizes things now that he didn’t know as a young man. He now realizes that it wasn’t wise to give them money. He thought he was helping them but now knows he was only crippling them. Many young professional atheletes could benefit from Kobe's wisdom because he has been where they are.

2. It gives you a step up in life.

There is an old saying that “youth is wasted on the young.” 

Having advice from an older or more mature person gives you a step up in life. Instead of making critical decisions from your twenty-year-old mind, you make them from your older self. Your older self has a different perspective. Mark Twain said, “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” The quicker you learn to listen to your older self the more advantage you will have over others who do not.

3. They help you reach the destiny you desire.

You choose your destiny by choosing who you allow to speak into your life. 

I have chosen to be influenced by men who are where I want to be in five to ten years. 

Allowing them to guide my decisions, helped me to navigate toward a destination similar to theirs. 

It amazes me the number of people who seek financial advice from people who are broke or marriage advice from people who are not married. If you choose to listen to people who are successful, chances are, you will be successful. If you choose to listen to people who are not successful then you will likely join them in their disappointing life. 

I'm encouraging you to identify "your older self." Think of someone in your life you feel is living a life that pleases God and that you aspire to live. Make sure this is a person who is at least a little further along than you are in life. Decide today that you will listen to and trust "your older self" even if it doesn’t make sense to you now. Trust me, you will thank yourself later.