I was listening to the Better off Undead podcast a few days ago (NSFW or human consumption). The host of the show was explaining how on Christmas Eve his mother and daughter were baking muffins when a horrible smell filled the house.
Turns out, some mice had moved into the house and were using the oven as their bathroom. Gross, I know right! Anyway, Johnny went to the store and picked up some mouse traps since the exterminator couldn’t be there for two days.
He and his wife pulled the refrigerator and stove free of the wall and set some traps. During the night they heard the sound of traps going off. Johnny, tired from a busy holiday, drug himself from bed and went to the kitchen. He peered over the stove to see a sprung trap wedged against the back of the refrigerator. He couldn’t tell if a mouse was in it or not. Knowing it would be a pain to retrieve the trap he went back to bed.
His co-host asked, “you went to bed? How could you do that knowing there might be a dead mouse down there?” Johnny replied with a laugh, “I was tired. That trap was future Johnny’s problem.”
I laughed along with the BOU crew, but his statement really made me think. How many times do I worry when there is either nothing I can do about it right now, or I would be better off dealing with it when I am better rested?
In our example, tired Johnny did not know for sure if there was a mouse in the trap. He had two choices.
1. Yank on the refrigerator until he could get to the trap.
2. Go to bed and let a future well rested Johnny deal with whatever was hidden behind the fridge.
How often do we lose sleep over a problem that can’t be dealt with right now? How often when we finally deal with a problem do we realize that it wasn’t even the problem we thought it was?
From now on, when I find myself worrying about something in the middle of the night I know I can’t do anything about I’m going to leave it to my future self.
Work that still needs to be done, housekeeping, homework, bills that need to be paid, did I mention work….
Can you think of any examples where your future self will be better able to handle a problem?