Member-only story
Breaking out of the instant gratification cycle
Taking care of me six months from now.
It’s insanely hard for me to imagine that things I’m doing now are shaping who I am even a month from now, much less six months.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’d rather get some kind of satisfaction now instead of later. I’ll eat that pizza, lounge around watching TV, or play video games all day sometimes. Because of that, I’m stuck with “I should do…” or “It’d be nice if…” in regards to money, my weight, fashion, work ethics.
You’ve more than likely heard of instant gratification. But did you know, if they could, I’d be the poster woman for it. A lot of the things I’ve done or made habits of were because I liked being rewarded for it immediately instead of rewarding future me that I didn’t even know.
I grew up poor. Poor enough that we would never eat outside of our home or get any kind of presents outside of Christmas or birthdays.So poor, that once I got on my own and started making money, I wanted to treat myself. All the time. It was a cycle of going out to eat or buying something new for myself while also really wanting to lose weight or go on that vacation. Since I was used to not having money or having it suddenly disappear from some random problem, I wanted to make sure I had fun now instead of having issues later.
