how to wake up?

It's easy to spend most of your life without living a single day of it.

We think we're living, but mostly we're just reacting—solving problems as they pop up, bouncing between distractions, burning through our mental fuel. Work, social media, news: they pull us in, and suddenly it's night again. You try to squeeze in a few pages of a book before sleep, but tomorrow looks a lot like today.

A lot of advice about mindfulness boils down to this:pick the man you want to become, and act for that person.But does that future self ever actually show up? Or do you keep pushing the goalpost, always chasing some improved you that never quite arrives? Maybe it depends on what you want out of life. I know I'm healthier than I was last year. Am I happier? I don't know. But I feel closer to the person I want to be.

So maybe choosing your future self is worth it.

Self-preservation sneaks in, too. Sometimes I skip swimming because my throat hurts and I don't want to make things worse. Is that smart? Probably. But I've learned it pays to pause before making decisions where the risks are fuzzy. In those moments, I'm still picking my future self—sometimes the one a week from now, not just tomorrow. The rule here seems simple:between two versions of you, pick the one further ahead.

. . .

Mindfulness, to me, is knowing your path so well that it feels natural. It's not about fighting habits—it's about not needing to. Some call that healthy routines, but I think it's more. Brushing your teeth is a habit; you do it for your future self without thinking. But a mindful choice is a real choice. You decide not to watch TV, not to smoke. You switch off autopilot and actually steer.

The catch is that mindful choices demand mindful planning. You have to make yourself think about what you're doing.

Sometimes I notice I've planned to spend the evening on Twitch. That's not mindful; that's just default. When you're tired, you don't want to plan—you just want to shut your brain off.

So it seems like mindful planning matters more than mindful action. Mindful action can become a habbit, while your plans grow as you grow.

Maybe the hardest part is that you even have to plan your planning. On tough, busy days, finding an hour for real strategy feels impossible. But if you want to live with your eyes open, that's the hour that counts most.

So the wake up process is the following:

• •Make mindful planning a habit.
• •Pause and really think before choosing for your future self.
• •Treat anything you do on autopilot with suspicion.

And let your future self never thank you