Imagine this, you’re at a cocktail party where everyone there is a past version of yourself. There’s a kid’s play area with all the little kid versions of yourself. There’s a TV room with your angsty teenage selves watching music videos and playing video games. Then there’s dozens of adult you’s walking around, sipping whatever garbage you drank when you were young and broke, representing each of the distinct periods of your life: the insecure college you, trying to look smarter than you actually are; the frustrated and exhausted you from your first job; the you from the first time you fell in love.
Now, this might sound like fun. But I think this “Cocktail Party of You” would actually get quite boring. The reason is that for each version of you that you talk to, you know everything that they know, while they only know a fraction of what you know.
That’s not to say it wouldn’t be endearing. You’d hang out with your awkward teenage self and reassure them not to worry, those painful high school years will pass and things will get better. You’d talk to your arrogant 23-year-old self and compassionately bring them down a notch. You’d talk to your smitten self who had just fallen in love for the first time and bask in the feelings of a new, young relationship—while not disclosing that Mr./Ms. Perfect is about to drag your heart across the pavement and smash it a dozen times with a sledgehammer.
More here – Mark Manson
