“Put two Advil and a Gatorade by the bed. It’s sober-you doing a favor for drunk-you.”

This quip was the cloud parting wisdom being bestowed upon me by an “elder” who was maybe three years older than me.

My early twenties. That fun, terrible combo of wanting to party like I was an undergrad but hold down a real job. 

Hangovers were both more painful and frequent than ever before.

While the obvious answer was not to go out drinking when I had to be up early for work, advice so sensical was not yet welcome.

The sagelike wisdom worked incredibly well.

Drunk-me would stumble in and have the Advil and Gatorade waiting for me by the bed. Even in a stupor, it was pretty easy to follow the directions I had laid out for myself.

It also worked wonders for my ability to crawl out of bed and function the next morning.

It wasn’t until years later that I realized that this same thinking could yield exponential returns in all aspects of my life.

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Always do favors for your future self. 

I’ve written about the net present value of decisions and focusing on long-term value.

I’ve written about how much fulfillment and joy we get from the act of giving.

Doing favors for yourself simply combines the two.

You aren’t going to the gym today because you want to.

You are going to the gym so you can be a mobile grandparent. 

Doing favors for yourself is not only preventing future regret but also maximizing future happiness. It’s putting things in motion today that yield exponential returns in the future.

And you are the sole beneficiary. 

Suppose you continuously think about future-me and frequently do favors for future-me.

You are setting future-me up for levels of health, wealth, and happiness that may otherwise seem unattainable.

And you will have no one to thank – but yourself.