Your own spinach

Remember Popeye, the sailor? He's a fictional character that starred in comic strips and television cartoons when we were kids. In moments of despair, he would pop open the ever-handy cans of spinach from his shirt pocket and gobble them down. Spinach would 10x his strength and agility. He would grow muscles 💪 , fight his rival, and save the day. 

What if we had an evergreen (pun intended) supply of spinach for our toughest times?

Turns out we do. We just keep it buried deep down in our memories.

It's time to take out your own spinach.

If you have been reading this newsletter, you'd know that I often write letters to my future self. Writing frees my mind, in present. For my future self, it's a source of amusement. I tend to forget what I wrote most time. I have received letters from my super excited, sad, and even angry past selves. But my favorite of all the letters I received starts like this:

5 tough situations I thought were impossible to get out but I still did..

As I read through the list, it gives me strength. Much like Popeye's spinach. Maybe Popeye didn't really like the taste of spinach, just like I hated those situations when I was living them. It's only after you're done bearing the bitter taste of life, it offers you immense power, the power to beat the toughest of situations.

It's not an external power. It's not an inspirational talk of a motivational speaker. It's not a teacher or coach preaching to you. It's your own life experience. It's about how you beat the worst situations before.

You could do it then, you can definitely do it now. Getting inspired by your past self is the best can of spinach you can offer your current self. 

Go on, create that list, and save it for the tough days. Your future self will thank you.