The 10 Year Challenge: Making meaning out of a seemingly frivolous internet fad
In case you've been living under a rock (or you don't use Facebook (or both)), you probably know about the 10 Year Challenge, in which people are challenged to post pictures of themselves from 10 years ago so they can compare what they look like now vs. 10 years ago. Real "ground-breaking" stuff here, I know, but it's the latest viral internet/FB trend and one can't help but notice.
I myself have not participated in the Facebook 10 Year Challenge. Why? For one thing, I already know I look better now than I did 10 years ago. I weigh less. I'm in better shape. I dress better. I might have slightly less hair than I did in 2009 but even at 29 I was basically bald. I don't feel the need to share this with everyone.
Besides, to me what's far more interesting is where I was at mentally 10 years ago. For most people this can be a very difficult thing to pinpoint. It's just really, really difficult to get an accurate handle on what was going on in your mind at a particular time. You can guess, broadly, but memory has a way of distorting things. How do I know this? Because I have been keeping a journal off and on since the age of about 10. Therefore I not only have a written record of what my mental state was at any given time in my life, but I also have an almost iron-clad way to debunk any myths I might have about my past.
On the rare occasions that I go back and re-read my journals, just for the heck of it (it's a far, far more boring endeavor than you might imagine), I am always shocked at how my current assumptions about a particular time in my life are false. If you want proof of how memory distorts things, start keeping a journal.
So, I did my own sort of 10 Year Challenge, by going back and revisiting my journal entries from 10 years ago. I didn't find anything very outrageous or even that interesting. What I found, instead, was that aside from the details -- where I was living, what I was doing for work, who I was spending time around -- I'm pretty much the same as I was back then. The same kinds of things occupied my mind, and I thought about things in roughly the same way. That's not to say I haven't learned anything in 10 years. I've learned a LOT. And done a lot. In fact, the past 10 years (my 30s) have been without a doubt the best and most productive decade of my life, in every sense possible. But that's not what this is about. This is about taking a mental snapshot of where I was 10 years ago.
As I already alluded to above, not much has changed. I still have the same cycles of thoughts, worry, stress, dreams, plans, action [repeat, ad nauseam] as I did back then. I really have not "changed" that much. The important difference between me now and me back then is I've learned how to be a bit more efficient with my time and energy, and learned how to channel my anxiety and stress into more productive ways, i.e. working out in order to relieve stress, instead of drinking (most of the time).
What is my conclusion here? Fundamentally, we are who we are. Ultimately, we cannot change that much, but we can get better at being who we are.
For better or for worse, we are all a certain "type" of person. For example, I'm always going to be someone who over-thinks things to the -nth degree. That's a part of me, just like having brown eyes or (thinning) brown hair. But over the years I've learned how to cope with my anxiety, learned how to ignore certain thoughts or recognize when I'm over-thinking something and pull back, ask for advice, do something to change my thought-waves, write about it, whatever. I cannot stop being an over-thinker, but I can get better at being an over-thinker.
This is not an effortless process, mind you. Just like it's not an accident that I look better and feel better now than I did 10 years ago. It took hard work. Really hard work. And sacrifices. Some permanent sacrifices. Saying "bye-bye" to things that were fun for me once but were hurting me in the long run. What I'm saying is: Self-improvement does not come easy. Not in the mental or physical sense. And no, I'm not trying to toot my own horn or proclaim myself a self-help guru.
I am saying, basically, that the 10 Year Challenge -- although seemingly kind of a toss-off Facebook phenomenon -- can actually be a great motivator if you are willing to dig into it. When you put your 2009 and 2019 photos together, do you like what you see? That's an important question. However, the most important question is: Are you any better at being you, today, than you were in 2009? If not, then maybe the 10 Year Challenge is a good time to take stock of what's working and what's not...and get to work on yourself on your own terms.
I myself have not participated in the Facebook 10 Year Challenge. Why? For one thing, I already know I look better now than I did 10 years ago. I weigh less. I'm in better shape. I dress better. I might have slightly less hair than I did in 2009 but even at 29 I was basically bald. I don't feel the need to share this with everyone.
Besides, to me what's far more interesting is where I was at mentally 10 years ago. For most people this can be a very difficult thing to pinpoint. It's just really, really difficult to get an accurate handle on what was going on in your mind at a particular time. You can guess, broadly, but memory has a way of distorting things. How do I know this? Because I have been keeping a journal off and on since the age of about 10. Therefore I not only have a written record of what my mental state was at any given time in my life, but I also have an almost iron-clad way to debunk any myths I might have about my past.
On the rare occasions that I go back and re-read my journals, just for the heck of it (it's a far, far more boring endeavor than you might imagine), I am always shocked at how my current assumptions about a particular time in my life are false. If you want proof of how memory distorts things, start keeping a journal.
So, I did my own sort of 10 Year Challenge, by going back and revisiting my journal entries from 10 years ago. I didn't find anything very outrageous or even that interesting. What I found, instead, was that aside from the details -- where I was living, what I was doing for work, who I was spending time around -- I'm pretty much the same as I was back then. The same kinds of things occupied my mind, and I thought about things in roughly the same way. That's not to say I haven't learned anything in 10 years. I've learned a LOT. And done a lot. In fact, the past 10 years (my 30s) have been without a doubt the best and most productive decade of my life, in every sense possible. But that's not what this is about. This is about taking a mental snapshot of where I was 10 years ago.
As I already alluded to above, not much has changed. I still have the same cycles of thoughts, worry, stress, dreams, plans, action [repeat, ad nauseam] as I did back then. I really have not "changed" that much. The important difference between me now and me back then is I've learned how to be a bit more efficient with my time and energy, and learned how to channel my anxiety and stress into more productive ways, i.e. working out in order to relieve stress, instead of drinking (most of the time).
What is my conclusion here? Fundamentally, we are who we are. Ultimately, we cannot change that much, but we can get better at being who we are.
For better or for worse, we are all a certain "type" of person. For example, I'm always going to be someone who over-thinks things to the -nth degree. That's a part of me, just like having brown eyes or (thinning) brown hair. But over the years I've learned how to cope with my anxiety, learned how to ignore certain thoughts or recognize when I'm over-thinking something and pull back, ask for advice, do something to change my thought-waves, write about it, whatever. I cannot stop being an over-thinker, but I can get better at being an over-thinker.
This is not an effortless process, mind you. Just like it's not an accident that I look better and feel better now than I did 10 years ago. It took hard work. Really hard work. And sacrifices. Some permanent sacrifices. Saying "bye-bye" to things that were fun for me once but were hurting me in the long run. What I'm saying is: Self-improvement does not come easy. Not in the mental or physical sense. And no, I'm not trying to toot my own horn or proclaim myself a self-help guru.
I am saying, basically, that the 10 Year Challenge -- although seemingly kind of a toss-off Facebook phenomenon -- can actually be a great motivator if you are willing to dig into it. When you put your 2009 and 2019 photos together, do you like what you see? That's an important question. However, the most important question is: Are you any better at being you, today, than you were in 2009? If not, then maybe the 10 Year Challenge is a good time to take stock of what's working and what's not...and get to work on yourself on your own terms.
Comments