Imagine spending a day outside yourself. Just watching yourself. But not watching who you are today—watching the you from five years ago.

You observe Younger You wake up, do the morning routine, go to school, talk with peers and teachers, come home, do some homework and chores, respond to your parents, and interact to your (five years younger) siblings.

It’s a strange experience. You know exactly what Younger You is thinking and why you said what you said and did what you did. After all, that used to be you. But your perspective is different now. You’ve grown, you’ve matured since then.

What do you notice about Younger You? What do you like about yourself—and what do you not like? As you watch, you shake your head, a bit embarrassed at some of your quirks, the silly things you say, your ignorance about some things. As you listen, you see the ways you’ve grown since then, how you’ve matured, what you’ve learned.

Think about what sort of advice you would give Younger You.

Growth is part of life, thankfully. If you’re doing things right, bit by bit you’re advancing, you’re wising up. You’re shedding the immaturity and foolishness that makes you cringe a little bit when you see it now.

Now, the flip side of that fact is harder to face. Today You also has weaknesses you don’t yet recognize. You have ignorance you’re not yet aware of. You have immaturity you need to overcome. You don’t know what you don’t know.

Just think about Younger You. You simply didn’t realize at that time just how much you had yet to grow up! We all tend to be blind in this way: to assume that who we are right now is basically the fully mature version of ourselves. But how silly is that, when you think about it?

Just think about this for a minute. “If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know” (1 Corinthians 8:2; Revised Standard Version). In other words, what we think we know can be pretty different from what we actually know! It’s easy for our perception to get out of whack.

“For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Galatians 6:3). “Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 26:12; New King James Version).

The way to avoid this embarrassing—and dangerous—mental trap is simple: Be humble.

Be honest and acknowledge that you don’t know as much as you think you do. That blindness I mentioned makes this advice more important than you realize. Why? Because you have more pride than you realize!

Pride and vanity is fiendishly difficult to recognize in yourself. Maybe if you really thought about it, you could recognize it in Younger You. But it’s much harder to see it in Today You.

Pride creates problems in all your relationships. With those younger than you, you act like a know-it-all. With your peers, you end up competing, and always trying to attract attention to yourself. With your parents and teachers, you don’t recognize good instruction when you hear it, and you become unteachable.

Pride actually severely slows and even stops that growth that should be part of life—the advancing, the wising up, the shedding of immaturity and foolishness. Why? Because it makes you self-satisfied so you don’t feel you need to change anything.

On top of that, pride cuts you off from God’s help. As Ryan Malone wrote in his excellent recent article “Flat,” God resists proud people, and dwells with the humble (Isaiah 66:1-2; James 4:6-10).

Now imagine having the opportunity to meet yourself—from five years into the future. Are you willing to listen to some advice from Future You? He or she has something to say:

Don’t be the know-it-all who makes fun of others for their ignorance. Be gracious.

Don’t praise yourself and try to prove to others how awesome you are. Be modest.

Don’t assume your parents don’t know what they’re talking about. Be correctable.

Don’t shut your ears to your instructors. Be teachable.

Be humble. Pride is the devil’s attitude. Harbor pride, and you’re making a place for the devil. Humility actually protects you from Satan. It pushes him out of your mind and invites God in.

As a result, humility makes you happy. Much of the brooding, volatile emotions that can tend to swallow many of us in our teen years grow out of self-absorption—which is vanity. Humility, by contrast, makes you more observant of others’ strengths and qualities—more appreciative of your blessings—more attentive to others’ efforts to help you and to teach you. All these things bring fresh air and sunshine into the life of Today You.

Humility makes you wise beyond your years! It reflects the perspective that tends to come with experience—experience that helps us see just how little we know, how ignorant we really are. Humility not only makes you a more likeable person to be around—and gives Future You less to be embarrassed about—it accelerates your learning. It speeds your progress toward a much happier and more mature Future You!