Be Your Future Self Now: The Science of Intentional Transformation

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Some people have a vivid sense of their future self, which feels very close to their current identity. These people tend to be more responsible with their money and more ethical in their treatment of others; they are keen to act in a way that will make life easier in the years ahead. When you know something is yours, you act differently than if you don’t know. A salesperson who knows they are going to make a sale behaves differently than the salesperson who wants to make a sale. Other experiments suggest that people who score highly on the future self-continuity measure have higher moral standards than the people who struggle to identify with their future selves. They were less likely to cheat in tests, for example. “If people are better connected to their future selves, then they're going to have an enhanced ability to recognise the consequences of their present-day decisions on their future selves,” says Hershfield. “And that's going help them put the brakes on these behaviours.”

The inspiration for the recent psychological research on the future self can be found in the writings of philosophers such as Joseph Butler, in the 18th Century. “If the self or person of today, and that of tomorrow, are not the same, but only like persons, the person of today is really no more interested in what will befall the person of tomorrow, than in what will befall any other person,” Butler wrote in 1736. You’ll stop associating pain with the work and changes required for your goals. Instead, you’ll associate pain with not making progress toward your dreams. You’ll associate pain with the short-term dopamine hits that were once your escape. You’ll be far more courageous We make the path by walking, and you don't have to see the end before you begin. Even holding out the possibility of hope in your future can be enough to get you going, and that, coupled with the absolute faith that you will eventually find a way, will combine to combat this first and most fundamental threat. Expose yourself to new and better ways of acting, being, seeing, and thinking. In every situation, regardless of what you’ve done in the past, there is always the possibility to do otherwise. There is always potential for conscious choosing. You need to develop a complete disregard for where your abilities end. If you think you’re unable to work for the best company in its sphere, make that your aim. If you think you’re unable to be on the cover of Time magazine, make it your business to be there.What are you continuing to commit to and invest in that is taking you away from where you want to go? The gain happens when you transform every experience into personal growth. No matter what occurs, frame the experience as a gain. Proactively and consciously learn from your experiences, and become better, not bitter, as a result. Everything you do has a compounding consequence. Your Future Self is the exaggerated result of your current decisions.” Knowing is a higher level than wanting. Knowing is the acceptance that you already have what you want.

Being outside the arena means you’re overthinking, caught in paralysis by analysis. You’re letting fear win. Take for example, the countless people who want to start a business, or write a book, or learn a language, or [fill in the blank] of any dream someone might have. In the 1990s, the chip company Pringles had a catchline referencing their pop-off lids, “Once you pop, the fun don’t stop!”

Success!

This became the core tenet of Frankl’s logotherapy: human beings are driven by their views of their own future. Costs are heavily addictive. Have you ever tried just eating one chip? It’s essentially torture. Most people, once they pop open the cannister and eat one chip, can’t stop. I also love the words of Lewis, that, “There are no ordinary people.” This view of God enables me to look at every person with awe and amazement. Importantly, this was true even when he controlled for their initial wellbeing. This helped to eliminate the possibility that the people who felt connected with their future selves had simply started the study with higher life satisfaction, and then remained that way. Instead, it seems likely that the greater satisfaction at the end of the study was the result of all those positive behaviours – like financial saving and increased exercise – that together resulted in a more comfortable life.

Connecting with your future self has the power to drive your behavior in the present. If we want to take a creative role in developing an ideal future state, we need to establish a compelling vision for that future. Mental creation precedes physical creation. We can view life as unfolding randomly, or we can view it as a creative process that we are a part of. We can begin to design our behaviors to create a certain end. Importantly, building a connection to your Future Self requires seeing your Future Self as a different person from who you are today. The 4th Threat to your Future Self is not being connected to them. You will not be able to proactively create the life you want if you’re not connected to your Future Self. Lesser goals are weeds in the garden of life. Every time you engage in a lesser goal, it’s the equivalent of planting a weed in your garden. Whatever you plant will produce your results. Creativity occurs by giving form or organisation to disorganised raw materials. For example, a table isn’t built out of nothing but organised from raw materials that were previously disorganised or undesigned.

The Story of MrBeast

As beautiful as you are, your current self is incredibly limited and ignorant. The best work you can produce now is pebbles to what your Future Self will create. Your Future Self gives you permission to produce. Let's begin... THREAT #1: Without Hope in Your Future, Your Present Loses Meaning “The first and most fundamental threat to your Future Self is not having hope in your future. Without hope, the present loses meaning. Without hope, you don't have clear goals or a sense of purpose for your life. Without hope, there is no way. Without hope, you decay."

Connecting with your long-term Future Self is essential to quality decisions in the present. The further out you imagine and connect, the more informed and strategic you can be. Of course, your Future Self will adapt and change, but that does not discount the importance of being connected Strategic Coach co-founder Dan Sullivan and I wrote an entire book on this subject called The Gap and the Gain. The gap is when you measure yourself or your experiences against what you ideally thought they should be. Your actions come from your identity. When your identity is rooted in current commitments, rather than your Future Self, your actions are weak and unaligned with your goal. The only way to realise your Future Self is to be your Future Self now

Truths About Your Future Self

The longer you hesitate to enter the playing field, the longer you delay the essential learning curve. You cannot deliberately practice on the sidelines. When you’re not in the arena, you’re failing by default This brings up a counterintuitive but important truth the more connected you are to your Future Self, the better you live in the present. To requote Robert Brault, “We are kept from our goals not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”