Be Your Future Self Now: The Science of Intentional Transformation

by Benjamin P. Hardy

Shifting our goals from fear-based, reactive, and short term to proactive, long term, and love-based is the path to a successful and happy life. Your view of your Future Self is the compass that draws you forward.

When you frame the past negatively, your goals become reactive to and based on your past. Your goals become short term and avoidance-oriented, where you try escaping the pain of the present.

What happened to you doesn’t matter as much as what story you decide to tell yourself about what happened.

Author and philosopher Robert Brault said, “We are kept from our goal not by obstacles, but by a clear path to a lesser goal.”

Everything you do can be categorized as either a cost to or an investment in your Future Self.

For certain tasks like tying our shoes and driving, automaticity is fantastic because it frees up our mind to do other things. However, when it comes to developing skills and learning, automaticity is how you get stuck at a certain skill level, and slowly decline over time.

Deliberate practice is the opposite of “habits” or “automaticity.” Your habits are you on autopilot. Deliberate practice requires conscious effort and attention toward specific and challenging goals.

People naturally avoid investing in loss. It’s comfortable doing something you can already do. Winning feels good. But if you want to aggressively become your Future Self, then investing in loss is how you get there.