Be Your Future Self Now: The Science of Intentional Transformation

by Benjamin P. Hardy

“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do,” Jobs said. “It’s true for companies, and it’s true for products.”2 Moving forward, Apple produced only four products.

Jobs held a definite attitude about how the future should be, and courageously fought for his convictions. He was an essentialist who focused on “less, but better,” quality over quantity.3

“The height of sophistication is simplicity.” —Clare Boothe Luce4

Even five years away may be a stretch. For Jobs, his overarching purpose was to change the world. But for a time, his contextual purpose was to specifically create and launch the iPod. Once he completed that focused and deliberate purpose, he moved to his next contextual purpose.

Companies that succeed at the absolute highest level have no more than three core objectives they’re trying to accomplish. As Collins stated: If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any.6

Your life is like a garden. If you’re not intentional, your garden will be overrun with weeds and randomness. This occurs if you have too many competing goals and priorities.

To determine which seeds to plant, first determine which fruit or outcomes you want for your Future Self.

Without that North Star of serving a mission, I would likely have sunk into the chaos around me.

Family—with a massive emphasis on my three older kids Books—10Xing my career as an author in terms of quality of books published and number of books sold Finances—10Xing my net worth and securing my long-term finances for myself and my family

Just three objectives for the next 5 years.

After you clarify and define your core three priorities, set specific and measurable 12-month goals for each one. Here are my own 2022 goals: FAMILY Take 150 free non-work days during 2022 (Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays), where I invest in my family and have peak experiences Six-week summer Europe trip Monthly one-on-one with the older kids

SMART goals for the 3 priorities

Once you’ve clarified your three core priorities, set specific goals for each of those priorities over the next 12 months.

I said no to editorial jobs on magazines, proper jobs that would have paid proper money because I knew, that attractive though they were, for me they would have been walking away from the mountain.

Lesser goals are no less lucrative, they're just not what you've committed to.

If you’re trying to work on a project, but continually distract yourself with other things, then you’re committed to the distractions. The distractions are the greater goal in that moment.

To re-quote Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp: Commitment is a statement of what “is.” You can know what you’re committed to by your results, not by what you say your commitments are. We are all committed. We are all producing results. The result is proof of a commitment.7

In every moment, you’re faced with one of two options: Commit to your mountain or yield to a lesser goal.

Clayton Christensen said, “100 percent is easier than 98 percent.” It’s easier to commit to something 100 percent, because once you’ve committed, you’ve eliminated the internal conflict. You’ve silenced the decision fatigue. You’ve banished the lesser goals.

Often, we maintain many of our habits or relationships because we’re scared to commit. We’re frightened of the repercussions of that commitment. So rather than eliminate our clear paths to lesser goals, we continue to maintain the lesser paths.

Commitment to the great scares us! So we go for plan B.

Lesser goals are compelling because they’re easy. They offer a quick reward or dopamine hit. Probably, we commit to our lesser goals far more than we commit to our genuine wishes.

The French writer and poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said, Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

What lesser goals can you immediately eliminate? Each day, and in each moment, you’ll face goal conflicts. What will you do as those moments arise? Your behavior demonstrates what you’re truly committed to.

Have bright lines, make things black or white. 100% is easier than 98%. And know the top 3 priorities.

Knowing is a higher level than wanting. Knowing is the acceptance that you already have what you want. You can live in a state of acceptance, peace, and gratitude. As Florence Shinn, the early 20th-century writer and mystic, said, “Faith knows it has already received and acts according.”

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.

Operating from a state of acceptance and tranquility. It will all unfold as I want, just keep moving toward its direction faithfully.

What do you believe you’re worthy to receive? Can you teach your body emotionally what it will feel like to receive what it is you want before it happens? In order for it to manifest you have to be able to do this in the present moment.

Feel gratitude for the things of the future. This makes it then easier to act with knowing in the present moment.

meditate, visualize the desire as already mine, and pray until I reach a state of knowing. For example, while closing my eyes and seeing the house I want my family to live in, I deeply inhale acceptance of having this home and softy exhale gratitude for the reality to be.

In the classic book As A Man Thinketh, James Allen, wrote, “Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”12

Your behavior follows your identity. The scientific definition of identity is “a well-organized conception of the self, consisting of values and beliefs to which the individual is solidly committed.”13 Your identity is what you’re most committed to.

Daily three identities for energy work and love. Shown in repeated actions over time.

Dr. Stephen Covey said, “To know and not to do is really not to know.”14 When you know, you will do. To know and not do is to not know.

If you don't do it, you don't actually know it. Knowing is shown in your doing. Knowing is not about memory storage. Info is supposed to upgrade your identity.

Knowing and being in advance are key to having. Zig Ziglar stated, “You have to be before you can do, and do before you can have.”

“If your videos are good, you shouldn’t need to ask for likes and subscribes.” And that’s where they are wrong. The reason Graham’s channel is successful is largely because he asks his audience to help. Every time someone likes one of his videos, the like adjusts the YouTube algorithm in his favor, placing his videos in front of more people.

You can know you’re committed to something when you ask for it. When you ask directly, boldly, and without apology.

Verbalising your requests to others makes it real. It shows a path of committment.

It’s almost too easy. You can be the bee who goes out looking for the flowers, or you can be the flower and have the bees come to you. When you ask directly and clearly for exactly what you want, what you want will come to you.

Ask one person directly, or ask the many. When it's sincere, has a good reason and there is trust, you'll eventually get it. So keep investing in relationship building and publicly producing. It builds goodwill for the occasional ask.

Just ask. Don’t be afraid. And don’t be ashamed. As you get better at clarifying, simplifying, and asking, you’ll receive with increased swiftness.

Receive faster over time.

It’s important to note that although outsourcing can do a lot for you, it comes after optimizing and automating. If you outsource an inefficient task, that doesn’t really help because it’s still inefficient. It’s much better to eliminate work by optimizing or automating whenever you can and only outsource what’s left.” —Ari Meisel19

Break taks down. Optimize it. Then automate. Then delegate its ownership.

To get where you want to go faster and easier, automate and systemize your Future Self. Implementing strategic systems frees up your conscious mind to focus, play, and plan. Automation ensures consistency of results.

As management author and legend Peter Drucker said, “There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.”

For example, my assistant, Chelsea, serves as the barrier and filter to my mind. I’ve given her clear criteria for what opportunities I’m interested in, as well as what can go on my schedule. She inbounds dozens of requests weekly for my time, but almost none of those reach my conscious awareness. Once per week, Chelsea and I discuss the opportunities or situations she deems relevant to me.

Have an EA manage your life and block distractions.

Trying to keep too many options available is a lack of intention and commitment. A fundamental aspect of decision-making is gladly accepting opportunity costs.

Being ok with tradeoffs. Going after the big 1-3 means other lesser goals are lost. That's what it costs. Be happy about it!! Opportunity costs are a protective investment against your big three.

It’s crucial to become increasingly unaware of what’s going on in the outside world. As author John Maxwell said, “You cannot overestimate the unimportance of practically everything.”

Mostly everything is unimportant. Really remember this.

With the small number of wolves introduced, they killed a few deer, but more importantly, the deer avoided certain parts of the park, particularly the valleys and gorges. Immediately, those places regenerated.

Butterfly effect of adding wolves created great downward benefits to Yellowstone overall.

Introducing small changes into your system can have a dramatic effect. Refining your system to automate your desired results and block noise and decision fatigue is essential to flow and high performance.

What small changes do I need to add to create a butterfly effect towards reaching my future self destination.

Your schedule reflects your priorities. Your schedule reflects what you’re actually committed to.

This is why time tracking is awesome. It is the mirror to yourself you need to see if you are being your future self or not.

Your time is the clearest indicator of your commitment. You can’t hide how you spend your time. To improve freedom of money, relationships, and purpose, own your Freedom of Time.

All freedom begins wih how your schedule your time. Each day is three sets of six hours. Use them in accordance to your energy levels.

When you realize you are not the effect, but you’re the cause of the effects, you multiply ownership over your past, present, and Future Self.

Psychological detachment from work is a growing concept in occupational psychology that shows the importance of unplugging. If you’re always working or always available and never fully recovering, then flow, creativity, and high performance are practically impossible.

Allow time blocks to serve specific purposes.

Steven Pressfield calls this resistance. As he states in The War of Art: Procrastination is the most common manifestation of Resistance because it’s the easiest to rationalize. We don’t tell ourselves, “I’m never going to write my symphony.” Instead, we say, “I am going to write my symphony; I’m just going to start tomorrow.” . . . The more important a call or action to our soul’s evolution, the more Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.28

Tomorrow isn't an option when you are living from your future self.

“Ship often. Ship lousy stuff, but ship. Ship constantly. Skip meetings. Often. Skip them with impunity. Ship.” —Seth Godin31

Learn by getting feedback!! Just get used to receiving it, dont judge it. Point is to get better by listening to the market. The market's buying and satisfaction matters most. Only way to get this data is to ship!

If you’re remarkable, it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise—ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out.33

Remarkable comes with criticism but with high visibility.

Sometimes we get discouraged and turn to inspirational writing, like stuff from Vince Lombardi: “Quitters never win and winners never quit.” Bad advice. Winners quit all the time. They just quit the right stuff at the right time. Quit your lesser goals. Quit anything that isn’t taking you closer to the mountain. Don’t stick with something just because your former self invested in it. Quit everything that isn’t living as your Future Self.

The big 3 from the last 5 years ago may not be what you want now. What do you want in the next 5 years from now? Only focus on that. Quit the rest.

Shipping isn’t focused on producing a masterpiece (but all master-pieces get shipped). I’ve produced more than a hundred books (most didn’t sell very well), but if I hadn’t, I’d never have had the chance to write this one. Picasso painted more than a thousand paintings, and you can probably name three of them.

It's volume that leads to masterpeices.

Shipping is about finishing. Done is better than perfect. To quote Leonardo da Vinci, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”