180. Unlocking Your Future Self: Communication, Happiness & Wellbeing

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

Think Fast Talk Smart

Communicating, Influence, Career Skills, Career, Business, Education, Leadership, Careers, Communication, Career Growth, Public Speaking, Language Learning, Improv

4.7 • 711 Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why creating happiness in the future starts today.

The new year gives us an opportunity to reflect on who we are and who we want to be. As we set resolutions and prepare for evolutions, this special four-part series on communication, happiness, and well-being explores practical ways to enhance our lives through better communication, deeper connections, and more meaningful choices.

In pursuing happiness and well-being, we often focus on the present moment. But according to Hal Hershfield, one of the best ways to help ourselves today is to have a conversation with ourselves in the future.

"When I say future self, I really mean any version of us that exists at some later point in time," explains Hershfield, a UCLA professor and author of Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today. By thinking of our future selves as different people — ones we should care about — we can make better choices in the present. "If we can tap into the feelings of our future selves, then we can do more that benefits them, which may make our lives easier now and later."
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Hershfield and host Matt Abrahams explore how communication between our present and future selves can help us set goals, make decisions, and overcome pitfalls like procrastination, enabling us to take meaningful action now so we can thrive today and tomorrow.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at BetterHelp.com/ThinkFast and get ten percent off your first month.

Episode Reference Links:

Hal Hershfield
Hal’s Book: Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today

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Matt Abrahams >>> LinkedIn

Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction
(02:12) - What Is a Future Self?
(03:37) - Mistakes in Time Travel Thinking
(04:45) - Overcoming Procrastination
(07:16) - Connecting to Our Future Selves
(10:35) - Disappointment and Adjusting Goals
(12:14) - Goal Setting and Motivation
(15:02) - Public Accountability for Motivation
(16:04) - The Final Three Questions
(20:35) - Conclusion

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I love the exercise of writing a letter or an email or to your future self and then writing one back
0:07.1	because we know that vividness is the type of thing that really provokes emotions and emotions are the
0:14.1	things that drive behavior. And so if we can just turn the dial up on a vivid perception of
0:20.4	your future self, that can really help connect,
0:23.0	you know, who you are now with who you will eventually become.
0:28.2	Hi, Matt here. The new year gives all of us an opportunity to reflect and focus on who we are,
0:34.8	who we want to be, and our well-being.
0:40.5	To help you chart your course and write your story,
0:44.8	I'm excited to invite you to our four-part mini-series on communication,
0:49.1	happiness, and well-being, sponsored by BetterHelp.
0:55.0	Every January brings us 365 blank pages waiting to be filled.
0:57.9	This year, maybe you're ready for a plot twist.
1:02.2	Or maybe there's a part of your story you've been wanting to revise or explore further.
1:11.1	Think of therapy as your editorial partner, helping you craft new chapters and create the meaningful story you deserve to live.
1:15.0	Therapists from BetterHelp can help you write your story.
1:19.8	I believe everyone should leverage the support of therapists and coaches.
1:26.0	Visit BetterHelp.com slash think fast to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash Think Fast.
1:32.6	One of the best ways to help ourselves in the present is to have a conversation with our future self.
1:40.7	I'm Matt Abrams, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of Business.
1:46.7	Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. Today I look forward to speaking with Hal Herschfield.
1:54.8	Hal is a professor of marketing, behavioral decision making, and psychology at UCLA's Anderson School of Management.
2:01.7	He is the author of Your Future Self, How to Make Tomorrow Better Today.
	...

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