Set Your Future Self Up for Success

The Art of Manliness

Society & Culture, Education, Philosophy

4.7 • 14.5K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2023

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As you move through time, you exist as a present self who makes decisions, an in-between self who should carry out those decisions, and a future self who will benefit from those decisions. Yet as we all know, in-between self often fails to follow through on what present self resolves, leaving future self pretty bummed out. The solution to this dilemma, my guest says, is for your present self to become much better friends with your future self. His name is Hal Hershfield, and he's a professor of marketing, behavioral decision making, and psychology, and the author of Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today. Hal and I spend the first part of our conversation taking a really interesting philosophical dive into what the self even is. We talk about why our future self can feel like a stranger, why it's hard to know what he'll be like, and what this dilemma has to do with becoming a vampire. We then discuss how building a stronger connection with your future self makes your present self more willing to help him, and how you can become closer to your future self by engaging in mental time traveling. Hal shares a couple techniques that can facilitate this mental time travel, three mistakes people make in taking this cognitive trip, and how to start making tomorrow better today.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're at McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness Podcast.
0:11.6	As you move through time, you exist as a present self who makes decisions, and in between
0:16.0	self we should carry out those decisions, and a future self who will benefit from those
0:20.4	decisions.
0:21.4	Yet as we all know, in between self often fails to follow through on what present self
0:25.1	resolves, leaving future self pretty bummed out.
0:28.7	The solution to this dilemma, my guest says, is for your present self to become much better
0:32.9	friends with your future self.
0:35.1	His name is Hal Hersfield, and he's a professor of marketing, behavioral decision making,
0:38.9	and psychology, and the author of Your Future Self.
0:42.6	Hal and I spend the first part of our conversation taking a really interesting philosophical dive
0:46.6	into what the self even is.
0:48.9	We talk about why our future self can feel like a stranger, why it's hard to know what
0:52.4	he'll be like, and what this dilemma has to do with becoming an empire.
0:56.3	We then discuss how building a stronger connection with your future self makes your present
1:00.0	self more willing to help them, and how you can become closer to your future self by engaging
1:04.0	in mental time traveling.
1:05.7	Hal shares a couple techniques that can facilitate this mental time travel, three mistakes people
1:10.0	make in taking this cognitive trip, how to start making tomorrow better today.
1:15.3	After the show's over, check out our show notes at a.m.i.s slash future self.
1:26.3	Alright, Hal Hersfield, welcome to show.
1:35.3	Hey, thanks so much, Brad.
	...

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