Summary: Your Future Self by Hal Hershfield

Your Upcom­ing Self (2023) is a thought-pro­vok­ing expe­di­tion into the intri­cate realm of deci­sion-mak­ing, merg­ing the influ­en­tial com­po­nents of psy­chol­o­gy and eco­nom­ics. Pro­vid­ing a dis­tinc­tive per­spec­tive to ana­lyze our endur­ing choic­es, it reveals how the selec­tions we make in the present pro­found­ly influ­ence our future identities.

Foreword

Uncov­er the secret to improved deci­sion-mak­ing, increased deter­mi­na­tion, and a more ben­e­fi­cial rap­port with the indi­vid­ual you’ll devel­op into.

Imag­ine this sce­nario: You’re shar­ing cof­fee with a stranger. This per­son is well-versed in every­thing about you — from your tiny rou­tines to every choice you’ve ever made, the roads you’ve trav­eled, and even your inner­most con­fi­dences. On the oth­er hand, you pos­sess no knowl­edge about this stranger. Who could this indi­vid­ual be? Well, it’s you — mere­ly a decade down the road.

How would this encounter impact your behav­iors today? Would you hes­i­tate before indulging in that addi­tion­al slice of cake, under­stand­ing the con­se­quences it could have on your future well-being? Would you rethink that impul­sive pur­chase, real­iz­ing the finan­cial bur­den it might impose on your future self?

Our lives are an unend­ing evo­lu­tion, each day thrust­ing us towards the future — a future inhab­it­ed by a ver­sion of our­selves that can seem for­eign and dis­con­nect­ed from our cur­rent selves. This split often leads to deci­sions that may sat­is­fy our present per­sona but leave our forth­com­ing selves in dis­may. Nonethe­less, we per­sist, guid­ed by a deep-seat­ed focus on imme­di­ate grat­i­fi­ca­tion, fre­quent­ly over­look­ing the loom­ing shad­ows of what lies ahead.

But what if we could bridge this tem­po­ral abyss? What if we could fos­ter an empa­thet­ic con­nec­tion with our future selves, con­tour­ing our choic­es today to guar­an­tee a more thriv­ing tomor­row? In this syn­op­sis, you will embark on a riv­et­ing voy­age into the depths of self-aware­ness, indi­vid­u­al­i­ty, and the engag­ing inter­play between our present and future iden­ti­ties. This expe­di­tion will pro­vide insights into the human mind, while enabling you to lever­age the bond with your future self — there­by encour­ag­ing deci­sions that ben­e­fit not only the cur­rent you but also the you of the future.

Is it possible to metamorphose our fundamental selves?

Pon­der the tale of Pedro Rodrigues Fil­ho, a man born into vio­lence, car­ry­ing a frac­tured skull from his father’s assaults. Rodrigues Fil­ho, who passed away in 2023, was a ser­i­al mur­der­er respon­si­ble for the deaths of 71 indi­vid­u­als by 1985. Yet his nar­ra­tive did not cul­mi­nate in a prison cell. He adopt­ed a reg­i­men of phys­i­cal fit­ness, acquired lit­er­a­cy, and in 2007, due to a legal tech­ni­cal­i­ty, exit­ed prison as a free man. He com­menced ris­ing at 4 a.m. dai­ly, avoid­ed sub­stance abuse, shared uplift­ing sto­ries on YouTube, and men­tored young delin­quents, assert­ing that he detest­ed his for­mer self and believed him­self to be reborn. This prompts us to ques­tion: Can we fun­da­men­tal­ly alter our essence?

Con­tem­plate your self-per­cep­tion. Envi­sion a sce­nario where every cell in your body was sub­sti­tut­ed over time, yet your mem­o­ries remained intact. Would you still retain your essence? What if your con­scious­ness and rec­ol­lec­tions were replaced by those of some­one else? How much of your­self must change before you are regard­ed as a nov­el entity?

Phi­los­o­phy by itself can­not unrav­el this enig­ma. Real-world expe­ri­ences, as evi­denced by a study by Pro­fes­sor Nina Strohminger, offer an alter­na­tive per­spec­tive. She inquired with care­tak­ers of indi­vid­u­als afflict­ed by Alzheimer’s dis­ease and ALS about whether the indi­vid­u­als they tend­ed to still felt rec­og­niz­able to them. Fas­ci­nat­ing­ly, despite their fail­ing bod­ies, the ALS patients, with their sound minds, were per­ceived as more indi­vid­u­al­is­tic than the Alzheimer’s patients, whose mem­o­ries were fad­ing. How­ev­er, the true rev­e­la­tion occurred when Strohminger con­versed with care­givers of indi­vid­u­als with fron­totem­po­ral demen­tia, a con­di­tion that main­tains phys­i­cal health and mem­o­ries but ham­pers the capac­i­ty for moral or eth­i­cal behav­ior. These patients were seen as the most alien, imply­ing that our eth­i­cal essence could indeed define our gen­uine identity.

There­fore, con­sid­er­ing Pedro Rodrigues Fil­ho, did he gen­uine­ly trans­form into a dif­fer­ent per­son? If we con­sid­er the notion of a core moral self, per­haps he did. Yet, let’s now redi­rect that scruti­ny towards our­selves. How do we envi­sion our future selves? Will we remain unal­tered or evolve into some­thing new? As we probe deep­er, we will inves­ti­gate this cap­ti­vat­ing facet of our human existence.

Cultivating a bond with your forthcoming self

Fath­om immor­tal­i­ty — eter­nal­ly youth­ful and unre­strained, akin to a vam­pire rev­el­ing in the moon­light. Intrigu­ing, isn’t it? Nev­er­the­less, it rais­es an exis­ten­tial dilem­ma. How can we be cer­tain of our iden­ti­ty amidst such per­pet­u­al exis­tence? Much like wel­com­ing a new life into the world, each moment births a fresh ver­sion of “us.” Our future selves, con­se­quent­ly, will per­sist as enig­mat­ic, shad­owy enti­ties in the indis­tinct land­scape of the future.

Our per­cep­tion of our future selves pro­found­ly shapes our cur­rent choic­es. Envi­sion two per­sonas — an exten­sion of your present self and a nov­el indi­vid­ual. How you per­ceive your future self with­in this dichoto­my will inevitably influ­ence your actions today.

Con­tem­plate this — we often act in our self-inter­est. Nonethe­less, if we regard our future selves as strangers, we might be less inclined to adopt healthy, con­struc­tive habits. Why decline that addi­tion­al por­tion of dessert if it won’t affect your physique but that of a stranger? This detach­ment might also fos­ter extrav­a­gant spend­ing or a propen­si­ty towards pro­longed indebtedness.

Upon con­tem­plat­ing the near future — for instance, your upcom­ing birth­day — most indi­vid­u­als are like­ly to employ first-per­son pro­nouns, main­tain­ing a sense of per­son­al con­ti­nu­ity. How­ev­er, when the event is 30 years away, the lan­guage tran­si­tions to the third per­son. This switch can be attrib­uted to per­cep­tion. Imag­ine observ­ing two dis­tant birds. Dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing between them could pose a chal­lenge. Anal­o­gous­ly, whether it’s “you” a decade from now or “you” in two decades, these future selves might appear to blend into a sin­gu­lar neb­u­lous figure.

Our forth­com­ing self is neb­u­lous, near­ly spec­tral, where­as our present self is sub­stan­tial, pal­pa­ble. Though our future self isn’t lit­er­al­ly some­one else, adopt­ing this mind­set can offer enlight­en­ment. Sac­ri­fices for an unknown indi­vid­ual might seem irra­tional, but what if you began to per­ceive your future self as a com­pan­ion or cher­ished one?

Maybe it’s time to alter per­spec­tives. Rather than treat­ing your future self as a dis­tant enti­ty, draw them near­er. Regard them as an advo­cate, a con­fi­dant, some­one deserv­ing of sac­ri­fices. Per­haps then, the “you” of tomor­row would appear less like a stranger and more akin to a beloved indi­vid­ual for whom you would eas­i­ly forego that extra serv­ing of dessert or recon­sid­er impetu­ous finan­cial deci­sions. After all, even if you could exist end­less­ly, akin to a vam­pire in the twi­light, would­n’t you desire the best for all your future selves?

Navigating selections for your forthcoming self

Envi­sion the anal­o­gy of a ves­sel, firm­ly anchored to a spe­cif­ic loca­tion. Despite the beck­on­ing hori­zon and the allure of the open sea, it remains fas­tened to its berth. In a man­ner, we all resem­ble that ves­sel. We’re bound by the notion of “anchor­ing” to our cur­rent selves and prin­ci­ples, even when we know we should loosen the chains.and set sail towards the days ahead.

This sym­bol­ic moor­ing fre­quent­ly prompts us to make selec­tions that prove harm­ful to our forth­com­ing selves. When pre­sent­ed with the option of receiv­ing $1000 in half a year or $990 imme­di­ate­ly, the major­i­ty would opt for the instant pay­out. Yet, at what point does the scale tip? What sum of mon­ey would jus­ti­fy the wait?

This incli­na­tion to favor imme­di­ate rewards over future advan­tages can result in prob­lem­at­ic choic­es, such as new­found mil­lion­aires frit­ter­ing away their wealth. Nonethe­less, this sce­nario shifts when the imme­di­a­cy of the present is removed. Giv­en the choice between $900 in one year or $1000 in a year and a half, most indi­vid­u­als exhib­it more patience and opt for the larg­er amount.

The Pro­lon­ga­tion of Deci­sions and the Odyssey to No Remorses

There’s opti­mism to be found! A smidgen of for­give­ness can yield exten­sive ben­e­fits. Par­don your past self for leav­ing tasks unfin­ished and strive to cul­ti­vate a bet­ter com­pre­hen­sion of your future self to evade pro­cras­ti­na­tion. In doing so, not only will you light­en the load on your future self, but you’ll also nur­ture a stronger bond among your past,temporal bound­aries, con­crete oblig­a­tions, instant reper­cus­sions for unde­sired behav­iors, and ampli­fy­ing the enjoy­ment of tasks can bridge the divide, fos­ter­ing a more robust con­nec­tion with your forth­com­ing self. By doing so, you can stim­u­late deci­sions that fos­ter a more enrich­ing future.

Evaluation

“Your Future Self: How to Make Tomor­row Bet­ter Today” by Hal Her­sh­field is a cap­ti­vat­ing guide that delves into the notion of future iden­ti­ties and offers action­able method­olo­gies to link our present and forth­com­ing iden­ti­ties. Her­sh­field, a respect­ed psy­chi­a­trist and author­i­ty in the domain of deci­sion-mak­ing and tem­po­ral out­look, deliv­ers valu­able per­cep­tions and prag­mat­ic coun­sel on how to make choic­es today that syn­chro­nize with our endur­ing objec­tives and aspirations.

One of the book’s virtues lies in Hershfield’s pro­fi­cien­cy in dis­till­ing intri­cate psy­cho­log­i­cal notions into reach­able and prac­ti­cal rec­om­men­da­tions. He intro­duces the idea of “sub­se­quent iden­ti­ty” and elu­ci­dates how our insight of our impend­ing iden­ti­ties can sway our deci­sion-mak­ing process­es. By aid­ing read­ers in fos­ter­ing a pro­found con­nec­tion and com­pas­sion with their future selves, Her­sh­field stim­u­lates them to make pref­er­ences that pri­or­i­tize long-range well-being over momen­tary satisfaction.

Through­out the book, Her­sh­field equips read­ers with a vari­ety of approach­es and strat­a­gems to bridge the void between their cur­rent and future selves. He under­scores the sig­nif­i­cance of for­mu­lat­ing lucid ambi­tions, craft­ing exe­cu­tion intents, and devel­op­ing prac­tices that boost our desired future out­comes. The writer also tack­les fre­quent psy­cho­log­i­cal obstruc­tions, like post­pone­ment and temp­ta­tion, and prof­fers tac­tics to sur­mount them effectively.

Whether you are pur­su­ing per­son­al growth or aim­ing to insti­tute pos­i­tive changes in your life, this book is a prized resource that will gal­va­nize and empow­er you to evolve into the finest ren­di­tion of yourself.