“As you live deeper in the heart, the mirror gets clearer and clearer.” — Rumi
Your Future Self is you in in the future.
You can use your Future Self as a powerful and pragmatic way to motivate and inspire yourself every day.
After all, if you can imagine a better version of you in the future, you can make better decisions and take better actions toward your Future Self today.
That is, if you can connect and relate to your Future Self.
The problem is your brain shuts down when you think about the future.
Your Future Self feels like a stranger.
When you imagine your Future Self, your brain shuts down and acts as if you’re a stranger.
So Future you isn’t your Current Self (at least, it doesn’t feel like it at the moment).
That’s why “party you” tonight, doesn’t really care about “hangover you” tomorrow.
In the book The Future is Faster than You Think, Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler share how your brain shuts down when you focus on the future.
Your Brain Shuts Down When You Project Yourself in the Future
Your prefrontal cortex is the smart part of your brain. It’s what you use for executive functions and when you are doing scenario planning.
Imagine that when you’re trying to visualize your Future Self, your smart part is actually shut down.
Diamandis and Kotler write:
“It’s not easy for any of us. Studies done with fMRI show that when we project ourselves into the future something peculiar happens:
The medial prefrontal cortex shuts down.”
Your Future Self is a Stranger
Your Future Self is actually a stranger to you.
Imagine trying to plan your future, but your Future Self is a stranger and your empathy shuts down.
Worse, the further into the future you project, the more of a stranger you become to your own brain.
This is actually why storytelling can help think about the future better by making things relatable and activating empathy.
Diamandis and Kotler write:
“This is a part of the brain that activates when we think about ourselves.
When we think about other people, the inverse happens: It deactivates.
And when we think about absolute strangers, it deactivates even more.
You’d expect that thinking about our future selves would excite the medial prefrontal cortex. Yet the opposite happens.
It starts to shut down, meaning the brain treats the person we’re going to become as a stranger.
And the farther you project into the future, the more of a stranger you become.
If, a few paragraphs back, you took the time to think about how the transportation revolution would impact future you, the you that you were thinking of was literally not you.”
Our Neurobiology Gets in the Way of Imagining the Future
If you ever wondered why it’s tough to really focus on the future, you can thank your neurobiology.
When you try to predict the future and make decisions, your basic neurobiology is not on your side.
Diamandis and Kotler write:
“This is why people have a tough time saving for retirement or staying on a diet or getting regular prostate exams–the brain believes that the person who would benefit from those difficult choices isn’t the same one making those choices.
This is also why, if you’ve been reading the chapter and having trouble processing the speed of the change ahead, perhaps fluctuating between ‘total BS’ and ‘holy crap’, well, you’re not alone.
Couple this with the limitations imposed by our local and linear brains in a global and exponential world, and accurate prediction becomes a considerable problem.
Even under normal conditions, these built-in features of our neurobiology make us blind to what’s around the bend.”
Build Your Empathy, Creativity, and Visualization Skills
What can you do about this disconnect with the future and this lack of empathy with your Future Self?
You can practice.
Practice makes progress.
So rather than simply imagine visions and scenes of the future that you can’t relate to, step into your future and practice feeling it.
Just like when you exercise and you practice the mind-body connection, you can do a similar thing when you envision your future.
Slow down to speed up and enjoy exploring your possible future.
Your Future Self will thank you for it…every day.
What you focus on expands.
You can intentionally get better by focusing on your empathy, creativity, and how you visualize your Future Self.
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