Your Future Self Is Not Guaranteed

Dear {{ first name | Legend}},

It’s a personal one today…

Two days ago I was sitting at the dining table at 8:07 a.m., trying to get a glimpse inside the mind of my 10-year-old son.

We have a simple system in our house.

If my kids gets up, gets dressed, brushes his teeth, and eats breakfast by 8:10 a.m., he earns a marble. Each marble is redeemable for 20 min of iPad time.

It works well.
Until it doesn’t.

Some weeks, he’s up before the alarm. Gets himself dressed. Winning.
Other weeks? He’s in bed. Staring at the ceiling. “I’m tired.” Or deeply distracted by a 3D-printed chess piece.

So I asked him on Friday when he finally dragged himself into the kitchen:

“What are you thinking about when you wake up?”

He shrugged. “I just feel tired.”

"Do you ever think about getting the marble?"

“Not really.” He looks at his cup of milk.

“What about when I remind you that a marble is at stake?”

“I don’t know." He takes a drink.

“Ok, what if I said I’ll give you a box of gummy worms right now to go brush your teeth… would you do it?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Yes! Of course!”

He hears us.
He understands the reward.

But redeeming the marble for iPad time seemed too distant. Whereas the gummy worms represented an immediate rush.

Welcome to the human condition.

Behavioral economists call this present bias or hyperbolic discounting.

We discount the value of rewards that live in the future. The farther away they feel, the less motivating they become.

The rewards are real, but they seem far away.

As psychologist Hal Hershfield’s research shows, we treat our future self like a stranger. When brain scans show people pictures of their older selves, the neural activity looks similar to when they think about someone else entirely.

No wonder we don’t sacrifice for that person. And we feel like a failure.

Here’s the shift.

You are failing, but you are are failure. Your brain is wired to prefer immediate certainty over distant possibility.

This isn’t a character flaw. It’s biology.

And once you understand that, it means it’s a problem to overcome. Not just your problem, it’s a problem ALL of us face.

Stop interpreting resistance as a character flaw and start interpreting it as a design flaw.

As Daniel Kahneman wrote, “We can be blind to the obvious, and we are also blind to our blindness.”

So now you see what’s silently thwarting our greatness, time to overcome it and allow your awesome future-self to become a reality.

1. Reduce Friction

Translation: make it easier.

My son’s problem at 7:30 a.m. isn’t that hard to understand.

Warm bed.
Cold floor.
Clothes in a drawer.
Toothbrush down the hall.

Tiny barriers. Big effect.

So what can we do? We redesign.

Clothes out.
Shoes ready.
Breakfast set.

No decisions required.

Richard Thaler’s work on “choice architecture” showed that small environmental tweaks change behavior without changing intent.

Want to work out? Sleep in gym clothes.
Want to write? Open the doc the night before.
Want to lead better? Put the hard conversation on the calendar.

Most people try to increase motivation. Professionals reduce friction.

Prompt: What is something you find hard to accomplish to get you to that big goal? What are the ways you can make it easier to do that thing?

2. Amplify the Immediate Reward

How do you manufacture an immediate reward? Couple the thankless task with something good.

Katy Milkman calls it temptation bundling — pair what you should do with what you enjoy.

Music while getting ready.
Workout to your favorite TV series.
A small game at breakfast.

Now the task that gets you to that greater goal receives an immediate reward.

Prompt: What are some things you can bundle with the task that gives it an immediate reward?

3. Pre-Commit Future You

Thomas Schelling described self-control as a battle between “multiple selves.”

‘Present you’ wants comfort.
‘Future you’ wants growth.

Pre-commitment lets ‘future you’ win before ‘present you’ negotiates.

Dan Ariely’s research shows that adding stakes and deadlines dramatically improves follow-through.

Public commitment.
Money on the line.
Sign up for that race before you are ready.

By committing to something you can’t back out of, you are guaranteeing the growth to that future-self.

For my son? Maybe committing to a streak bonus. After a 3-day streak, he gets a bonus marble.

Prompt: How can you pre-commit your future-self so there is zero negotiation today?

My plea to you:

There is a version of you five years from now — stronger, sharper, leading at a higher level — and that person is not built in a breakthrough moment, but in ordinary days when you did the hard thing anyway. Your future self is not guaranteed. They are earned. Every time present comfort wins, that version becomes less likely to exist. But every time you reduce friction, add a reward, or pre-commit to growth to do the damn thing, you cast a vote for them. So pick one lever. One action. Take action today. Your brilliant future self is depending on it. 🙏🏽🤘🏽❤️

(If your future self is known, respected, and in demand… they didn’t get there by accident. They built it intentionally. If you’re ready to start building that version of you now, join me at this live event. “How to Build a 24/7 Influence System and Be the Obvious Choice in Your Niche — Without Becoming an Influencer or Creator” Save your seat 👉🏽 howiechan.com/event)

💡 Rule of thumb: If you don't fight for your future-self, you will not meet them.

Click to see an example of the playbook in use.

If you like this issue about influencing yourself to greatness, you’ll want to read:

Change behavior, change lives 🤘🏽

Howie Chan

Creator of Influence Anyone

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