What Action would Please your Future Self?

Be Your Future Self Now is a book by Benjamin Hardy, which describes how to direct your future self’s realization.

What action would please your future self? It is an interesting mental exercise, for it forces you to visualize what will be important to you in the future, and then pulls you forwards in that desired direction. It also assumes future growth and development, and change. You will be different in the future, as Ben Hardy often says in his podcast– noting the “End of History” illusion where people think the current version of themselves will always be as they are now.

I recently made a blunder, a well-intentioned one at that, in which I made some personal gains at the expense of another- a young boy. I realized the error, and tried to smooth it out, but eventually I realized I needed to apologize, to make him know that I knew that I erred, and would not repeat that mistake (essentially that I had learned from the mistake). It was one of the hardest things I have done- to confront my own well-intended action as having done harm, and approaching it head on to counteract my earlier blunder. As I walked away from the apology, I could almost feel my future self applauding, saying Bravo!, and I knew I had acted in alignment, whether future or present, with my inner self, and the self that I wish to become.

Perhaps going for a jog would suffice, or maybe it is something bigger that has been gnawing at you for years….you know what your inner self wants you to face.

There is no time like the present to please your future self.