Keeping focused on the long term

Eating well, sleeping enough, exercising consistently and saving for retirement. Many of the areas of life in which we'd like to be better have their solutions in our ability to keep focused on the long term. 

A key determinant of (success in) life outcomes is an ability to delay gratification. Many choices require an ability to give up something today for benefits that we won't see until the future.

However, many of us struggle to envisage ourselves in that future.

The difficulty of envisaging our future selves 

When faced with a trade-off such as spending money today versus saving it for retirement, many take the easy route to spend today for immediate gratification. The consequences, we tell ourselves, we’ll deal with in the future. It's easier to spend now and hope that things fall into place later down the road. 

This stems from a difficultly in envisaging our future selves. The more we consider our future self a different person (versus an older version of ourselves), the less likely we will act today in ways which benefit our future self. 

One solution is to have ways that help us to better visualise our future self when making decisions that require such trade-offs.

Implementation idea 

Ask yourself a question before making such choices that induces you to envisage your future self and have a better consideration for the long term.  

Linking the question to a specific goal you're trying to achieve can also increase its effectiveness. 

Let's say I'm seeking to reduce my body fat ahead of the summer. It requires a calorie deficit, but I'm struggling with keeping to a nutrition plan because of over-eating at night (when willpower is lower).

'Is this meal going to bring me closer to or further away from being 10% body fat next June?'

Asking myself this question before each meal would ensure that I'm consistently thinking about the longer-term impact of my food choices. Making it specific and time bound makes it feel more real and thus may be more effective than simply 'will this bring me closer to or further away from being lean'. 

Much of our present behaviour is influenced by our views on our own future. This simple approach to improving connectedness to our future self can be applied across all domains of life. 

Best, Alex Joshi.