Your Future Self:
Your Brain Thinks Your Future Self Is a Stranger
UCLA researchers put people in brain scanners and showed them photos of strangers.
Then they showed them photos of themselves.
Finally, they showed them digitally aged photos of themselves—20 years older.
The brain’s response to their future self?
It lit up exactly like it did for the stranger.
That explains a lot.
Why you eat the cake today
and promise you’ll start fresh on Monday.
Why you skip the workout now
and swear you’ll get back to it later.
Why you spend the bonus
instead of saving it.
And it isn’t a motivation problem.
When your future self feels far away, it’s easy to outsource important decisions to them—and keep living as if clarity will arrive on its own.
It’s a distance problem.
- Future me will figure it out.
- Future me will know what to do with all that free time.
- Future me won’t miss the pressure, the structure, the status.
A simple way to stay connected to the person I’m becoming.
The Problem With Outsourcing Your Future
People who feel connected to their future selves:
- Save significantly more for retirement
- Exercise more consistently
- Make healthier daily choices
- Report higher life satisfaction
Not because they have more willpower.
This is me — using the same research I share with my clients.
Because they stopped treating their future self like someone else.
When that connection is missing, we hand unanswered questions to a version of ourselves we haven’t prepared:
Who am I without my role?
How will I structure my days?
What will give me purpose?
What will actually make this next chapter meaningful?
Then retirement arrives—and we meet the “stranger” we’ve been sending those questions to for decades.
Surprise!
Future You isn’t a new person.
It’s you—living with the habits, assumptions, and decisions you made along the way.
Why This Matters as You Approach Retirement
Retirement doesn’t create identity challenges.
It reveals the ones that were postponed.
For high achievers especially, the gap between who you are now and who you’ll be later can feel deceptively easy to ignore.
You’ve solved hard problems your entire career. It’s tempting to assume you’ll solve this one too—later.
But clarity, purpose, and fulfillment don’t appear on their own.
They’re built.
And the people who thrive in retirement don’t wait to meet their future selves.
They build that relationship now.
Introducing
The Future Self Habit Builder™
The Future Self Habit Builder™ is a free, science-backed workbook designed to help high achievers close the gap between who they are today and who they’re becoming next.
This isn’t about productivity.
It’s about continuity.
Build a real relationship with your future self
Make decisions today that support the life you want later
Stop outsourcing purpose, health, and meaning to “someday”
Shift from short-term reactivity to long-term alignment
Inside, you’ll learn how to:
Prepare psychologically—not just financially—for retirement
What You’ll Do Inside the Workbook:
Write a letter from your 85-year-old self and hear what actually matters
Use aged-photo visualization to strengthen connection with future you
Learn how to track daily choices as gifts or debts to your future self
Practice having conversations with your future self before major decisions
You won’t find generic advice or motivational fluff.
Instead, you’ll be guided through practical, research-backed exercises that create immediate clarity:
Complete a 7-day Future Self Habit practice to build momentum
Each exercise is designed to make your future feel real, personal, and worth caring for—now.
Who This Is For
This workbook is for you if:
You’re successful, capable, and still feel uncertain about what’s next
You’re approaching retirement and don’t want to drift into it unprepared
You’ve planned financially—but not psychologically
You want this next chapter to be intentional, meaningful, and aligned
You’re ready to stop treating tomorrow like someone else’s responsibility
YOUR FUTURE SELF ISN’T A STRANGER.
They’re shaped by the choices you make today.
Download the Future Self Habit Builder™
Free
What gift will you give your future self this week?
By downloading this workbook, you’ll also receive my weekly email with reflections and research on designing a meaningful life after work. You can unsubscribe anytime.