The Future Self Does Not Exist

I don’t want to focus on my future self.

This sentence alone stands against most goals, seminars, and books in the self-help industry. It conflicts with my prior thoughts and beliefs about what it means to propel ourselves forward.

People constantly prepare for the future in hopes of being happier, healthier, and more successful. We assume our future self will be wise, wealthy, and more responsible, too. We say things like:

I’ll start that exercise program later.
I’ll save that project for another day.
I’ll invest for retirement when I’m older.

Yet when is this future we’re aspiring towards?

Five days from now?
One month from now?
Ten years from now?

Even if we do become happier, healthier, and more successful than we were yesterday, we’ll try to become even better than before. The future is fleeting, and we chase objectives that never stop.

I don’t want to focus on being happier in five years, I want to focus on being happy now.
I don’t want to focus on being healthier in five years, I want to focus on being healthy now.
I don’t want to focus on being successful in five years, I want to focus on being successful now.

The future self does not exist, it’s merely a perception. The present self is all we have, why not embrace these desirable qualities now?

The concept of a future self is not a requirement to persuade us into good behavior. When we pursue enjoyable activities that increase our well-being, the good behavior takes care of itself. We all know a quick fix leads to a quick disaster. True fulfillment comes from the desire to pursue nourishing activities.

Rick Hanson reminds us of a Tibetan saying, “If you take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves.” When we focus on being the best version of our present self, our future will take care of itself.