How Does a Future Self-Strategy Help You Achieve More Success?

When actor Matthew McConaughey won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2014, he gave a brilliant speech on how to succeed in life, saying that a large part of his success is related to his “hero,” who is the human being who dreams of being ten years later.

In this article, we will introduce you to the latest research in psychology on the topic of personality and identity development. You will learn why identity is much more important than personality, how it is the personality engine, and how to imagine yourself in the future so that you can stop living your life based on who you were in the past. But first, let us remember what McConaughey said in his speech:

“When I was 15, someone critical in my life was asking me, "Who's your hero?" And I would say, "It's me in 10 years." When I was 25, the same person asked me if I was a hero as I had hoped, but I was not, and I said, “I am going to be a hero at 35.” You see, I have always seen my hero after ten years, so I am never going to be the hero I wanted to be. I am never going to achieve what I want to be, and I know I am not a hero. That is good for me because it drives me constantly strive to have the personality I want to have.”

The Psychology of “Your Future Self”:

In a speech on the TED platform titled "The Psychology of Your Future Self", Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert talks about a fascinating finding he discovered through his research. Gilbert explains that when people ask if they think they are the same person they were ten years ago, most of them say: “No.” It is very easy to see the changes that occurred from our previous selves to our current selves.” As Gilbert says, people often change beliefs they once thought were good.

But here is where it gets actually interesting. Although people can recognize changes in themselves, they constantly underestimate the changes that will happen in the future, and Gilbert calls this “the end-of-history illusion” by saying, “Human life goes on without interruption, but they make mistakes when they think it is over.”

In fact, it's easy to think that your current personality will be your future personality, and that's not true. Research by Gilbert et al. shows that your personality will change a lot over time, whether you do anything about it or not.

Apart from the illusion of the end of history, there are some other reasons why people mistakenly assume that they will always remain the same, and one reason is what psychologist Carol Dweck calls a “fixed mindset.” In her research, Carol found that those with a fixed mindset determine their future through their presence. In other words, they only capture themselves in what is happening in the present; if someone fails the test, they think they are stupid and will never get over it; thus, they consider the present the ultimate measuring tool of what will always happen.

Those with a growth mindset, on the other hand, enjoy what is still there without paying too much attention to the present and not determining their future based on their present dispositions. They see themselves as in a state of constant transformation and, if they fail, they consider failure as just a lesson to learn from.

The main reason for the fixed mindset information is the unresolved traumatic experiences - big or small - that can be described as “trauma.” Failure to take a math test, for example, can be painful if it becomes an expression of identity. Any negative experience that makes you identify with who you are, such as saying: “I am not good at this,” means that you chose to associate yourself with a particular experience and looked at your current situation after it was your permanent situation. The only way out of this trauma is to look at the helpful meaning of painful past experiences, such as saying “I can learn from this to be a better person in the future.”

Identity is very critical, even much more important than personality, in terms of the results you achieve in life. Your identity is the story you tell about yourself, the way you see and know yourself, and it shapes the behavior that reflects personality over time.

Hal Hershfield, a psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, has studied the impact of the existence of the concept of the future self on current decision-making and found that it is good to see yourself in the future differently than you are today because when you see yourself in the future as a different person with different views and options, you can make current decisions based on what your future self wants, even if these decisions conflict with what you currently prefer. For example, your current self may want to eat many pieces of the cake. Still, if you think about what your future self wants, you may come to a different decision.

Other research shows that without imagining a clear future in your mind, it will be difficult - if not impossible - to follow a “conscious practice” that helps you develop and learn meaningfully. In other words, if you do not have a goal, there will be no process to do it. The goal is always the process; therefore, its absence will make your learning unfocused or directed toward specific outcomes. However, we all need more than one “goal.” We need a future identity.

How to define your future self?

Identity is crucial to driving current behavior. A core principle of psychology is that the best way to predict a person's future behavior is to look at their past behavior. However, when you see your future self clearly, and pursue it as McConaughey did, it will be your future - not your past - which determines your behavior.

Here is a list of tips to help you do this:

• Look at yourself in the future as a different person than you are today.
• Imagine who you will be in the future.
• Maintain your current identity, but not in a stubborn way, and know that who you are now is temporary and not permanent.
• Have the courage to admit what you really want (tell people about yourself in the future).
• Allow your new narrative, focused on your goals, to guide your daily decisions and behavior.
• Measure your progress (conscious practice).
• Invest in your future self (reinforcing commitment).
• Don't believe that your current situation is permanent.
• Ask yourself, “What will you look like in the future?” “Where will you be in ten years?”