“people with more self-continuity are more likely to engage in behaviors that deliver future benefits”
In a 2009 study of 164 people, a team employed a series of Venn diagrams, with two circles overlapping to various degrees. Participants were asked to pick the circle pair best describing how alike and connected they felt to themselves 10 years in the future. This is called self continuity.
Some, overlapped quite a bit while other barely touched as seen in the illustration below:
We are very capable of standing on a precipice and looking both directions. One forward and one back. So what if our current self wrote a letter to our future self? What would we want to tell our future self. What would we say? What would our future self say to us in the present?
As we age, we hopefully grow and mature. At 60 I definitely had some things I wish I could have told my past self from when I was 25. And when we have this conversation with our future selves we grow in continuity. We develop skills that can propel us to save for the future or to move forward with more empathy and constraint. Or we abandon it all together.
When I die, I do not want to have left a stone unturned. I want to live and experience all that life has to offer. So what is left unturned becomes reality in our future lives.
We don’t have to look towards the end of our life or even 10 years in the future. Start with what your future life will end up looking like next year, in 2025.
For example, I have a list of 25 bucket list items. But I know full well, I can only realistically complete about 5 of those in a year or so. So prioritize where you want to be next year, then make a list and see if that doesn’t propel you even further. In a way, I feel like this is my future self, informing my present self. Guiding me to where I want to end up in the long run.
For the new year, write about what you see down the road as your future self. It might just be a guiding light for where you actually end up!
Bringinthesheaves 