Remember Your Future Self

Psuedo-Productivity:
The art of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort.
- Cal Newport

To an outsider, what exactly does it look like when you’re spending time getting clear about your future self? Unfortunately, few if any of your friends or family will be able to appreciate the fact that you’re trying to carve out something brand new in a future that hasn’t arrived. They may want you to do “real work” instead of worrying about your future. Remembering Your Future Self is very productive work - even if not readily apparent at first!

To successfully Remember Your Future Self is going to require time apart from the usual busyness and frantic to-do lists. More than likely, Future You will require some entirely different ways of working and more importantly - different ways of thinking. So not only must you get clear about the new accomplishments and things you want in your life, you must also imagine the new you who will bring those new things into being.

“Slow down in order speed up” may sound like some kind of Yoda movie quote, but if you want to stop making incremental progress, and start making ROCKET progress, then your current ways of working are not going to suffice.

Here are five questions to consider as you slow down in order to speed up.

1). Are you spending enough time imagining how Future You is going to work differently than current you? Remember, Current You is perfectly, exactly, 100% aligned and optimized to get the results of… Current You. Everything in your life is a perfect reflection of how you think and how you work. This iron-clad alignment between input and output means new results are going require new ways of working! Seeing a new you into being does not happen in an instant. You need to take time and really think about how Future You is going to approach things differently compared to Current You.

2). How flexible are you, really? There’s a saying “Old habits die hard” - and if you are stuck at a certain level of success, it’s likely because you are holding onto an entire system of habits and ways of doing things that simply won’t work at the next level. Look with fresh eyes on your systems, habits and routines - and start making changes.

3). How will future you get far higher quality things done, and with way less friction and struggle and distractions? There is a danger with goal setting that it simply amplifies your current levels of stress and inefficiency. To accomplish ROCKET Goals will require you to strip away a lot of extra baggage and become very streamlined and friction free. Imagine the super productive, super relaxed Future You - not a burned out unhappy “winner”.

4). What pain are you willing to endure to become the Future You? Often, the transformation into a person capable of achieving bigger visions involves overcoming discomfort and challenges. David Goggins advocates embracing pain as a tool for growth. How can you apply this mindset to anticipate and prepare for the inevitable hardships on your path to becoming your Future Self?

5). What new communities or networks will Future You be part of, and how will these connections influence your goals? The journey to your Future Self isn't just a solo endeavor. It often requires the support and challenge of like-minded individuals. Think about the types of communities, both professional and personal, that will best support the growth and achievements of Future You. How can you start to engage with or even create these communities now?

Conclusion
The productive effort of Remembering Your Future Self is not readily apparent to others, and maybe not even to yourself - at least not immediately. However, don’t ever underestimate the power of your imagination in driving a particular certainty and expectation over future events. “The best way to predict the future is to invent it” is a saying that is often applied to tech innovation, but it also holds true when it comes to Remembering Your Future Self. Take the time to build out in imagination, the Future You who is achieving your greatest ROCKET Goals. Remember, there needs to be a new Future You to get new results!