Your Future Self - by Hal Hershfield (Hardcover)

About the Book

Discusses why people are disconnected from their future selves, frequently opting for immediate gratification and making decisions that fail to consider future health and well-being, and offers practical advice for balancing living for today with planning for tomorrow.

Book Synopsis

Set your future self up for success with the "fascinating, profound, and immediately practical guide to shaping your life to come, while living more richly in the moment."―Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks

We've all had the desire to travel through time and see what our lives will be like later in life. But while we want the best possible future for ourselves, we often fail to make decisions that would truly make that version of the future a reality:

• Why do we choose steak over vegetables at dinner, waving off concerns about high cholesterol?
• Why do we splurge on luxury cars rather than save for retirement?
• Why can't we stick to our exercise programs?
• Why are so many of us so disconnected from our future selves?

Based on over a decade of groundbreaking research, Your Future Self is the "entertaining and powerful book" (Carol Dweck, author of Mindset) that explains that in our minds, our future selves often look like strangers. Many of us view the future as incredibly distant, making us more likely to opt for immediate gratification that disregards our health and well-being in the years to come. People who are able to connect with their future selves, however, are better able to balance living for today and planning for tomorrow. "Mind-boggling and soul-stirring" (Daniel H. Pink, author of The Power of Regret), Your Future Self describes the mental mistakes we make in thinking about the future and gives us practical advice for imagining our best future so we can make that vision a reality.

Review Quotes

"Your Future Self is filled with actionable methods, backed by his own and other academics' research, and with a generous understanding of what it means to be a human, facing the future, right now."--Carla Fried, UCLA Anderson Review

"I can't recommend the book more highly, especially because the author's exceptional use of narrative gives this behavioral science volume a surprising page-turner quality."--Tim Maurer, Forbes

"An encouraging, practical guide for decision-making."--Kirkus Reviews

"A fascinating, profound, and immediately practical guide to shaping your life to come, while living more richly in the moment. I fully expect future versions of myself to thank me for reading it."--Oliver Burkeman, New York Times bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks

"As a pioneering psychologist, Hal Hershfield's research has changed how I think about the future, and he's about to do the same for you. His book offers a fascinating window into who you might become tomorrow--and how you can have more say in that evolution today. Your future self will be grateful that you read it."--Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast Re: Thinking

"When you get to the last page of this fascinating book, your future self will thank you for having started it. An insightful and delightful examination of the strange journey we all make through time. Don't leave the present without it!"--Daniel Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Stumbling on Happiness

"Who doesn't want to grow? To have a better future? Fascinating and illuminating, Your Future Self shows us how to get there. It's certain to shift the ways we live--right now and beyond."--Jonah Berger, New York Times bestselling author of Contagious, Invisible Influence, and The Catalyst

"Humans are funny creatures. We know what we need to do to take care of our future selves--eat less, save more, floss--and yet we fail to do them consistently. Hal Hershfield offers an entertaining guide to getting out of our own way that's rooted in science but full of practical ways to change."--Jean Chatzky, author of Women with Money and CEO of HerMoney.com

"Your Future Self is at once mind-boggling and soul-stirring. Hal Hershfield makes complex science come alive -- while also delivering practical tips to close the gap between who we are today and who we can become tomorrow. This is the rare book that will change whom you see in the mirror."--Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret

"A timely idea from one of today's leading behavioral scientists. Your Future Self delivers on its promise, showing you how and why mental time travel makes your tomorrow better today! What's more, this book is both personal and thoroughly grounded in the latest research, much of which Hershfield has pioneered himself."--Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of Grit

"Hershfield's entertaining and powerful book tells us how thinking about the future can change our behavior in the present--and help us grow into the people we eventually want to be."--Carol Dweck, New York Times bestselling author of Mindset

About the Author

Hal Hershfield is a professor of marketing, behavioral decision-making, and psychology at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, where he has won numerous awards for his teaching and research. His research on future selves has received widespread attention in outlets such as NPR, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and The Atlantic. Hershfield's research has been published in prestigious business, psychology, and general science academic journals, as well as in the Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, and Psychology Today.