Today marks the end of 2025—and with it, the close of the first quarter of the 21st century. I can't believe that 25 years have passed since the new millennium.
This morning, I chatted with my daughter and asked her to imagine who she might be at the end of the second quarter of this century. It was a simple question, but can be a disorienting one. Time, suddenly, felt less abstract and more personal.
Many of us want a better future, yet fail to make choices that truly support it. One reason is that we often see our future selves as distant strangers—someone we vaguely hope will be fine, but not someone we feel responsible for today.
Hal Hershfield, a psychology professor at UCLA, explores this idea in his book Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today. Drawing on more than a decade of research, he shows that when the future feels remote, people are far more likely to favor immediate gratification over long-term well-being.
His findings are strikingly consistent: people who can vividly imagine their future selves tend to make better decisions. They are more willing to save money, to exercise, and to invest in themselves—professionally, financially, and physically. In short, they behave as if their future selves are real people worth caring for.
The key, Hershfield argues, is to build a stronger connection with that future version of ourselves. When we do, we become better at balancing present enjoyment with long-term planning.
One simple method is to have a conversation with our future selves—by writing a letter to them. In studies, participants who “interacted” with their future selves showed a stronger inclination toward long-term saving and self-discipline.
Another method is to change how we measure time. Years feel abstract and forgiving; days feel concrete and finite. When we think in days rather than years, time stops stretching endlessly ahead of us. The future begins to approach, one day at a time, and with it comes a sense of urgency.
So try this: imagine yourself 1,000 days from now—your 2028 self. Write them a short message. It can be a promise, a hope, or a reminder.
Three years from now, when you read those words again, you may discover that the future did not show up suddenly. It was shaped patiently, day after day, by the choices you made daily while it still felt far away.