Ready to step into a future where you’re thriving in health, wealth, relationships, and spirit? In today’s episode of Next Act Ninjas, your host Rachael Van Pelt guides you through a powerful exercise to connect with your future self; go beyond standard New Year’s resolutions and shallow goals.
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Why Listen Now?
As we transition to a new year, it’s the perfect time to reimagine who you want to be. Get inspired to take small, consistent steps that align with your future identity and legacy. Share this episode with someone ready to grow, and subscribe so you never miss a chance to level up your Next Act!
Chapters
00:00 Connecting with Your Future Self
01:52 Past Reflection - Who were you 5 years ago?
04:12 Present Assessment – Where Are You Now?
06:20 Envisioning Your Future Self
09:07 Why it's Hard to Envision Future You
10:48 Letter from Future You
13:06 Transforming Identity for Long-Term Growth
Welcome back to Next Act Ninjas, the number one podcast for mastering your health and wealth longevity. I'm your host, Rachael Van Pelt. As we transition to a new year, I think it is the perfect time to reflect, to dream, and to plan for what's ahead. Today's episode is all about connecting with your future self.
This is an exercise that I do every year, but it isn't about New Year's resolutions or goal setting. This is about intentionally designing a life you love and crafting a legacy that lasts. I'm going to kick us off with a famous quote that I think perfectly frames this conversation. The quote is from Abraham Maslow. He once said, "In any given moment, we have two choices: step forward into growth or step backwards into safety".
It's true, isn't it? Right now, you are choosing to listen to this podcast and grow from new ideas. Alternatively, you could avoid anything that resembles learning. You could cling to the safety of status quo. The problem with this latter choice, status quo is an illusion. Things are always changing, aren't they? They never stay the same. So even when we choose to play it safe and do nothing, we're actually choosing the opposite of growth. We are choosing decline. Naturally, our life trends towards entropy, or disorder, if we do nothing. And who wants that? I know I don't. So grab your favorite beverage, get comfortable, and let's connect with your future self, the version of you who has grown immensely from the choices that you make today.
But before we look forward, let's look backwards. We're going to start with reflection because I think it's far easier to see how much we change over time looking back. Think back to five years ago. Who were you in 2019? What did your life look like? What challenges defined your days? Were you managing a demanding job, raising kids, or perhaps just beginning to explore this idea of a Next Act?
If you're the writing type, do a brain dump of your thoughts. Here are a couple of journaling prompts that I love to get you going. #1) what have you achieved or experienced in the past five years that make you proud? #2) what areas of your life still feel stuck or stagnant?
Really take some time to reflect on all that you've accomplished over the past five years. If you're someone who has a growth mindset, then I'll bet you have changed a ton in that short amount of time. Shoot, the trials and tribulations of 2020 and 2021 were enough to transform all of us whether we were growth-minded or not. But seriously, how are you different today from who you were five years ago?
When I look back five years, I see a version of myself with big dreams, but also significant doubts. Many of those doubts I've worked through. Others still rear their heads now and then. And that's okay. The key here is not to judge. It's to learn how much we've changed over time.
Take a moment to sit with these thoughts. Reflect on the journey you've traveled so far and how those experiences have shaped you. Write them down in as much detail as you can. By capturing where you've been, you are going to gain great clarity about how much you change over time and where you get stuck.
When you're done with that, I want you to bring your attention back to the present. Take stock of where you are today. You're standing at the crossroads between growth and retreating into safety. So let's consider the main pillars of your life.
We're going to start with your health. Generally speaking, are you simply managing illness? Are you being proactive and trying to prevent disease or are you optimizing your healthspan? Are you performing at your peak? Drilling down and getting more specific. Do you have healthy habits that are making a difference in your life? Conversely are there habits that you're clinging to that don't serve your health goals anymore? Perhaps it's things like late-night snacking or skipping workouts or excessive stress. Do you have things like that that are holding you back?
What about your wealth? Are you just getting by? Are you growing your nest egg? Or are you really optimizing for wealthspan? Dig deep here. Think about it for a moment. Are you aligning your financial decisions and actions with your long-term goals?
And what about your relationships? Are you just barely keeping in touch with old friends? Are you nurturing your friendships? Are you continuing to make new connections?
And what about your spirit? Who do you see when you look in the mirror? Is your life guided by deeply held values? Do you have a north star that keeps you pointed in the right direction? Are your daily actions aligned with your vision?
Take as much time as you need to reflect on those four areas, health, wealth, relationships, and spirit. Be honest with yourself. Where are you thriving and where are you simply surviving? Because self-awareness is the first step towards meaningful growth. Self-awareness will allow you to shift your identity. You don't have to be trapped by your past identity and unable to move forward in life. You can let go of anything that's not integral to who you want to become.
And that leads us to the fun part of this exercise, envisioning your future. Who do you want to be one year from now? And don't think small. I want you to think big. Why? Because as Dan Sullivan put it so eloquently, "The only way to make your present better is by making your future bigger." When your future is big and bright, you can't wait to get up in the morning and make stuff happen, right? Conversely, if you have no vision or hope for a better future, what happens? Life gets pretty dismal, doesn't it? So let's go big.
I'm recording this at the end of 2024 and looking forward to 2025. So as I do this exercise, I'm thinking about my future self who's stepping powerfully into 2026. But you can do this exercise whenever you listen to this podcast episode. Whatever time of year it is, simply forecast one year into the future.
Once you've done that reflection exercise and seen just how much you change in a few short years, once you've done a current state-of-the-union assessment of your health, your wealth, your relationships, your spirit, that's when you're ready to fully connect with your future self. The version of you who has been movin' and shakin' for another year and is all the wiser for it. The future you who took action throughout the year to steadily improve each area of your life.
What is your future self celebrating about her health? Can you picture yourself celebrating having taken steps to level-up your healthspan? When you imagine waking up one year from now feeling vibrant and full of life, what exactly are you doing? How exactly does it feel? Describe your emotions and day-to-day routine in as much detail as you can.
And what is your future self celebrating about wealth? Did he or she take steps to extend wealthspan? Can you picture yourself thriving financially and living intentionally while planning a legacy? Maybe you've made strategic investments or relocated to be near family. Whatever the case, how does it feel? Get specific.
And keep going with this exercise. What is your future self celebrating about your relationships? What is he or she celebrating about your spirit? Really step into your shoes one year from now. What does life look like? How does it feel? Visualize and emotionalize future you in as much detail as you can.
And if you're one of those people that thinks you're not good at envisioning the future, I totally get it. I used to think I couldn't do this exercise either for lack of imagination. But then I had a coach point out to me that I was incredibly good at ruminating about past mistakes and worrying about the future. So I must be fairly imaginative because neither of those things is in the present. It's not actually lack of imagination that gets in our way. It's our cognitive biases.
For most of us, connecting with our future self is challenging because we have two very powerful cognitive biases. The first bias is called "temporal discounting", which is just a fancy way of saying that we prioritize immediate rewards over long-term benefits. We undervalue the importance of future outcomes. The second cognitive bias is called the "empathy gap", which simply means we struggle to emotionally relate to our future self. We view them as if they were a complete stranger rather than an extension of who we are today. These disconnects lead us to make choices that satisfy our present desires at the expense of our long-term goals. And that makes it harder for us to align our current actions with the person that we want to become. I only point these biases out because once we know what they are, we can flip them on their heads. We can actually learn to empathize with our future self and we can learn to prioritize long-term rewards.
One great way to empathize with your future self is to step into their frame of reference for a short period. I recommend writing a letter to your current self from the perspective of future you. Just like you could write to your past self today. Your letter might sound something like, "Hey, Rachael, you got this. I know in 2025 you feel like that next level is out of reach and that it's going to take too much work, but I'm here to tell you it isn't. I took that 10x leap. It's amazing. From my 2026 perspective, looking back, I can now see that it was far easier than I thought. I don't know what I was so worried about. In fact, it was so easy and rewarding. I can't wait to 10x again in 2027. Just take action, my friend. I promise you won't regret it."
Now, regardless of how you do it, whether you visualize or you write a letter, just take the time to deeply connect with future you. Not to live for the future, this is just a temporary visit, but to make your future bigger and brighter and bring it into focus. Ultimately, this is what's going to make your present better. And you'll be able to reverse engineer your strategy for the coming year. You'll gain massive clarity around your next steps. Everything will be just a little easier. It's like having a friend you look up to who's just a few steps ahead of you leading the way.
You're going to discover that connecting with your future self goes far deeper than traditional New Year's resolutions or goal setting because it focuses on your identity and long-term transformation, not just goals or outcomes. Resolutions typically aim to fix something short term - lose weight, save money, get organized - but they rarely address the deeper question of who you want to become. When you connect with your future self, you create a vision for your life that's anchored in your purpose and your values. It's not about ticking off a to-do list. It's about aligning your present actions with the person you're evolving into. You're molding your identity like a clay sculpture.
And this approach is more sustainable because it taps into your desire to live a life that feels authentic, meaningful, and aligned with your legacy. When you focus on forming your future identity, you're not just planning your year, you're designing a life that you'll be proud to look back on.
Remember, every big transformation starts with one small step. Maybe today's step is listening to this podcast and taking notes. Tomorrow's step, setting aside 10 minutes to reflect and journal. Whatever it is, do it with intention. Visualize the confident, resilient version of yourself in 2026 or 2027. Get clear and specific. What new daily practices, mindsets, or habits have you incorporated into your life?
Take a deep breath and really feel that version of you. And then think about what small steps can you take today towards becoming that you? Remember, change doesn't happen overnight, it's the accumulation of small, consistent actions that are congruent with that person that you want to become.
That's all I have for today. Thank you for joining me. If this episode of Next Act Ninjas inspired you, share it with someone else who's creating their best Next Act. Let's grow this community of Ninjas together. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss what we've got coming up in the new year. Until next time, live well, love more, age less, my friends.