Coaching practices for Imagine Your Older Self

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Imagine Your Older Self, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I can almost hear my older self looking back at the choices I’m making right now, and I’m scared it’s with regret
• I’ve tried that "imagine your future self" thing but the older me stays a vague stranger I feel nothing for, so it changes nothing
• When I try to picture myself old it’s just a blank, fuzzy outline
• I keep making the choice that the version of me a year from now would groan at
• When I picture myself a year or ten years out, it’s like thinking about a stranger I don’t really owe anything to

Practices that may help

1. Write a letter from your future self to your present self
   Ask your 70-year-old self to write back to you now — with gratitude or regret.
   Future Self Continuity, Made Practical
2. Write a letter from your future self
   Have your 80-year-old self write back about the decision you’re facing now.
   The Regret-Minimization Framework
3. Vividly visualize your future self in concrete detail
   The more specific and sensory your image of your future self, the less you discount their wellbeing.
   Future Self Continuity, Made Practical
4. Consult your future self
   Imagine your wiser future self looking back on this moment, and ask what they’d want you to do.
   Self-Distancing: Thinking Clearly About Your Own Problems
5. Make your future self vivid to reduce psychological distance
   Write to your future self or imagine a specific day in your desired future — temporal distance amplifies present bias; vividness reduces it.
   Hyperbolic Discounting — Why Future You Always Gets the Short End
6. Project to age 80 and look back
   Ask which choice your 80-year-old self will least regret.
   The Regret-Minimization Framework
7. Make the future self vivid and concrete
   A vivid, detailed image of your future self competes more effectively with the present temptation.
   The Marshmallow Test and Your Money
8. Use the 10-year horizon as a regret test
   Ask: in 10 years, will I regret not doing this more than doing it?
   The 10-10-10 Rule
9. Filter decisions through "what would future me thank me for?"
   Before significant decisions, ask whether your future self will be grateful or resentful.
   Future Self Continuity, Made Practical
10. Update and revise possible selves over time
    Revisit and rewrite your possible selves at least twice a year — the self you need to become changes as you grow.
    Possible Selves, Made Practical

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