Coaching practices for What Would Future Me Want

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For What Would Future Me Want, 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
• I’m standing at a real fork right now and going in circles
• I keep making the choice that the version of me a year from now would groan at
• The version of me who’d benefit from saving feels like a stranger I owe nothing 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. 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
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 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
6. 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
7. Build a vivid, concrete future orientation
   Make the future feel real and close by describing it in sensory, specific detail.
   Time Perspective Therapy
8. Journal to your future self weekly
   Writing regularly to a named future self builds the relationship and makes future wellbeing feel personal.
   Future Self Continuity, Made Practical
9. Connect with your future self to motivate present sacrifice
   Vividly imagining your future self makes abstract long-term gains feel more real than immediate temptations.
   The Willpower Instinct: What Self-Control Actually Is
10. 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

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