Tag: life-planning

  • Connect to your future selves

    Many people are woefully disconnected from their future selves, living in a kind of eternal present where "the future" is an imaginary place and their future self is a stranger whose problems don't matter. When you're disconnected, you can't really plan, and the future you inherit is chaotic and unfamiliar. But once you have the timeless pattern established in your life, the benefits compound: better habits, plans you can trust, more brainpower to apply when you need it, and the nerve to take on bigger things. Here's how I stay connected to my future selves.

    generalist-skillset

     

  • Connect to your past selves

    Looking at your past selves lets you see the tiny seeds of thought that grew into prevailing patterns and frames that you take for granted now. And you learn what worked and what didn't, what was important and what wasn't. This is wisdom.

    generalist-skillset

     

  • Your four-dimensional body

    You are a four-dimensional being. You have definite bounds in length, width, height, and time. And you can cast your consciousness through time: into the past through memory, and into the future through prediction and planning. Are you acquainted with your one-year-ago self? With your future self?

    generalist-skillset

     

  • Manage your indefinite optimisms

    Thiel’s diagnosis of "indefinite optimism" in startups also applies at the personal, life-planning level, and I’ve found it to be a really useful, if scary, tool for that. What are the pleasant future daydreams that you passively hope for?

    generalist-skillset