[Book Review] Future Self: Living Like Someone Who Just Arrived from the Future

After reading Benjamin Hardy’s Future Self, I reflect on his cool insight, gentle persistence, sharp logic, and plainspoken honesty.

The most chilling part was the warning about “autopilot.” The point that doctors with 20 years of practice can regress compared to fresh graduates sends a cold shiver down the backs of those wearing the comfortable armor of a profession. How often do we, under the name of expertise, get trapped in the prison of habitual thinking? The sentence that 20 years of experience may, in reality, be nothing more than 1 year of experience repeated 20 times coldly reminds us that simply enduring time is not growth. The weight of training is as light as a feather, but the weight of regret that comes after neglected time can reach tons.

We usually live by putting out fires at our feet and erasing the future in the process. But the book says that the bigger the goal, or rather the more impossible it seems, the more honestly and clearly it forces us to look at our present selves. Setting a future self that is 10 times better than who I am now is not a far-fetched fantasy. Rather, it is an exercise in clearly revealing the unnecessary things that must be removed from life as it is now. As the saying goes, perfection is achieved not when there is more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. The future self should not be someone who has more things, but someone simple who focuses only on what matters most. The fact that more than three priorities are not priorities, and the advice that life should be systematized and automated to reduce decision fatigue, demand clear order from an otherwise hectic daily life.

“What if we think of ourselves as having come from the future?” is the most beautiful premise of this book. The advice to treat today as if it were a second life makes us realize that this very moment is our one chance to correct the mistakes we made yesterday. Exercise and reading are not things to do when we have time; they are matters of survival that must be secured even if we have to borrow against the future. At the point where a lack of purpose shortens life and having a purpose extends even biological lifespan, this book feels like it contains humanistic reflection that goes beyond a simple self-help book. The attitude that even pain and wounds can be used as teachers of growth is competent optimism that all of us enduring the meagerness of life need.

Acting with 80% completion is the driving force that creates the future self, rather than hesitating while striving for 100% perfection. If we understand Parkinson’s Law—that work expands to fill the time available—we must find the courage to compress a three-year plan into three months. In the end, all of this reading comes down to one question: How will my future self remember my present self?

Life flows from the future into the present. Only those who start at the desired point and walk backward can escape the circle of wandering in place and reach the destination.

Now, let’s live like someone who has just arrived from the future.

Future Self 300,000-Copy Commemorative Special Edition

Benjamin Hardy 2024 Imagine Square

Memorable Quotes

From the recommendations

• What if we think of ourselves as having come from the future? What should we do? Right now!

• If you can’t exercise or read because you don’t have time, then you lose your future. Exercise and reading are things you should do even if you have to borrow money.

• Small successes can be a “gain,” and big failures can be a “gain.” What we need to keep in mind is that what we do every day is a “small failure.”

• Jeff Bezos created something called the “regret minimization framework” for the best decision-making.

From the main text

• The bigger the goal, even the more impossible it is, the more honestly and calmly you are able to look at your current situation.

• Imagine a future self who is 10 times greater and 10 times more outstanding than your present self.

• I hope you set impossible goals every 3 to 5 years. Then every 3 to 5 years, you will achieve and grow by 10 times more than everything you had achieved up to that point combined.

• Knowing the why is the most profound and powerful form of knowledge. The why is the driving force behind the what and the how.

• Usually, we are so busy dealing with the problems right in front of us that it is hard to look beyond the present moment. But the more deeply and far ahead you think about the future, the more your ability to shape it into what you want improves.

• Start from what you want and go backward. Rather than moving toward the goal, think and act from the point of the goal itself.

• Live as if you are living a second life. And think about whether you are trying to repeat the wrong actions you made in your first life!

• For human beings to live happily and healthily, they must have a purpose they want to achieve in the future.

• A lack of purpose shortens life, while having a purpose can extend life expectancy above average.

• If pain and wounds are used effectively with a focus on growth, they become surprisingly persuasive teachers.

• The information you take in determines your perspective. Perspective determines outcomes, and outcomes determine the future.

• You must come into frequent contact with people who have excellent insight and ability.

• Personally, my biggest mistake was failing to set bold goals in either my private or professional life.

• Set your goals recklessly high. Then the method for achieving them will become immediately clear.

• If you want to find a mentor, you must find someone who is in the arena. Seek advice from someone who has experienced the battle you are facing.

• We all have a potential baseline where we feel comfortable. When we achieve success beyond that baseline, we unconsciously engage in self-destructive behavior in an attempt to return to the baseline.

• The weight of training is not much, but the weight of regret reaches tons.

• If you do not have clear goals and a way to measure the process of achieving them, you will wander in circles.

• When autopilot appears in skills or learning, what you have learned stays at that level and gradually regresses over time. For example, multiple studies have shown that doctors who have been practicing for 20 years often experience a decline in skill compared to when they had just graduated from medical school. These doctors are trapped in habitual ways of thinking and behaving, and they have not improved their practice methods over a long period of time. They often have not built a 20-year career; rather, they have repeated 1 year of experience 20 times.

• Automated behavior does not improve performance no matter how much experience accumulates. In contrast, people who will become experts in the future continuously improve performance by practicing intentionally and accumulating more experience. ... They do this by setting new goals and raising the standard for performance. This requires improving speed and accuracy and controlling behavior. Experts do not feel complacent with their current level of performance; they intentionally create and seek training situations in order to achieve goals that exceed that level.

• Pursue more than three goals, and you will gain nothing.

• Clearly define three priorities, then set 12-month goals for each priority. At this time, the goals must be specific, and the process must be measurable.

• If you use 10x as the 기준, you will immediately see ways to skip over what other people are doing.

• Perfection is achieved not when there is more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

• Just ask. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be embarrassed.

• Set it up so that a fixed amount is automatically transferred from my bank account to my investment account every Monday.

• To get where you want to go faster and more easily, you have to automate and systematize your future self.

• Having too many options makes it hard to focus and commit. The basis of decision-making is willingly accepting opportunity cost. Making your future self clear and simple can free you from decision fatigue, distraction, and less important goals. You must focus your time and attention on the three most important and most efficient priorities.

• What should I remove from my life to escape decision fatigue and less important goals? How can I simplify my life? What should I block and filter out to save time and mental energy?

• To enjoy more freedom in money, relationships, and purpose, you must first secure freedom of time.

• Psychological detachment from work is an increasingly important concept in occupational psychology, and it emphasizes the importance of turning off the work switch. If you keep working, stay perpetually ready to jump into work, and never take full rest, immersion, creativity, and high performance are essentially impossible. ... Two important goals I pursue in my work are writing more good books and producing more YouTube videos.

• To be the best in the world, you need to know when to endure and when to give up.

• If you do not look back on yourself and think, “Wow, I was so foolish a year ago,” it means you did not learn much over the past year.

• Parkinson’s Law: Any task will expand to fill the time given for it. If you plan to complete something in three years, it may take three years to finish. But if you think you will finish it in three months, you will probably find a way to complete it within that time.

• The 80% rule: If you aim for 80%, you get results, but if you aim for 100% perfection, you are still just thinking about it.