Benjamin P. Hardy Quotes

Are you willing to put the important before the urgent? Are you committed to your current self or your Future Self? Are you driven by short-term and urgent battles, or lifting your gaze to be your Future Self now? Without question, taking ownership of your time demands commitment and courage. Busy can be a comfort zone despite knowing you’re being ineffective. Living busy and trapped in lesser goals allows you to avoid the truth of your Future Self.

The idea of long-term planning is a relatively new concept from a human evolution standpoint. We weren’t evolved to live this long and have to make plans for the very distant future. Storing food for the next month or two, sure. But, to think about stocking away a retirement nest egg in case I’m retired for 30 years? This is relatively foreign. You couple that novel aspect of planning with the idea that we’re very swayed by everything that is happening in the present. It’s very easy to ignore the long, long run, and really hard to ignore all the pulls on our attention right now. Spending more money right now and eating something delicious right now — it’s appealing to do those things because we know we get the rewards right now. But to not do those things — to not spend, to not eat unhealthily — so that our long-run selves can be better off, well, that’s a hard proposition for a lot of people because the present is so powerful.” — Dr. Hal Hershfield38

Do you want better and bigger goals? A better Future Self? Expose yourself to better perspectives and evolved people.

Business strategist Charlie Jones stated, “You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
By proactively changing your inputs of information, experiences, and people, you become aware of what you previously didn’t know. You see what you previously didn’t notice. You seek what you previously didn’t want. You act in ways you previously didn’t behave.

Albert Einstein correctly said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”26 When you appreciate that your Future Self will be a totally different person than you are today, then you free yourself of needing to be perfect or finished now. Your current self is radically temporary and fleeting.

Know that whatever you want is already yours. Act as though everything you want can and will be yours.

Be, then do, then have.

Step #5 to being your Future Self is automating and systemizing your Future Self. How can you better systemize your desired Future Self? What could you simplify and eliminate from your life, to free yourself from decision fatigue and lesser goals? What barriers and filters could you create to protect your time and attention? What could you automate, such as a weekly investing strategy? Where could you find a who to handle some of the hows that are outside your zone of genius?22

Personality — like passion, inspiration, motivation, and confidence — is a by-product of your decisions in life.

Hope is: a clear and specific goal agency thinking. Belief you have control over what you do, that your actions matter, and you can impact the results in your life.10 pathways thinking. You see a path, have a path, or can create multiple paths from where you are now to your goal.

Don’t let your past be forgotten. Always measure backward.

In our world with limitless options, limitless books to read, limitless clothes to wear, limitless paths to take, it is extremely important to be picky. Excess is a suppressant to abundance. Excess represents the broad path which most people travel. With too many clothes in their closets and too many competing priorities, paralysis by analysis is at an extreme.

When you see yourself succeed, you develop more confidence in your ability to succeed at bigger and bigger things.

Right now, you’re committed to your current life and habits. You’re committed to your current results. You’re reading this book because you want better results. You want new commitments.

Start asking, and you’ll start receiving. It’s startling how fast you’ll get what you want once you directly ask.

Psychologists call this unique human ability prospection; as people, everything we do is driven by our prospects of the future.27 Prospection is based on a teleological view of the world, which views all human action and behavior as driven by goals — whether short term or long term.