A Review of Be Your Future Self Now

Your past, present, and future are all drafts. Last summer I devoured the book Be Your Future Self Now by Benjamin Hardy and it still has a huge impact on my day-to-day. Today is an official review of the book.

Want to save this post?

Enter your email below and get it sent straight to your inbox. Plus, I’ll send you time- and money-saving tips every week!

This is the third book I’ve read of Hardy’s, the other two having been co-written with Dan Sullivan. Who Not How is about delegating while The Gap and the Gain is about measuring progress.

Both of those are written with entrepreneurs in mind, though The Gap and the Gain has many take-aways for everyone. It’s part of my Must Reads for Adulting list. It’s very possible I will need to add this book to the list.

Subtitled, The Science of Intentional Transformation, the book presents the argument that it’s not your past that drives or dictates your actions, but your future.

The picture that you envision of your future is what motivates you in the present.

Work backward.

Working backward is the name of the game. As Hardy states,

Decisions and actions are best when reverse-engineered from a desired outcome. Start with what you want and work backward. Think and act from your goal, rather than toward your goal.

The book is laid out in three parts:

7 Threats to Your Future Self
7 Truths About Your Future Self
7 Steps for Being Your Future Self

Each part explores different concepts to help you think about your future self, who you want to be, what you want to experience, and what will help or hinder you from achieving that.

There are lots of practical activities included in the book, such as writing letters to your future self in different stages of the future as well as writing to your past self. Journaling and 90-day planning is a big part of it, so he’s speaking my life language.

Hardy frames all the activities with the encouragement to be compassionate and hopeful to yourself. How you talk to yourself matters, no matter the time frame.

mom in front seat of car with kids giving thumbs up from back seats.

The past is a draft. So is the future.

I’ve mentioned this idea before,

What we tell ourselves about the past can change based on new information and new insights we gain. I’m not advocating that we rewrite history, but that we can look at an experience and retell it in ways that help our present and future selves grow and evolve into healthier, happier human beings.

It’s not that we deny bad or hard things, but we can talk about them in ways that benefit us.

Last summer I explored it a bit with my therapist. (Reading this book concurrently with EMDR therapy can’t be a coincidence!)

She asked me if the present is the final draft. I’m not sure she had a specific “right answer” in mind, but my thought is that someday when we are complete in Christ, that will be the final draft.

In the meantime, each day is a draft to live through, make mistakes, learn from, and write a better version tomorrow. Having a focus or a goal point in our future selves is part of the process.

Hardy doesn’t say that in the book, but it’s been one of my a-ha’s.

(In fact, he has a section on God in the book which from a theological point I firmly disagree. I don’t think any of his three descriptions of God are accurate, so read this as my big disclaimer that I don’t endorse his religious views.)

All the same, the book was a huge encouragement to me!

Another caveat: Bryan recently listened to one of Hardy’s previous books, Personality Isn’t Permanent and says that much of the content is identical. Not sure how much is actual overlap or different takes on the same theme, but keep that in mind if you’ve read that or intend to read other things.

Since he co-wrote the previous two books I read, I’m just getting familiar with his ideas. I’ve enjoyed some of his YouTube channel, but again, a lot of the same kind of ideas.

a walking path heading toward the sun and blue skies overhead.

Your mileage may vary.

Before I had kids, I taught literature. Before that, I studied literature.

Two readers can read the same thing and take different meaning from the same text. What you get out of BYFSN may differ from what I got. (I’d love to hear your take-aways!)

My main takeaway was to have confidence and hope for the future, to articulate what I want from the future, to be open to that “future” changing shape as I live more life and get more information, and to be intentional in my steps toward that future.

I checked out a digital copy of the book from the library, but then was able to get a free copy here. I’m not sure if that still works or not.