Loving Your Future Selves

An interesting study found that people who placed an artificially aged self-portrait on their desks were more likely to contribute to their retirement accounts and to live healthier lifestyles than a control group without the portrait. It seems that contemplating an old version of ourselves leads us to live more intentionally in the present. 

In his three-part lecture series on marriage, Jordan Peterson gives an argument against hedonism that invites us into a similar reflection. Dr. Peterson asks, “Are you doing what makes you happy in an impulsive way or are you doing what’s best for you in the multiplicity of your iterations across the broadest span of decades?” He then makes this proposal: “If you’re acting properly in relation to you and all of your future selves, then you’re sacrificing the idiot impulsive hedonism of the present to a medium to long term strategy.” Living rightly involves looking ahead—balancing the desire for pleasure now with actions that also lead to happiness in the future. We look not just to our current self, but to our future selves as well. 

The Roman philosopher Cicero also pondered these things in his treatise, On Old Age. In it he raises the question of how to live old age well and his answer is surprising. Rather than focusing on what to do while one is old, Cicero spends much time arguing that the key to a happy old age has more to do with how one has spent his youth. If we live a healthy life full of virtuous and noble action, choosing to develop pursuits that we can carry on even in our later years (for example, philosophy or politics), and we are good to our friends and family, then we can look forward to a satisfying old age. If we do the opposite, we will be miserable. 

This week, I invite you to consider how you take care of your future selves: 

In what areas am I doing well? In what areas do I want to improve? What might it cost my future selves if I don’t change? If I could only pick one area to improve, what would it be? What will be my first step to begin that change? 

God bless,
Dan