Agency vs. Uncontrollable Events

Why do we procrastinate, overspend, or neglect habits we know matter? In this episode, UCLA professor Hal Hershfield reveals how our connection (or lack of connection) to our future selves shapes everything from health and finances to ethics and life satisfaction. Drawing on decades of research, Hal introduces practical tools—including reverse time travel, temptation bundling, and vivid imagination exercises—that help close the gap between intention and action. This conversation is equal parts science, story, and strategy for anyone who wants to live with more agency and hope.

Memorable Quotes

1. “It involves thinking about trade-offs between now and later, and thinking about sort of balancing out our happiness and our satisfaction over time between the version of us who exists right now and the version of us who exist in the future.”
2. “People change, and we change much more than we expect to. And the reason I think that that's not something to fear is because it means that we have some control over our lives. It means that we can become different versions of us, we can change aspects of ourselves.”
3. “It may be scary at first to recognize that my life could look different in 10 years than I expect it to be. But the reality that we know from decades of research is that as a human being, we're quite good with grappling with change. We're quite resilient. We have a healthy, what's called ‘psychological immune system,’ which basically means we can sort of fend off the changes that we don't want and sort of learn to live with the way that life has become.”
4. “What the research has found is that if we make the process of achieving a goal more fun, more enjoyable, more pleasurable, we're just—and this shouldn't surprise anybody—we're a lot more likely to stick it out.”
5. “If we want to spur action, if we wanna take some agency, we not only need to think about the way that we want things to look differently, but we also need to figure out what's the contrast between now and later? And what are the—and this is really important—what are the overcomeable obstacles?”
6. “There's lots of little things where we can cut corners and, you know, we get some gain in the present, but we might get punished in the future. And what we've found in several papers is that the people who feel connected to their future selves are actually more likely to, to take this sort of more difficult but ethical path.”
7. “That's the irony of procrastination. It hurts while we're procrastinating. It hurts after we procrastinated too…[We can instead think] ‘I don't wanna do it now. There’s a good chance I'm not gonna wanna do it in the future, so I might as well just do it now.’ Just do it and eliminate all that feeling of negativity along the way.”
8. “We can take anything that feels like it's painful, unpleasant, et cetera, and pair it with something that's a temptation.”

Key Takeaways

1. You Have Agency. Life will always include uncertainty and unpredictable events, but your responses and daily choices still matter.
2. The Present Is Loud. The Future Is Abstract. Making the future more concrete helps counteract our tendency to overvalue short-term comfort.
3. Three Common Mistakes Sabotage Progress. Getting stuck in the present, under-planning, or projecting today’s feelings too far forward can derail growth.
4. Reverse Time Travel Makes Goals Feel Closer. Starting in the future and working backward reveals obstacles—and opportunities—you’d otherwise miss.
5. Temptation Bundling Reduces Friction. Pair necessary habits with enjoyable experiences to increase follow-through without relying on grit alone.
6. Small Choices Compound Into Identity. Your future self isn’t created in one moment—but in thousands of ordinary ones.

Resources

• www.halhershfield.com 
• Your Future Self: How to Make Tomorrow Better Today (Book)

Watch on YouTube at:  https://youtu.be/FbLoVyZ-eTU

This episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound