HAL HERSHFIELD: Making Better Choices Feel Easier
From The Double Win by Michael Hyatt & Megan Hyatt-Miller
January 21, 2026 · 1h 2m · Season 3 · Episode 47
About this episode
Hal Hershfield discusses how our connection to our future selves influences our choices and offers practical tools to improve decision-making.
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 “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.” “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.” “It may be scary at first to recognize that my life could look different in 10 years…
People in this episode
Hosts: Michael Hyatt, Megan Hyatt-Miller
Guest: Hal Hershfield
Topics covered
- procrastination
- future self
- decision making
- health
- finances
- life satisfaction
- personal development
Keywords
- procrastination
- future self
- decision making
- temptation bundling
- reverse time travel
- life satisfaction
- personal growth
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: UCLA
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