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[@ChrisWillx] What Would You Tomorrow Want You Today To Do?

· 3 min read
[@ChrisWillx] Summarizer
Video Bot

@ChrisWillx - "What Would You Tomorrow Want You Today To Do?"

Link: https://youtu.be/la4yWGpKOJ0

Short Summary​

Number One Action Item/Takeaway:

When faced with a decision, ask yourself: "What would I tomorrow want me today to do?" This forces you to consider the long-term consequences and make choices aligned with your future self's well-being.

Executive Summary:

The "24-hour you" framework encourages making decisions by considering the perspective of your future self. By asking "What would I tomorrow want me today to do?" you prioritize long-term well-being over immediate gratification, fostering better choices and a more positive self-perception. This approach is especially beneficial for introspective individuals, as it helps shape a more favorable narrative about their actions and character.

Key Quotes​

Here are four direct quotes from the video transcript that I found to be particularly insightful:

  1. "What would you tomorrow want you today to do?"
  2. "Optimizing to gratify your desires in the moment at the expense of the way that you will feel and the story you will tell yourself about yourself in the future is rarely a good deal because you live with the story of your decisions for far longer than the impact of them."
  3. "Decisions are as much about the sort of person that you will tell yourself that you are for having made the decision as the actual impact of the decision itself."
  4. "If you have a predisposition to think of yourself as a bit of a piece of... You will permanently be scouting for any excuse to fit your prior to that."

Detailed Summary​

Here's a detailed summary of the video transcript, presented in bullet points:

  • The "24-Hour You" Concept: The core idea is to ask yourself: "What would you tomorrow want you today to do?" This helps guide decision-making. The idea was developed between the speaker and Jimmy Carr and shared on the Rogan podcast.

  • Benefits of the Technique:

    • Breaks Present-Moment Bias: It forces you to think beyond immediate gratification and the immediate desires of your body.
    • Depersonalizes Decisions: Helps you treat yourself as a friend you are responsible for.
    • Long-Term Thinking: Aligns decisions with long-term goals, akin to optimizing for the future in Peterson's framework.
    • Investment in Future Self: Frames decisions as investments in your future well-being and self-perception.

  • The Power of Self-Narrative:

    • The story you tell yourself about your decisions matters as much as the decisions themselves.
    • Regret stems from the future self's negative judgment of past actions.
    • Choose wisely to avoid a negative self-narrative.

  • Avoiding Misery: Making decisions that only satisfy present desires but lead to future regret is a path to misery.

  • Introspection and Future Story: Introspective and reflective individuals must be especially careful about their decisions, as they will ruminate on them and build a narrative around them.

  • Negativity Bias: People are predisposed to a negative self-perception and will seek confirmation of these preconceived ideas.

  • Clairvoyance: This method is like having clairvoyance because it's unlikely that any decision made with the future in mind could be a bad one.

  • Accountability: The "24-Hour You" makes you fully accountable for your choices, leaving no room for excuses.

  • Difficulty: The technique can be difficult to put in practice.