Finding sticking to longer term goals hard? There's a reason for that...temporal discounting.

I read an interesting article about AI researchers at MIT building a future-self chatbot to help you make better choices in the present. Its goal is to “promote long-term thinking and behaviour change” by getting you to have a conversation with an AI generated 60 year old version of yourself. The idea is to get you to think more today about the person you want to be tomorrow. The AI asks you questions about yourself, takes a picture, then generates a picture of you as a 60 year old with a backstory for 60 year old you based on your answers. ?

Ultimately it’s about getting you to make decisions in the present with your future wellbeing in mind. Which is much more difficult than you realise because of a phenomenon called “Temporal Discounting”.

Ever wondered why you struggle to stick to longer term goals? Why that piece of cake is too tempting when you’re on a diet? Why you decide to stay in bed when you’re supposed to be doing a workout session? Why you’re drawn towards buy today, pay later schemes? Why even at a societal level we’re not doing enough to combat client change?

Yep, temporal discounting is at play here - it is the cognitive phenomenon of preferring more immediate rewards over future benefits. It’s a key concept in behavioural economics and psychology. Research has shown that if you ask someone whether they’d prefer ￡100 today or ￡110 in a month’s time, most people pick ￡100 today. Ask them if they would prefer ￡100 in 30 days or ￡110 in 31 days, most people pick ￡110 in 31 days.

So effectively waiting a month today for an extra ￡10 is deemed to be less desirable than waiting a day more in a month’s time for the same incremental amount. ?So your imagined future self is likely to be more patient than the you that is deciding today. It’s not just that you’re impatient now; it’s that you plan to be more patient in the future.

It doesn’t affect everyone in the same way – there are factors which can influence this. Psychological factors like greater impulsivity, being more risk-averse and our emotional state can make us more prone to temporal discounting. Similarly contextual factors are at work such social influences (e.g peer pressure) and past experiences (e.g if you’re have a bad experience).

How do you deal with this then? You’re reading this so you’re already at the first step, which is becoming aware of temporal discounting and how it can affect your behaviour.

There a number of specific actions you can take – you can do these on your own, or you could consider working with a coach to help facilitate the process.

Visualising your long term goals can play a key role – keeping them in view. By vividly imagining the future rewards of your hard work, you can create an emotional connection to your goals. This makes the future benefits more tangible and compelling, reducing the impact of temporal discounting

Breaking down larger goals into smaller, actionable steps helps too. Each step provides a sense of accomplishment and immediate satisfaction, bridging the gap between the present and the future. This approach helps maintain motivation and a sense of progress, essential for sustaining long-term efforts.

You can also train yourself to delay gratification by practicing postponing rewards. This helps build up your tolerance for waiting.

And finally, having an accountability partner such as a coach to keep you on track can significantly reduce the effects of temporal discounting.

So if you’ve struggled with sticking to longer term goals, hopefully this has helped shed some light on the reasons why, and what you could do about it.

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???Hi?????I’m Mauro, and I’m a narrative coach?and I?support leaders and their teams to thrive and flourish, improving their wellbeing by transforming their narratives into a source of strength, inspiration, and empowerment.

Visit my website (www.thenarrativecoach.uk) to find out more and where you can arrange a time for an initial discovery call???