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Hey friend,

Before we dive in, I want to try a little experiment. Can you reply to this message:

1. Telling me you got it
2. Letting me know if you’re actually applying the parts in the “practical” section. When doing work like this, the implementation is always the most important. That’s why I try to make these as practical as possible and only put out 1 a week, to ensure ample to to actually apply the information. BUT if people are having a hard time implementing, I might have to change things up to figure out why and try to make it even easier.

So will you let me know?
Thanks, and let’s dive in…

—-------

There’s a version of you out there.

They wake up early.
They eat clean.
They delete Instagram and read books made of actual paper.
They meditate twice a day and somehow enjoy it.
They’ve healed their trauma, scaled their business, and have abs that whisper, “You made it.”

This imagined “Future You” is the North Star of self-help.

Just one more breakthrough, one more course, one more 5am wake-up away…

Except - what if that version of you doesn’t actually exist in the future?

What if “Future You” is just a mental hologram, stitched together by memory, fantasy, and neural guesswork?

And what if chasing them is keeping you stuck?

How the Brain (Actually) Builds the Future

Here’s a fun twist:
The part of your brain responsible for remembering the past…
Is the exact same region used to imagine the future.

It’s called the Default Mode Network (yes, that guy again).

Research from Harvard, McGill, and others has shown this:

• The brain doesn’t predict the future based on external reality.
• It predicts the future based on recombining fragments of memory from the past.

You don’t see the future.
You simulate it.
And the raw materials for that simulation?
Are just memories in drag.

So that “future self” you dream about?

They’re not some upgraded, optimized, crystalline version of you waiting on the horizon.
They’re a collage of past impressions and unmet desires, animated by your imagination.

The Trap of "Becoming"

This is where the personal development world gets sticky.

We’re told that transformation means becoming someone new.
That the path to fulfillment is paved with “future self” visualization, identity hacking, and reverse engineering the habits of the high-performers.

The subtle (but toxic) message:

“You aren’t enough yet. But you will be… if you work harder.”

But if that future self is a memory in costume…
Then the game isn’t about becoming.
It’s about seeing through the illusion that there’s anyone to become.

The Shift

From a our perspective, the future doesn’t exist.
It’s a concept. A thought. A projection arising now.

You’re not on a timeline moving toward some grand finale of selfhood.
You’re what’s aware of the timeline itself.

The "future you" is just a story arising in the same space as your to-do list, your cravings, and your Spotify algorithm.

And the moment you see that?

You stop trying to live into the simulation.

You return to the only place any of this is ever actually happening: now.

Turning Memory into Presence

Here’s how to put this into practice:

1. Stop outsourcing your worth to a hypothetical version of yourself
​If “future you” is just a collage of past data, chasing them is like running after your own echo.
Instead: drop the story. Meet the moment.

2. Reframe your goals as expressions of presence, not proof of progress
​Don’t meditate to become someone who meditates.
Meditate because awareness wants to meet itself.

Don’t scale the business to prove you’re worth something.
Scale because you’re clear enough to create without needing to earn your own love.

3. Use the “memory check” technique
​Next time you’re visualizing your “next level self,” pause and ask:
​ “Is this an actual possibility… or just a remix of past impressions?”

Watch how the imagined version begins to dissolve.
And what’s left?
Clarity.​
​Not about the future, but about what’s real now.

The End

Here’s the paradox:

Your future self isn’t someone you’ll meet.
They’re a thought you’re having.

And if you’re always trying to get to them, you’ll never see who you already are.

Because who you really are?

Isn’t bound by time.
Isn’t waiting to arrive.
And isn’t hiding behind 5-year plans or upgraded identities.

Your future self is just a memory waiting to happen.
You, right now - aware, present, unlocatable - is what’s real.

Everything else is just déjà vu with good marketing.

Nic

PS. Want learn to sit in that space of awareness? Join the Neuroscience of Change - an online program rewiring what’s really running you. Name your own price (Pay What You Can) to get your hands on this powerful program.

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