Matt Hall traveled to New York this month to accept his national award – ThinkAdvisor Luminary Award for Thought Leadership. Matt was chosen from over 1,000 nominees. The recognition will be no surprise to our clients and those who know him well.

Matt has consistently taken creative and bold steps to push the industry forward (see Matt’s 2016 book Odds On and Take the Long View with Matt Hall podcast as examples). The ThinkAdvisor Luminary Awards shine a spotlight on individuals and firms who use their influence to better the entire advisory community. Matt won for Thought Leadership because he is uniquely committed to the disruptive message that patience and discipline are essential to long-term investment success (beyond data and evidence).

Why does this matter? Recognition for one of our leaders helps us spread the message, which helps us achieve our mission more widely. At the core, our work is about helping others navigate uncertainty to create freedom. Congratulations to Matt for his hard work and the spotlight of the industry!

“My research asks, ‘How can we help move people from who they are now to who they’ll be in the future in a way that maximizes well-being?”  Hal Hershfield

I may have found my person. By that, I mean someone who does the research connected to the mission of my podcast. He’s just as obsessed as I am with helping people make better long-term decisions.

Professor Hal Hershfield’s work concentrates on the psychology of long-term decision making and how time affects people’s lives — perfect, given the purpose of my podcast and that Americans are living longer and saving less.

One of Hershfield’s most well-known discoveries suggests that when people are confronted with their “future selves,” they experience an emotional sense of connection that can influence long-term financial and ethical decision-making. 

Listen to our conversation here.

One of the big problems with setting goals is that we’re really bad at imagining our future selves. Remember what you imagined you’d be as an adult when you were a kid? I’m guessing there are some gaps between that dream and your current reality. 

In the same way, there will be gaps between your current reality and your future self. And that’s partially because when we talk about goals, we’re often talking about long time frames. Consider retirement, for example. That could be upwards of 20 or 30 years from now. You can’t even imagine yourself at that age, let alone plan for it. That’s your parents, not you! 

When we start talking about our distant future self, it’s easy to rationalize the decision to not do anything. Something 30 years down the road sounds an awful lot like something that can be started tomorrow. 

In fact, our future self can often feel like some other annoying person constantly stealing heaps of fun from our current self. You may feel like you’re still 30, but if you just celebrated (or mourned) turning 60, it’s time to get real. Our future self will be here faster than we think. So how do we vividly connect with our future self to make better decisions today? Listen to the latest episode of TLV and consider writing a letter to your future self here.