6 Proven Strategies to Become a Long-Term Thinker
The final post in our mini-series on crafting your long-term money mindset
This is the sixth and final entry in a 6-part miniseries on how to adopt a long-term money mindset.
In part one, I highlighted the many benefits of thinking in the long run and reviewed research on five traits found to help people adopt this mindset:
Confidence about the future.
Tendency to plan ahead.
Consistency in carrying out plans.
Completing tasks.
General thinking about future possibilities.
In this series, we've taken a deep dive into each trait.
In this final part, we'll see how these traits lay the foundation for our final discussion: shifting our focus from the past to the future.
Three actions (backed by research) you can take to focus on the future and let go of the past
#1— Write down a specific version of the future you want
A 2020 paper titled “On the Nature of Everyday Prospection” reviewed existing research on future thinking.
According to the paper's authors, our thoughts about the future are limited to the extremely near future. We get bogged down by everyday life and can only think about what we need to do in the very near term. You’ll pay the bills sitting on the kitchen counter, but you’re less likely to sit down and review the details of your retirement plan.
The research suggests that one way to expand the time horizon of your thoughts is to write down a specific version of the future you would like to see become a reality and then set specific, actionable goals that can help create that future.
Grab a pen and paper and jot down what you want to achieve tomorrow, next week, or even next year. Breaking these down into smaller, actionable steps could make the future less of a foggy concept and more of a structured plan.
#2— Use Prompts and Reminders
The research tells us that when people think about the future, it’s a spontaneous action—meaning they don’t sit down and plan to think about the future; an external event, phrase, or image sparks involuntary thoughts about the future.
Imagine you're having coffee with your best friend. They start talking about their kids’ college fund. Suddenly, you realize you hadn't thought about saving for your kid’s education. This reminder from your friend triggers a thought: 'Uh-oh, I need to start planning for this.’ Next thing you know, you are consumed with thoughts about the crushing cost of post-secondary tuition and how your kids will ever afford to go to college.
The good news is that behavioral science teaches us that we can leverage these types of external cues to our advantage to trigger thoughts about the future—but on our timeline.
In this article, I wrote about how setting up automatic reminders and prompts about a long-term goal can help you stay on track.
Think of prompts and reminders as your personal assistants, gently nudging you to consider and plan for the future. Setting reminders on your phone or sticky notes around your workspace can act as catalysts, transforming a fleeting thought about the future into a moment of productive planning.
When you’re done reading this article, I recommend you read this one to learn more about the power of reminding yourself about your long-term goals:
#3— Engage in Mental Time Travel
In their review of the research on future thinking, the authors describe a concept called ‘episodic future thinking’, in which people imagine and simulate future events.
It's like daydreaming with a purpose, using your imagination to explore possible futures, which can help you prepare better for what's to come.
This research is very similar to others I have written about, related to increasing optimism about one's financial future.
Here’s an excerpt from that article which describes an exercise to imagine your best possible future self:
A powerful exercise to cultivate optimism was discovered in a 2010 paper titled “Manipulating optimism: Can imagining a best possible self be used to increase positive future expectancies?” written by Peters et al.
Participants in the study were split into two separate groups.
The first group was asked to think about their best possible self for one minute.
Then the first group was asked to write about a typical day in their best possible life for 15-minutes.
The control group was asked to write about a typical day in their current life for 15-minutes.
After 15-minutes of writing, both groups were asked to reflect on what they wrote for an additional five minutes.
Peters et al. found that the participants in the group imagining their best possible selves were much more optimistic than the control group. Specifically, participants in the best possible self group had increased expectations of positive events and decreased expectations about negative events in their future. I challenge you to find a better definition of optimism than that.
What is even more amazing is that the results were not dependent upon a participant’s initial level of optimism or pessimism; it appeared to benefit “natural” optimists and pessimists equally.
You can read the full article on cultivating a more optimistic future mindset here:
Final thoughts
And there you have it, folks—the finale of our 6-part journey through the research on cultivating a long-term money mindset.
In this concluding piece, we've circled back to an essential nugget of wisdom: the importance of looking forward, not backward.
By embracing practices such as jotting down the specifics of our desired future, setting up little nudges to keep our eyes on the prize, and engaging in a bit of mental time travel, we can begin actively constructing the building blocks of a future that we want to see become a reality.
As always, the concepts discussed in this miniseries are not my personal opinions but are backed by research. I hope this series has helped you develop a few strategies to begin thinking—and acting—in the long run.
For paid subscribers, keep an eye out in your inbox in the next few months as I will turn this 6-part miniseries into an eBook only available to paid subscribers.
This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any significant financial decisions.
Writing down things from my head has always helped to give me some sort of clarity and decluttering.
It helps me transfer all the ideas and visions in my head to paper where I can easily see it.
The e-book is a great idea!