Hey everyone, 

in this post I wanna talk about a mindset, or really a mental exercise, that’s helped me make better decisions in literally every aspect of my life. 

So, I call the framework “listening to ideal 100 year old me”. Others might call it “extending your timeline,” but the idea’s the same. 

Basically, whenever I’m faced with making a decision and I’m unsure about what I should choose, I consult my “ideal 100 year-old self”. 

Because the way I see it, ideal-me at 100 years old, if I live that long, can give me advice for my exact situation. Ideal-me at 100 years old can look back on their life, my life, to tell me exactly what they did when they were in my shoes! 

So I literally just pull out my phone or a piece of paper, and I start having a conversation with my ideal 100-year old self.

I ask them what they would do if they were in my situation, and then I answer the question as if I was 100 years old and had lived the life that I wanted to live.

If you try it, you’ll realize how much clarity it’ll give you. 

More often than not

I think we know what to do in a given situation, but it’s just that we need some kind of validation to let us know that we’re on the right track. 

And this mental exercise allows you to get that validation from yourself. 

I know nowadays with social media people say that external validation is bad; and to some extent I do agree with that. 

But if you think about it, validation is a really important part of being human. It’s how we learn, it’s how we build relationships, and it’s how we survive.

Think back to when you were a child. The way you learnt anything was by something either validating or invalidating your existing belief at the time. 

For example, as a kid you might’ve thought a stove was fun to play with; then you touched it and got burnt. 

That feedback of experiencing pain invalidated your existing belief at the time, which was that playing with a stove was fun. 

It taught you that the stove actually isn’t fun to play with, and that’s how you learnt to not do that again.

So I see this exercise of speaking to my ideal-self at 100 years old as a way to organize the information that I already have, and gain clarity. 

It takes advantage of our human-need for validation, but in a way that serves us and not other people. 

Now if you don’t like the idea of speaking to your

ideal future-self & asking them for advice because you think it’s delusional, that’s fair - you can also just think about what would serve you best in the long-term. 

You define whatever your version of “long-term” is. It can vary based on the nature of the decision you’re making.

For example, say you’re trying to lose weight and you’re debating eating a donut vs eating an omelet for breakfast. Long-term in this situation could be you 6 months from now.

But if you’re trying to decide whether you should become a physician or a lawyer, long-term in this context could be 30 years from now. 

So once you’ve defined what “long-term” is given the decision you’re currently faced with, it’s just a matter of asking yourself: which choice serves me best long-term? 

And when I answer that question honestly, I know what I need to do. 

So this reveals where I think the true power of this mindset lies. 

I think this mindset of doing what serves you best “long-term” is most powerful when “long-term” means the rest of your life, for every decision you make.

And I know it can seem really annoying to always think and act long-term; it’s as if it takes away from living in the moment and doing things spontaneously.

I understand that, but I also disagree with it; look, I've been implementing this mindset for almost 4 years now, and it’s not as depressing as you might think. 

The reason is because fundamentally, what serves you best long-term is different from what serves me best long-term.

You and I could have very different outlooks on life, and that’s kind of the point; it’s not like you’re acting in accordance with someone else’s version of what your life should look like.

By always thinking and acting long-term, thinking about what serves you, your goals, and your values, you’re prioritizing yourself. 

You’re prioritizing what you want, and intentionally designing your life with the choices you make, instead of just letting it happen to you.

You’re essentially taking control of your life!!

After adopting this mindset

and going through the exercise of speaking to my 100 year old self several times, I gained a lot of clarity over what I want long-term; of what I know will serve me for the rest of my life.

So every day, with every decision that I make, I do my absolute best to always choose what will serve me for the rest of my life.

Part of what I know will serve me long-term is taking fantastic care of my health.

That’s why I don’t drink alcohol; that’s why I eat minimally-processed foods; that’s why I exercise for longevity and athleticism instead of trying to look like a bodybuilder.

I also know that long-term I want to be able to work on what I’m passionate about.

That’s why I started The Healthy Kangaroo: so that I can share what I learn about health and happiness based on my own experiences with all of you :)

And yeah, oftentimes in order to prioritize what serves you long-term, you’ll have to give up things that only benefit you in the short-term. 

One of the worst examples

of this I’ve seen online are fitness influencers who preach that as long as you count your calories and hit your macros that you can eat whatever you want and look jacked. 

Now that is true, but it’s also terrible for your long-term health. Just because you look healthy doesn’t mean you actually are. 

If you eat a bunch of crap but count your calories, sure you might not accumulate much visible fat, but you will accumulate what’s called visceral fat. 

This is the fat that surrounds your organs, and when it accumulates at high levels it leads to issues like heart attacks. And if you eat a bunch of junk, no amount of calorie-tracking will prevent this from happening. 

So sure, you can eat whatever you want and look jacked, but that only serves you short-term while you’re young and trying to get a partner.

However, it can ruin your life long-term.

So by instead choosing to do what’s more difficult, which is eating a very clean diet and tracking your calories, you’ll not only look healthy, but you’ll actually be healthy!

It might seem hard and unnecessary short-term,

if that’s all you think about.

But when you zoom out and think long-term, you realize how much more difficult your life is going to be if you keep doing what’s easy right now. 

The same thing can be said for relationships.

If instead of thinking, “Do I like this person?”, you instead ask, “Can I see myself marrying this person in the future?” “Do we have the same values?”

If the answer’s no, then don’t date them; you’ll save both of you a lot of time and heartache. But if the answer’s yes, then obviously give it a shot. 

Hopefully you can see the point that I’m trying to make. 

By doing your best to always act in accordance with what will serve you for the rest of your life,

• you’re prioritizing yourself

• you’re intentionally designing the life you want with the choices you make

• and as a result you will get what you want long-term.

So I hope that was valuable!

Please let us know if you have any questions and/or suggestions :)

As always: Take care of your health and it will take care of you!

Your Internet Siblings,

The Healthy Kangaroo Team ;)