Future Self is the person who you will be years from now. It is the person you intend to be. Do you know who your future self is, or better yet, have you decided who you are going to be in the future without thinking of any limitations? Is he or she a healthier, wealthier, happier, better person than you are today, or would he be the same as the person you are today, only physically older?

Why is it important to know the person you are becoming and, more significantly, is it possible for you to have a relationship with your future self? If so, what good would it do?

Tune in and let me inspire and show you how to be the person you have been eyeing to be, and realize the endless possibilities that you can have for yourself. Have a relationship with your future self and be the best person you can be, be the change the world wants you to be.

Highlights:

⚡️ We are driven by pain and our view of the future and what we do today impacts tomorrow.

⚡️ When people identify with the person they want to become, they become that person.

⚡️ We must believe that our future self already exists and have a relationship with him and be guided by him.

⚡️ Failing to be the person you want to be results in depression, anxiety, and frustration.

⚡️ Reasons why most people are living a future they do not want:

• pursuing the ideals of somebody else and not who they want to become
• choosing exactly who they are today because that is who they think they are
• failing to prospect, losing the ability to be a free thinker, and not realizing the choices they have
• do not have a relationship with and empathy for their future self
• not getting in the game
• they do not see the benefit of doing something despite the challenges

Important stories:

🎯 6:40. Meg Jay talks about the empathy gap

🎯 9:01 Hal Hershfield on future self as another person

🎯 10:47. Dr. Benjamin Hardy explains prospection

🎯 11:58 A conversation with my future self

🎯 15:22 Matthew McConaughey on who is my hero, chasing my hero (2013)

🎯 18:00 Daniel Goldstein discusses resisting temptation

🎯 22:20 Daniel Gilbert the ease of remembering vs difficulty of imagining

🎯 30:40 Jimmy Donaldson aka Mr. Beast as another example of someone who has a connection with his future self

Episode theme: Shame, resilience, reinvention and learning to see yourself with fresh eyes.

In this powerful conversation, Pete Cohen speaks with Andrea McLean about her new book and the deeply personal journey behind it. Andrea opens up about business failure, financial loss, illness, identity, shame, and the process of choosing to stop hiding.

Andrea explains that shame often convinces us we are the problem, when in reality we may simply be carrying something that was never ours to hold. She explores the difference between guilt and shame, sharing the powerful distinction:

Guilt says, "I have done a bad thing."
Shame says, "I am a bad thing."

The conversation moves through Andrea's decision to leave a successful television career, the collapse of her business, her near death experience with pneumonia, sepsis and kidney failure, and how writing the book helped her release shame she did not even realise she was carrying.

A key part of the discussion is the idea that shame can keep us hiding from friends, opportunities, ourselves and the world. Andrea shares how shining a light on her story became both a personal healing process and a way to help others feel less alone.

Shame and hiding
Andrea talks about the exhaustion of hiding from people because she did not want to explain what had happened in her life.

Failure and identity
The conversation explores what happens when status, money, career and identity fall away.

The difference between guilt and shame
One of the most important ideas in the episode is learning to separate what happened from who you are.

Health, survival and perspective
Andrea shares the frightening story of becoming seriously ill and being told afterwards that she was close to death.

Reinvention and starting again
After losing so much, Andrea and her family moved to Spain and began a new chapter.

Raising your vibration through small steps
Andrea shares how Pete's three nightly questions helped her during one of the hardest periods of her life:

What am I proud of?
What am I grateful for?
What am I looking forward to tomorrow?

Letting go of shame that was never yours
Andrea reflects on how much shame can be passed to us by other people, especially when they are uncomfortable with who we are.

Andrea saying she wrote the book because she was tired of hiding.

Her description of shame as a hook that we hang evidence on over time.

The moment she explains how low shame made her feel, like "a pulse that was barely beating."

Her story of accidentally becoming a weather presenter and how all her previous skills prepared her for that opportunity.

The insight that the person who starts writing a book is not always the same person who finishes it.

Andrea McLean: Letting Go of Shame

Alternative titles:

The Shame We Carry
Why Shame Is Not Who You Are
Andrea McLean on Shame, Survival and Starting Again
When Shame Stops Hiding
The Book That Helped Andrea McLean Feel Lighter

In this deeply honest conversation, Pete Cohen speaks with Andrea McLean about shame, failure, illness, reinvention and the courage to stop hiding. Andrea shares the story behind her new book and explains why shame often tells us we are broken, when the truth is we may simply be carrying something that was never ours in the first place. You can purschase it here https://dk.com/products/9780241762813-shameless

Today's episode is something deeply personal.

I'm sharing a piece of music that was originally created in the early 2000s — part of a body of work that has evolved over the last 30 years. Throughout that time, I've had the privilege of collaborating with a number of incredible musicians to create soundscapes used in meditations and affirmations, designed to help people pause, breathe, and reconnect.

This particular piece is very close to my heart.

For a few moments within the music, you'll hear the voice of my coach — someone I worked with for 16 years, who had a profound impact on my life and the way I think. To have his voice woven into this piece makes it more than just music… it's a moment of reflection, memory, and meaning.

I'm truly delighted to share this with you.

And if it resonates — if it gives you even a few moments to stop and think — please pass it on to someone else who might need that same space today.