If a close friend asked for your help, would you? If so, stay with me.

One brilliant client shared the key to her healthy-living decision making. Apparently, she learned, years ago, that the same part of your brain that is empathetic for someone else, sees your future self (tomorrow morning or 2 years from now) with the same level of compassion.

Can you see where I’m headed? Most of us find helping someone else pretty easy. We see the need, rearrange and make it happen. But fewer of us extend the same care with ourselves. (I hope all of you are nodding.) Well, what if you thought of your future self a little more often…

Sample scenarios:

• As you consider eating the pastry in the break-room, think of your future self trying on clothes for your August vacation
• As you push off making a doctor’s appointment, think of your future self facing a tougher diagnosis 12 months from now
• As you consider delaying your bedtime, think of your future self in the morning as the alarm goes off
• As you delay adding strength training, think of your future self’s concerns about bone density and fractures as an elderly woman

The time is now and the motivator is empathy for your future self. I’ll use just about anything to reach you, patriotism, the words of others, humor, my moments of hypocrisy. In this case, I ask you to capitalize on your inherent compassion and throw a little toward your future self.