This Mindset Completely Changed My Life

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Mindset Mentor – “This Mindset Completely Changed My Life”
Host: Rob Dial
Air Date: May 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this intimate and reflective episode, Rob Dial explores a fundamental mindset shift that has transformed his life: seeking guidance from the perspective of his 80-year-old self. Rather than relying on productivity hacks or external measures of success, Rob encourages listeners to deeply value the present moment and consult their wiser future selves for clarity on what truly matters. Drawing from personal experiences, psychology, and practical exercises, Rob unpacks how to live more meaningfully by cultivating presence, love, and connection—today.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Catalyst: Turning 40 & The Value of Time

• Rob describes how hitting his 40th birthday made him reevaluate his relationship with time.
• Influenced by emotional social media content and the experience of raising a young child, Rob realizes:

  “I’m in the good old days right now. Like, this is it.” (04:05)

• He shares that watching Instagram videos of parents with their young kids brought a sense of “reverence” (03:45) for the present.

2. The Core Mindset Shift: Consulting the 80-Year-Old Self

• Rob imagines being 80 and, when offered a choice between wealth or returning to experience the present with his family and health, he’d trade everything for just one day back.

  “If someone were to come to me at 80 years old… and you can go back and be 40 again… I would treat every fucking dollar, every achievement immediately in order to be back where I currently am right now. No hesitation.” (05:00)

• The shock of this realization reframes what matters most: cherishing what he has now.

3. The Hedonic Treadmill & The Danger of Chasing Arrival

• Rob outlines the psychological concept of the “hedonic treadmill,” explaining how accomplishments quickly become new baselines, perpetuating endless striving.
• He warns,

  “Your mind keeps moving the finish line and meanwhile your actual life is the thing that's happening.” (06:40)

• Many people, Rob argues, sacrifice their lives in the process of trying to build a life, overlooking present joys for future achievements.

4. Distilling Wisdom from the Future: What 80-Year-Old Rob Values

• At the halfway mark, Rob asks listeners to vividly imagine their 80-year-old selves, noting:

  “Your 80 year old self is not impressed by most of the things that your current self is stressed out about.” (07:58)

• The future self prioritizes: presence, love, health, connection, meaning, time, memories, peace, depth, and aliveness.

Timestamp Key Segment:

• [07:30]–[09:15] – Guided visualization of the listener’s 80-year-old self and what truly matters.

5. Differentiating the Fearful Ego from the Wise Future Self

• Rob notes two internal voices:
  • The Fearful/Ego Voice: “Make more money. Hurry up. Prove yourself. Work harder. Make sure you win. Compare yourself to other people.” (13:40)
  • The Wise/Future Self: “Just breathe. Just hold your child a little bit longer. Call your mom. Take care of your body. Put your fucking phone down. Go outside. Notice the stars… be here for this moment.” (14:05)
• The former creates anxiety and focuses on the future; the latter cultivates presence and meaning.

6. Practical Process: Making the 80-Year-Old Self Your Mentor

Step 1: Clearly Imagine and Journal Your 80-Year-Old Self

• “Sit down and journal: What does your 80-year-old self value? What do they regret? What are they grateful for? What advice would they give you right now? … Actually write it all down.” (16:45)

Step 2: Consult Them Daily

• Ask: “Will this matter when I’m 80 years old?” (18:00)
• Use these moments to shift perspective—especially when stressed or distracted.

Step 3: Interrupt Your Autopilot

• Deliberately engage all five senses to reawaken presence:

  “It’s like the exposure goes up and I go from like 720p… to like 8K. There’s so many things in this present moment I wasn’t paying attention to.” (20:00)

• Overstimulation and routine can cause us to “miss your entire life.” (21:18)

7. Recognizing the “Good Old Days” in Real Time

• Rob becomes emotional while discussing how we often fail to acknowledge the significance of the present until it’s gone.

• “Right now, there’s a version of you that years ago would be blown away by the current life that you have.” (21:50)

• He underscores:

  “If you don’t intentionally wake yourself up and see how rich this present moment currently is, you will unconsciously miss your entire life. Because this is it. Do you get it? This is your life. This isn’t a rehearsal… this, right here, right now… is your life.” (22:10)

8. The Forest Fire Metaphor & The Be Here Now Reminder

• He likens this perspective shift to a forest fire:

  “…a forest fire destroys everything. But a forest fire also clears out everything so that new life can emerge… This shift has burned away so much unnecessary noise for me, so much fake urgency, so much chasing, so much illusion.” (22:40)

• Rob reveals he’s tattooed “Be here now” on his arm to remind himself of this truth (23:05).

9. Actionable Takeaway

• Rob urges listeners:
  • Write a letter from your 80-year-old self to your present self, specifying what matters, what should be forgiven, what risks to take, and who to cherish. (23:15)
  • Make checking in with your future self a daily practice and let that wisdom guide decisions.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On what matters most:

  “Your 80 year old self cares about presence. They care about love. They care about their health. They care about connection with other people. They care about making memories. They care about peace.” (12:00)

• On the dangers of autopilot:

  “Most people are unknowingly sacrificing their life trying to build a life.” (06:50)

• On the cost of chasing more:

  “This life isn’t something that’s coming for me once I achieve this thing. Life is this thing right now that I’m in.” (23:09)

• A call to presence:

  “This ordinary little moment that you and I are sharing together might actually be one of the most valuable things that you’ll ever have.” (23:19)

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Important Timestamps

• [03:45] – Emotional impact of seeing videos of parents with kids: sparks reflection on “the good old days.”
• [06:40] – The hedonic treadmill and how the mind always seeks the next goal.
• [07:58] – What would your 80-year-old self tell you?
• [13:40] – Contrasting the fearful ego and the wise inner mentor.
• [16:45] – Step 1: Journaling as your 80-year-old self.
• [18:00] – Step 2: Daily check-ins with future self; using this in real-life situations, especially with his son.
• [20:00] – Step 3: From autopilot to immersive presence using all five senses.
• [22:40] – The forest fire metaphor for the perspective change.
• [23:05] – “Be here now” tattoo and its role as a daily reminder.
• [23:15] – The writing exercise to connect with your future self.

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Conclusion

Main Message:
Rob Dial delivers a heartfelt, actionable message: the most powerful mentor you have is your own wiser, future self. By consistently consulting your 80-year-old self for guidance—and taking steps to be deeply present—you unlock clarity about what truly matters, release the pressures of endless striving, and avoid the tragedy of missing out on your own life.

Final Rob Dial Challenge:
After listening, disconnect from distractions. Write a letter from your 80-year-old self to your current self. Start letting that voice shape your everyday decisions.

“Let your future self be your mentor… Your future self is always wiser than your fears. And the more you listen, the more meaningful your life will become.” (23:20)

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For more daily mindset shifts and resources, follow Rob Dial on Instagram @robdialjr.

Transcript

[Rob Dial]

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[Rob Dial]

Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am your host Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. And if you want to learn how to create the perfect morning routine, go to the perfect morning routine.com I created a workbook and a video for you to go through to create the perfect morning routine based off of science. Once again, that is theperfectmorningroutine.com to get it for free. Today, I want to talk to you about something that genuinely, I think, has changed my life forever. And it's not a productivity hack. It's not a business strategy. It's not a neuroscience trick. It is a perspective. It is a simple shift that's really changed my outlook on my life every single day since I came up with it. And I think truly that if you let this land and you use what I teach, that it could completely change the way that you Live your life as well. So, for me, I just turned 40, and there's something about turning 40 where time starts to feel a little bit different. Not in, like, a depressing way, but in an actual beautiful way. I started thinking more deeply about time that has passed and time that will pass. And I started realizing, like, hey, this life is not an endless hallway anymore. I started realizing, like, this thing is moving. And when you look at the average person and how long they live, I am halfway through the average person's life. Hopefully, I do get longer, but according to stats, I'm halfway there. I'm halfway done. And recently, I keep seeing these videos on Instagram of people holding their babies and their young children and. And on the screen, it Sundays, when I'm 80 years old, this is what I'll dream about. And every time I saw one of those videos, something inside of me cracked open because I started looking at my young son way differently. Not with, like, sadness, but with, like, this. This reverence. And I started realizing, like, even though I already knew it, but I started really, really realizing, oh, my God, like, these are. I'm in the good old days right now. Like, this is it. So that moment that feels, like, ordinary, just a normal Tuesday afternoon or an exhausted morning, like, this little season that I keep rushing through, one day, there is going to be a day where I would give anything and everything that I have to come back to this moment right here. And I had this realization that when I'm 80 years old, if someone were to come to me at 80 years old and say, rob, you could have a million dollars. You could have every single award, all of the success that you want, everything you've ever wanted, and I'm 80 years old. Or you can go back and be 40 again, and you can hold your young son again, and you can wake up in your current body again, or you can laugh with your wife again. You can have all of your energy back. You can have your health back, you can have your old life back. I would treat every fucking dollar, every achievement immediately in order to be back where I currently am right now. No hesitation. Every single penny, everything. And that realization really hit me like a truck, because I think it's true for me, and I think it's true for every single person that's listening this episode. We spend our entire lives chasing things that our older self would gladly trade away to have just another ordinary Tuesday at the age we're currently at. One more sunset, one more dinner with the people that we love. One more chance to feel young Again, one more chance to walk around and not feel that old pain that's been nagging us. One more chance to hear our child laugh from another room. And the crazy part is, right now we already have it. Right now we're literally living inside of the moments our future self made would ache for. Even if your life is not where you want it to be, and it's not even great at this moment, you would still trade places with yourself. But we're so busy, we don't think about it. We never see how amazing this moment is because we're so busy chasing the next thing. Because I think most people are unknowingly sacrificing their life trying to build a life. Think about that for a second. Most people are unknowingly sacrificing their life, trying to actually build a life. And so I want to talk to you about how I've been using my 80 year old self as my mentor. And I really want this episode to like shift your perspective so much that you want to listen to it every single morning. Okay? So I think a lot of people believe, and I thought this for a long time, I'll finally feel fulfilled when, when I make more money, when I buy the house, when I get married, when I lose the weight, when I become successful, when I hit this goal, when I prove myself to other people, when I get recognition, I will finally arrive. And the truth is, that arrival that we're all trying to get to never actually comes because your mind was never designed to arrive. Our minds are designed to chase, to go to the next thing. And this is what the psychologists actually call the hedonic treadmill. Like, you get one thing and then your brain normalizes it very, very quickly. You buy the car that was your quote unquote dream car, and six months later, it's just your car. You hit that income goal that you want to hit your entire life and then it just becomes your normal income and you want to make more. You build that business. And then your brain asks, okay, but what's next? And so your mind keeps moving the finish line and meanwhile your actual life is the thing that's happening. But while you're keeping yourself so damn busy, your child is growing up, your body is aging, your parents are getting older, your friends are disappearing into their own busy lives, and one day you'll wake up and realize, oh my God, I was so focused on building a future that I forgot to actually live my present moment. And that's why I keep thinking about this 80 year old version of me because I think my 80 year old version of me, my 80 year old robbery sees life clearly like way more clear than I do. Your 80 year old self already knows what truly matters. Like I want you to imagine your 80 year old self. Like imagine you at 80 years old. Not like vaguely. Like actually picture them like what do they look like? What are their old wrinkly hands look like? How do they walk? What do they regret? What do they miss? Like what would they tell you right now if they could sit across from you? And I want you to understand something. Your 80 year old self is not impressed by most of the things that your current self is stressed out about. And we will be right back.

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[Rob Dial]

And now back to the show. It's crazy if you think about it, isn't it? Like your 80 year old self does not give a damn about your Instagram algorithm and doesn't give a damn about looking cool or winning every argument or getting your inbox to zero or buying the next status symbol or the comparison game that you find yourself in, or the approval of other strangers, or how much money is in your bank account or the job title that you have or the kind of car that you drive. Your 80 year old self cares about presence. They care about love. They care about their health. They care about connection with other people. They care about meaning. They really care about time because they don't have a whole lot of it left. They care about making memories. They care about peace. They care about depth. They care about aliveness. Your 80 year old self knows exactly what matters because they know what will disappear soon. And that's why I started using my 80 year old self as my mentor. And it's genuinely changed my life. And so now whenever I get stuck throughout the day, whenever I'm overwhelmed, whenever I'm too busy, whenever I have a hard decision whenever I find myself freaking out about something, like, I just ask myself, I'm like, okay, 80 year old Rob, what should we do here? What's the right thing to do? And for me, it has been shocking how quickly clarity gets here, like how quickly it appears, because your older self just cuts through all the bullshit. Because I think there's two versions of us that are constantly speaking in our heads. There's a fearful one that's driven by ego, and then there's one that's a wise future self. The fearful ego says, make more money. Hurry up. Prove yourself. Work harder. Make sure you win. Compare yourself to other people. Achieve more. You're behind. Don't slow down. Go, go, go, go, go. Your future self says, just breathe. Just hold your child a little bit longer. Call your mom, Take care of your body. Put your fucking phone down. Go outside. Notice the stars. Like, be here for this moment. Stop rushing through your life. One voice creates anxiety and ignores the present moment and keeps kicking your happiness down the road a little bit further. And the other one creates meaning. It focuses on right now, this present moment, and soaking it all up. And most people are letting fear mentor them instead of wisdom. And so here's the question I want you to begin asking yourself. What would my 80 year old self say to me right now? With all of the wisdom that they have, what's the thing that they would say to me right now? What can I learn from them? Someone who has already lived the future that I'm moving into. And the beautiful thing is that your older self already knows what matters. And so I think to myself, like, how can I today download the wisdom from him right now? Like, how can I listen to him and find out what really matters? And I want to make this practical for you because it's really become a daily practice for me. And so here's how you actually do it in your life. Okay, step one. I want you to actually create your future self clearly. Like, most people never connect to their future self, like really deeply and emotionally. So they make decisions, you know, based off of immediate comfort versus what's actually important to them. But neuroscience shows that the more emotionally connected you are to your future self, the better decisions that you'll actually make in the present moment. And so I want you to sit down and journal. Like, what does your 80 year old self value? What do they regret? What are they grateful for? What advice would they give you right now? What do they wish you'd stop worrying about so much? What wisdom do they have to give you what do they wish that you would appreciate more? Like actually write it all down. Don't think it in your head, put it down on a piece of paper. Like bring them to life on a piece of paper. They're already waiting for you to get in contact with them. Okay, so that's step number one. Step number two is start consulting with them daily. Literally, I do this multiple times a day. Now if I'm stressed, I look at something and I go, will this matter when I'm 80 years old? 99.9% of the time, the answer is no. If I'm working too much, I ask myself, will I have wished that I worked more or like actually lived more? If I'm sitting on the couch watching a basketball game and I'm distracted and my son comes up to me wanting me to get off the couch for the 15th time in a row when I just got up 14 times earlier, would my 80 year old Rob look at that moment and be like, ah, don't worry about it? Or would he give anything, everything, to get up and read another book to my son? And instantly when I think about that I'm present, my perspective shifts. It returns, I guess is a better way of saying it. In like, the meaning in my life returns. So that's step number two. Step number three is let your future self interrupt your autopilot. Like, most people are unconscious. I've been unconscious for most of my life. They wake up, they grab their phone, stress, rush, react to this thing, repeat, and then years just disappear, right? You have to interrupt the autopilot. One of the biggest problems in modern life is overstimulation. We are so distracted that we can't even feel our own lives anymore. Your older self, what would they tell you? Slow down, experience this. Not someday, not when you accomplish that thing. Like right now. In this moment, I have realized that if I can think that way and interrupt my autopilot, I'll try to bring in all five of my senses to the present moment. And when I do this and I bring in all five of my senses and I try to be as present as I possibly can, it's like, it's weird. It's like the present moment becomes so rich, it's like the exposure goes up and I go from like 720p, which is like pixelated on a TV, to like 8K. It's like, oh my God. There's so many things in this present moment I wasn't paying attention to. And the part that keeps getting me like emotional lately Is I think right now you and I are living the good old days. I think one day you're going to miss this version of yourself. Even the struggles that you're going through, you're going to miss it. You're going to miss the energy that you have. You're going to miss your mobility, you're going to miss your challenges, you're going to miss your children being little. You're going to miss these conversations that you have. You're going to miss this season that currently feels stressful or chaotic or challenging or even just boring and ordinary. And I think one of the greatest tragedies in human existence is realizing too late that it was beautiful while you were inside of it, but you didn't notice it. And you know what's crazy? Like right now, there's a version of you that years ago would be blown away by the current life that you have. Like, there is a version of you that prayed for what you currently overlook. And your brain, it just adapts so quickly that we stop seeing the miracle that we've created. Which means that if you don't intentionally wake yourself up and see how rich this present moment currently is, you will unconsciously miss your entire life. Because this is it. Do you get it? Like, this life that you're in, this is your life. This isn't a rehearsal, this isn't a warm up. This isn't the practice before the beginning. Like this, right here, right now, the second that you're sitting in with me is your life. And one day you would give everything that you have to come back to this exact moment. Which means this moment must be infinitely more valuable than we realize. And I like to think about this perspective as kind of like a forest fire. If you look at a forest fire, sometimes a forest fire destroys everything. But a forest fire also clears out everything so that new life can emerge. And I think that this perspective for me has been working the exact same way. Like, this perspective shift has been like a forest fire. This shift has like burned away so much unnecessary noise for me, so much fake urgency, so much chasing, so much illusion. The answer. Whenever I ask myself what do I need more of, what do I want more of? When I really get myself present, what would my future self tell me? It's never been more achievement or more money or more likes or more followers? The answer is always more presence. And I got it tattooed on my arm, you know, it says on my arm, right here, for those of you guys that can see on YouTube, it says, be here now. Like the answer is tattooed on my arm. Be here now. Like, be in this moment. And I see it multiple times a day to remind myself, all right, dude, slow the hell down. Like, this is life. Like, life isn't something that's coming for me once I achieve this thing. Life is this thing right now that I'm in. So here's what I want you to do after this episode tonight. Sit down alone, no phone, no distractions, no tv. Like, this is really one of the most important things I think you can do. And I want you to pretend that you're 80 years old and you're looking back on your life. And I want you to write a letter to yourself from your 80 year old self. So from your 80 year old self to your current self. And I want you to tell them what truly matters. Like, try to connect to them. If they exist in your consciousness somewhere in the future, you know, like, maybe we can pull wisdom from them. Like, get them to tell you what matters, what doesn't matter, what to stop worrying about, what we should appreciate, what to forgive, who to forgive, what risks we should take, you know, who we should spend more time with, what memories we need to create, and then start listening to them daily. Make this connection between you and them. Let them be your mentor. I don't want to be your mentor. I don't want anybody in this world to be your mentor. I want your future self to be your mentor. I think that's the most important thing that you could do because your future self is always wiser than your fears. And the more that you listen, the more meaningful your life will become. You know, when you're 80 years old, you won't care about how many emails you answered, how much money you made, or how much you optimized your schedule. You aren't going to care about most of the things that you stress over today. What you will care about is the people that you loved, the moments that were fully alive, the moments that you created, the memories that you had, the sunsets that you slowed down enough to see, the laughter, the connection, the courage to actually live. And one day you will realize these were the good old days, these moments that we're in right now, these are the good old days. So don't wait to see it when you're older. Like, why don't you see it now and allow that to actually guide you. Because this moment, this ordinary little moment that you and I are sharing together might actually be one of the most valuable things that you'll ever have. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on your Instagram stories. Tag me in at robdial Junior R

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[Rob Dial]

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