We tend to pay attention to the present at the expense of the future. Our present self will eat an extra piece of cake, or skip a training session, or procrastinate and leave our future self to deal with the consequences. This is known as temporal discounting.

Emotions can be used in two ways: To understand the way we feel, and to use it proactively to influence our future behaviour.

We all like to feel good about ourselves in the moment, even if it interferes with our long-term goals.