What if figuring out who you want to be doesn't start with imagining your future self — it starts with looking at your past one? In this minisode, Maricella walks through a deceptively simple exercise: scrolling through last year's photos to find the one where you look exactly how you want to feel. What she found was more layered, and more useful, than she expected.

From a trip to Greece to a random Tuesday alone in her apartment, this episode gets into how the feeling behind a photo, the memory it holds, and the moment you're in right now are three completely different things. Plus what nostalgia actually is scientifically, why play keeps showing up as the answer, and how to use your past self as an emotional anchor for the person you're becoming.

Show Notes:

(00:00) Intro

(00:38) No Resolutions

(01:42) Why Feelings Make For Bad Goals

(03:03) Future Self and Manifesting

(06:02) The Photos Exercise

(07:57) Three Layers in Every Photo

(09:54) Greece Trip and Disconnection

(12:38) Cat Costume Joy and Buckets

(15:22) Oven Broke but I Persisted

(18:40) The Through Line Is Play

(21:37) Nostalgia and Self Continuity

(24:59) Closing the Gap to Future You

(26:47) Try It and Final Goodbye

(27:59) Outro Subscribe and Connect

Takeaways:

• Go through your photos from the past year and find the one where you look exactly how you want to feel. How you feel right now looking at it is data too.
• Every photo has three layers: how you look in it, how you feel seeing it now, and how you felt when it was taken. They're not always the same thing.
• Play isn't just about fun. The moments that light you up are telling you something about what you need more of.
• Nostalgia isn't only backward-looking. Research suggests it's your brain connecting past you to present you in order to push you toward future you.
• You don't have to picture an abstract future self. Start with a real past feeling and use it as the anchor.

Links:

• Em on the Brain (Emily McDonald) — Planet Em podcast on Spotify / Apple Podcasts
• Emily McDonald on What Now? with Trevor Noah — "Can You Rewire Your Brain?"
• What a Broken Oven Taught Me About Myself — Substack

Find Maricella:

• Substack: https://maricellaherrera.substack.com/
• Instagram: @quitmyjobpod
• quitmyjobpod.com