This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

We all suffer from a gap between planning and doing: we make plans that we fail to carry out. This gap does not prove that we fail to do the right things - maybe we just fail to make the right plans. Ironically, the first step towards closing the gap is to realize that we cannot escape from it.

Kirsten Rohde, Professor of Behavioral Economics at Erasmus University Rotterdam, is interested in helping people take responsibility for their own futures. Many of us suffer from a gap between planning and doing. This gap is the result of an ongoing struggle between our different selves. The talk shows that both our current and our future selves have a role when closing this gap. The current self needs to make realistic plans and the future self has to carry out these plans.