Don’t Live In Your Future
I once dated a girl who claimed almost daily that she was “going to start a diet tomorrow.” When faced with her choice of what to eat the following day, she would once again say she was “going to start a diet tomorrow.” The day after that, if we decided to go out for pizza and ice cream, she would then proclaim that she was “seriously going to start a diet tomorrow.”
She continued this pattern for the duration of our relationship lasting several months, and never actually started a diet.
It’s easy to imagine a better version of yourself that exists sometime in your future. The future version of yourself is essentially perfect by comparison — in the future you’re happy, exercising daily, eating right, beautiful, done school, successful, working a job you love, rich, famous, in love, whatever.
When you imagine an enhancement to your life and place it firmly in your future, it will remain a figment of your imagination unless you begin taking steps towards achieving it. So if you truly want to create a better life for yourself, you must earn it every day, starting today.
I repeatedly emphasize the importance of “living in the present” because although the concept of living every day to its fullest appears obvious, it is quite difficult in practice. It goes without saying that it’s considerably easier to do entertaining and enjoyable things in lieu of unappealing and difficult things — but the easy things will often be unproductive and wasteful in the grand scheme of your life’s goals.
One of the most helpful things that was ever suggested to me was the notion that there are no such things as “the past” or “the future” — there is only this very moment you’re experiencing right now. This new perception of life had profound effects on my motivation and resulted in the development of an astonishing ability to put wheels in motion and simply get things done.
“But the future exists,” I hear you argue. The future is where all your hard times are behind you — and all the good times lie ahead because you’re already happy and successful. The future is when you’ll be out on the town whenever you please, surrounded by friends and fine wines — and you don’t have a single financial concern ruining your fun, right?
If that sounds like a future you truly desire then it’s not out of the realms of possibilities — but this here and now is where you are actually at. This is the moment you’ve been waiting for all your life. This is the moment you must appreciate without all those other things you’re hoping for.
Don’t let me give the impression that dreaming is a bad thing. Dreams are really great — but don’t forget how it is you right now doing the dreaming. Once you learn to appreciate this, you will be able to enjoy every moment of your life. You’ll enjoy simply being alive and having the capacity to do all that dreaming.
Living in the present means acting like today matters. When you focus on achieving your goals today rather than pushing them off until tomorrow, the boundaries separating you and your hopeful future begin to dissolve.
5 Responses to “Don’t Live In Your Future”
It’s good for me…
Thank you for this good article
@hello
You’re welcome! Thanks for commenting.
hello shaun,
I stumbled upon your site, and i stuck around for hours reading.
You have some interesting articles that made me and i m sure
a lot of other ppl think and rethink their lives.
“Don’t live in the future” is something i again totally agree with
many ppl tend to dwell in past and future and forget living in the present.
Thank you for your “opening ppl’s eyes and make them think” articles.
Grtx,
CLAY.
galing
Wow Shaun,
This is EXACTLY what i needed to read. Thank you sooo much!
You have no idea, what a big impact this is going to have on my life.