Successful and ambitious people have a huge future problem. They are always living in it. Striving fro the next big goal, promotion, or life achievement can cause us to always be looking ahead.
I find it interesting that I look to the future for opportunity and dream about how good things will be if I can just get to that next level. Ironically, it’s when I look back at the past that I often find myself feeling nostalgic about time gone by. Those times in grad school really were amazing. I was in a fabulous location, made some of the best friends of my life and married my wife.
What I tend to forget about was living on pennies, studying for long hours, worrying about whether I was good enough to be a scientist or not, and all the other stresses that come with the time.
The problem with both of these is that after looking to the future, and then back to the past, I find myself in the present. I’M ALWAYS HERE! The least interesting of the three! In the present you see, we have to take off the rose colored glasses. The dishes, the daily commute, running on the treadmill get in the way of our romantic fantasy of what life is.
The reality is we can only look back at the past with rose colored glasses because at some point we had PHENOMENAL times in the present! And we still do, we just can’t let the mundane that comes with it get in the way of the things that are really happening right now. The things that if we don’t shut up and listen, we are going to miss.
This week, we are going to flip the script. Think ahead to your future and write a few things down that might not be so pleasant. Do the same with the past. Now write down the things that make you happiest right now.
Two things will happen. First, you will realize that through the continuum of life, there are always going to be positives and negatives. Second, the present will sound like a pretty nice spot to be in and if we can’t take the time to acknowledge the things that give us fulfillment every day, we will be a lot better prepared when the downfalls inevitably come.
Share your thoughts with me at ryan@humanconstant.com.
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