The Answers Should Tell You Volumes About Yourself

I believe it is a mistake to think that “someday” we will all have the chance to dedicate our time to the things we REALLY want to do. It’s as if there is a guarantee that, at 65 years of age, we will all be able to retire. We assume we will have the money we need to set off on these grand adventures. We assume that we will have the physical health and mental capacity to fulfill our life-long ambitions, like climb Mount Kilimanjaro to touch its ancient glaciers. We assume Mount Kilimanjaro will still be covered in those same glaciers. This attitude assumes all kinds of things.

Of course, we all realize these are just assumptions. We all understand that there are no guarantees. We all get that not even tomorrow is guaranteed to us. If you dedicate your life to something that sucks the life from the very cells in your body, you can’t assume that vitality will magically be renewed at retirement. Chances are, every single aspect of your dream will be compromised. Vitality is mainly nurtured throughout a lifetime, not acquired magically at a later date.

I know this sounds harsh and overly pessimistic on my part, but I assure you that I am neither harsh nor pessimistic. Some would argue that position. Some would argue my other opinions. Some would argue that a long-term outlook is important, that looking forward is prudent. Some would argue that patience is part of the equation or that positive thinking can get anyone through anything. I don’t doubt any of these or other arguments. However, I also believe that the future that is taught to us in our modern culture does not exist. As I am prone to saying, it is an artificial construct of the human mind to help register and categorize how we, as humans, perceive the passage of each moment. It helps us string together our memories.

Memories, though, are just mental images. They do not exist outside of our brains. Instead, what exists outside of brains is…everything else. Everything that is REAL is what exists outside of our bodies. As for our consciousness, there is only NOW as we experience it. Not a new idea, I know, but maybe this is a slightly different angle. If NOW is all that there is, then waiting in anticipation of some perfect future that may never come is not the way I want to live. At minimum, I don’t want to idealize my future, expecting that every detail will be a precise manifestation of my vision. That is a future that is guaranteed to disappoint. And wouldn’t it be sad if I waited my whole life for the future, and the future just didn’t meet my expectations? I don’t think it ever can.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe in the power of visualization. I believe in our ability to envision what we want, then make it happen. I believe we co-create our existence. What I don’t believe in is the perfect future that is on the horizon. The horizon is always moving. It has no end. You can never arrive at its location. You can’t touch it. If that is the view of the future that most people take, then I believe most people will fail to fully manifest their dreams.

Instead, I believe the future is always within reach. It exists only as the next moment, the next NOW. The moment you can conceive of it, then it is NOW. I am sure someone far more clever than me can debate me into a pulp. I am sure that someone far more clever than me can craft and articulate logical counterpoints to prove that I am not a semantic maestro. That’s OK. I’m not arguing or defending. I am simply stating, stating my belief about embracing today and not allowing the prospect of tomorrow to shift our focus.

Tomorrow is a distraction. I seek to find contentment today. Improve the next moment. And then the next. And then the next. I can only hope that you and I don’t dedicate our lives to something anticipating that years down the road everything will be better.

Write down the following questions and answer them for yourself:

What do I do?

Why do I do it?

Would I still do what you do if I were given $1,000,000 tomorrow?

The answers should tell you volumes about how you spend your days. The answers should tell you volumes about yourself.