Living in the future and living for the future are entirely different things.
I was always the kind of person to look forward to my future and envision all the great plans that God has set for me. The problem was that I was always living in the future and not focusing on my current reality. I was always daydreaming about my life in 5-10 years, but it sorta hit me when I was watching John Green’s “Paper Towns” movie, while Quentin was speaking to Margo, his crush, about where he envisions his future about having a family and becoming a doctor and Margo responds by saying, “And that’s when you’ll be happy.., when you’re 30?”.
That really hit home because I felt like I can relate with Quentin in that moment and to hear Margo say that was harsh but eye-opening. Just like Quentin, all this time, I was putting my present life on pause while living in the future, when I should have been living for the future. I was always looking forward to leaving my home state and traveling the world, having a career I’m happy to wake up to, fall in love, have kids, come home to a beautiful family, but that’s where I envisioned my happiness and I wasn’t really living for my goals. I wasn’t already content with my life and didn’t focus on my happiness right now, therefore I kept looking forward to the future while putting my happiness on hold. I wasn’t working towards achieving anything towards the future I wanted. I wasn’t taking any sort of action to become one step closer towards what I wanted out of my future. In addition, this whole time I was unhappy of where my present life was, and I tried to treat that unhappiness with daydreaming about my future. I was too busy complaining about where my life was and how it wasn’t changing in the way I wanted. So I wasn’t happy or content in life. I think that daydreaming about my future, was a way of me trying to escape my current reality.
Unlike me, there are those people who are currently working hard to live their dreams but then again, it doesn’t mean those people are more content than people who don’t work hard. The same problem can come for those who grind hard because even though they may be living for their future, they’re not living in the moment and enjoying life to the fullest. You are spending a majority of your teenage life in the books (which is wise) but it’s not worth putting your current life on pause while you try waiting for your future to buffer (think about that for a moment because that’s important). I can’t tell you how to live your life, but I want you to live your life for the future and for the present. Meaning that you work hard to achieve your dreams and to always take every moment in with appreciation and gratitude. Live life to the fullest and take new chances. Don’t become so dependent on the reality of going from school>graduation>9-5 career>family>and soon death because then the question comes when are you truly happy in this whole thing we call “life”. Why can’t you just be happy now instead of waiting for happiness later? Should that illustration even be our lives?
Let’s be daring and rebellious while going against society’s expectations that are held over you. Live in the moment, and be free-spirited while also being frugal and wise. Your life doesn’t have to revolve around always trying to focus on achieving things for your future but can also be living for the future and the present. It’s all about enjoying life to the fullest.
It’s important to envision your future (which I was constantly doing), but that becomes nothing if you don’t try to take steps of actions every single day towards your future and your goals.
Everyone carries dreams and knows where they want to be in the next 5-10 years but if you’re not taking steps every single day towards your goals, it’s hard to say that it will happen. Perspiration and hard work is key in achieving exactly what you want and if you’re discouraged, never forget that anything is possible especially if you put your mind and heart to it.
While you see yourself working towards your goals while enjoying life at the same time, you will become the happiest person because it’s in our nature to aspire for greatness.
I know I’m now going off on a tangent here while mentioning the gravity behind hard work and making this post longer than I intended for but I also don’t want to leave this post with just that. I want you to read this and leave off with knowing the prominence behind working hard and enjoying life all at the same time. Why is it that we make happiness so hard to obtain or experience? Live in the damn moment and enjoy your life! To be honest, I should even be telling myself this because I don’t appreciate my life as much as I should and instead I’m too busy whining and complaining about my current state. In the equation of life, how do we solve for x? X being happiness, of course. We need to stop making happiness as a replica of an equation because it’s not hard, we’re just making it harder for ourselves. Stop pausing your happiness and waiting for greatness to happen in the far future. If you are not happy now you won’t be happy later. That’s real talk right there because us humans are never going to stop wanting and wanting things! “Oh I’ll be happy when I have my own apartment”, “I’ll happy when I get a girlfriend”, “I’ll be happy when I’m rich”, “I’ll be happy when I’m famous”, I’ll be happy when this or that happens but can you guarantee that your happiness will last? Maybe the first month of being rich will be the best time, but it won’t leave long term effects. I’ll leave it at that, and touch on this “never ending materialistic satisfaction” later on.
For now, focus on being happy. Don’t put your happiness on hold or wait for it in your future. “Obtaining happiness is going to be a long and hard journey” – said society. Make it into something that’s attainable and easy. You got this.
