We all live in a constant struggle of living our lives while preserving our future. It’s an eternal state of conflict in mind. You can’t have both. Either you could be living free in the present moment, without giving a single thought of what might happen next or you could constantly worry about future and keep planning, preparing what might or might not come next.
Choosing one over other is a defeat.
If you choose NOW, you won’t make much out of your life. Of course you’d have had made countless memories living in the present but, you would be at the same place you were before. You’d not make much progress without planning and preparing for your actions. Most of your actions would be repetitive, borne out of your habits. Like eating, sleeping, chitchatting with your friends and family. Without a goal or purpose, your life would be as useless as of an animal. Just wandering from one point to another in time and space!
However, if you chose planning the future, you’d always be in state of anxiety of what might go wrong about your plans. How you’ll achieve them? What happens if you don’t? What if this? What if that? All these hyperbolic and imaginary scenarios will keep you awake at nights. Too much thinking will slowly kill you. It’ll make your life a living hell!
So you’d ALWAYS be in a state of eternal conflict between two. Like a pendulum, swinging from one end to another, forever.
Much like everything else in life, there are laws of nature which govern all physical and psychological realms. One such law is Law of Equilibrium. In order to get rid of this eternal state of swinging from one end to another, you’ll have to find a BALANCE.
You’d have to come up with a contract, a system, a methodology to balance your life, your thoughts, your emotions. The aim is to find salvation from this never ending race of chasing your dreams, wishes and aspirations.
Once such a system is in place, you can then live with peace of mind and let go of fear of loosing out, either in NOW or in FUTURE.
A system, would be something like, “I’d work 9 A.M to 6 P.M without fail everyday of my life, to achieve set of goals regardless of results in short term. That being said, I’d also take care of my health, my family, friends and enjoy my life as much as I can without them interfering with my long term goals as they are too, important for my long-term happiness.”
Finding the ‘right’ balance is subjective. For someone who’s poor, making money, is all he cares about. For him, life is not an amusement park, to be explored, enjoyed. Life is full of suffering, pain and lessons. For a person with lack of health, wealth and inner happiness, life is a piece of work. Something to be worked upon, hard, until something meaningful comes out of it.
Only the one, who’s known the lack of abundance, can appreciate the true value of having a life of hard work, sweat, blood and tears. He’s the one who can enjoy each moment and be grateful for it. He’s the one who won’t be anxious for future as he’s sure of hard-work which he puts in everyday. For him, every moment of life is meant to be worked upon in order to live a fulfilling and meaningful life. Wasting life in thinking whether to live in past, present or future, is no value to him.
Life is a burden which we all must carry but the good thing is, we get to carry our own. Whether you live in present, past or future remember, you only live once. Live your life to fullest. Achieve all you can. The time which you spent either in temporary gratification or worrying about future is never coming back. Make something useful of each and every moment. And if you can’t, don’t bother asking such stupid question.