The Present is a Gift

We all like to worry about how we or anything related to us will end up in the future. However, is this completely necessary, or is living in the now more important, with the occasional prudential thought being considered?

When I was talking to my grandma the other day, we were talking about how I would like to accomplish certain goals of mine so my future would look bright, but she didn’t receive this too well. She was telling me that my interests could possibly change, and that always thinking about the future could potentially be harmful.

Firstly, I have been wanting to create an app for google play, but I had to reassess my drive for this goal. Was it for my future success, or was it born out of my current interest to code, develop, and just be innovative? Suddenly I had to re – assess most of the goals that I have set for myself, and the goals that I had established a while back.

I thought long and hard, and it was an interesting and bizarre journey of thought because I wasn’t just assessing the surface level question of why I wanted to achieve those goals, but the implications of those goals.

I realized most of the goals I had set for myself always had something contingent on the future and its implications, whether it was getting a job at a certain place so I could improve my resume, which would in turn improve my chance of getting a job or internship in the future.

I had to understand whether this sort of thought process was damaging to the goals I had set for myself, or whether it was actually helpful.

When I look back at it , the reason many of my goals in the past weren’t accomplished the way I wanted them to be because I subliminally put too much pressure on myself, but when it was mentioned to me that I focused too much on the future, I realized it was harmful to my pursuit of achieving my goals.

I suddenly recalled the quote from the movie kungfu panda, which is “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift”. Essentially, I was forgetting the vitality of the “then and now” and prioritizing events that were possible but goals that wouldn’t definitely happen.

In hindsight, when I set a goal for myself that was premised on my my own interest rather than a future reward, I was generally more successful in accomplishing that goal. For example, I have been trying to learn Hindi for many years, and this wasn’t out of the future benefits I would get out of it. I simply have a passion for learning the language and watching the movies, which keeps me driven. Although learning the language may be very helpful, its usefulness wouldn’t be as powerful in motivating as my interest in the language itself.

Learning Hindi is just one example ; I understand I can implement this sort of thought process behind most of the goals I set for myself. Although this form of thinking works for me, it doesn’t necessarily have to work for you.

However, my personal conviction is that being excessively caught up in the future can be overwhelming and can make the mind hamstrung. Achieving your goals, although crucial to you, doesn’t have to be this stressful process that it is stereotyped to be. It will most definitely require dedication, but if you actually enjoy what you are doing, you are actually more likely to achieve the goal.

It’s ok to think about your future in moderation, but being overly consumed by it is destructive and fruitless. Enjoy the process of achieving your goals because you are more likely to achieve them, and each day is a gift.