Live In The Future

Not for the first time did Dave wobble into the gym, overweight and feeling sorry for himself.

He had hit rock bottom. With every slight movement, he could feel the fat and grogginess coursing through his body.

He would start panting furiously after a short walk or after climbing a small flight of stairs and even get chest pains sometimes. Several times previously, he had promised himself he would change his habits to achieve a healthier and better lifestyle but yet was unable to stick to his resolutions.

But this time around, he was determined, stuck to his exercise routine, and lost a huge chunk of weight. Never in his life had he felt better, with his strength and concentration levels improving considerably.

Peter remembers when he was 18 years old, living on his own, standing by the road side, hoping beyond hope that someone, anyone would buy the game he had spent the whole day hunting to kill so he could eat that night. It was not fun.  Yet, he remembers how happy he was back then because he lived in the future and knew someday, he would soon be living a life of maximum freedom, happiness and peace even though he wasn’t really sure how he was going to do it.

Sometimes, when we're trying to improve, make changes or develop healthier habits, we have motivation issues. We keep trying but we never feel the pull, never gain traction. At this point, we may think that perhaps we're not trying hard enough so we try to push on.

Eventually though, we just grow tired, restless, impatient and quit altogether, reverting to the status quo because that's so much easier. We can’t see the results, any results, from our efforts so we presume we would never get the results we want regardless of how hard we try.

We take the pattern we think we observe and project it forward into the future, jeopardising and further demoralising ourselves in the process.

This was the case with Dave prior to achieving his breakthrough.

But Dave eventually succeeded at adopting a healthier lifestyle because he came to realise that by projecting his vision of his current unhealthy and overweight self far into the future, it became a self fulfilling prophecy.

When he instead positively started to see himself on a long enough timeline and visualized how he wanted to look and feel a few years down the line, how fit, energetic, stronger and confident he would be, he was now able to get his subconscious working for him rather than against him.

Living in the present and enjoying the moment is important. But like in Peter's case, sometimes our present isn't so wonderful and we seldom find joy in our current realities. It is in these instances that visualisation of a better future helps immensely. This is because humans have the capacity to be happy and motivated when we have an exciting future to which we can look forward even though our present isn't good enough.

Maintaining a positive future outlook and visualisation can only take you so far of course so you have to be actively putting in the work, and being true to yourself to achieve improvements. These results might not manifest themselves in a day, week or even months, but if you continue to give your 100 per cent to it, you will eventually get there.

There will inevitably be times when you would want to give up, or be discouraged but a strong vision of a much improved future you will have if you stick it out will enable you get through this.

In this fast paced society, where so much emphasis is placed on the now and instant gratification, where everyone is only interested in a quick dash to results, being able to live in the future is key to seeing out the gradual process that improvement usually is.

One should also note that just as it can be immensely powerful to have a positive future view, it can also be dangerous to have a negative future view. If you ever assume a negative outcome in a major area of your own life, doing this can be detrimental to getting the results you are after. You need to come to a complete stop and re-orient your thinking. 

Living in the future ensures we remain motivated in the present while we go through the changes required to achieve whatever success we are after.

This success is all about creating success-creating habits. The better we are at creating habits that stick, the more successful we will be in all areas of life.

But habits of any nature take time to create. We often just start at a state of discomfort, just enough to want to change. Then we make a change to better our condition. 

When we first start into the change, it may get very painful and our motivation levels suffer as a result. However, if we stick with it, we start to see results, and our life starts to improve.

Soon, when the habit or system becomes second nature and the new results become part of who we are, we are now at a new level of happiness, higher than when we started.

While we are undergoing the perhaps painful process of creating these positive habits, we can do with all the motivation and encouragement we can get.

Look beyond your present inadequacies, shortcomings and situations. Project yourself into the future. Create a clear mental image of what you want to achieve. This can be related to money, career, fitness, etc. Whatever the mind conceives, it can achieve. You can mould the reality that you want, truly manifest anything you desire but you need to live in the future. Do not be discouraged by the present reality. Rather, keep pushing on, and working hard towards the excellent future you have visualized for yourself.

Because in the end, the future is really what matters.