Living in the Future

Most of us believe that we are molded by our past. However, in most cases, we live in the FUTURE.

For example, a professional is going on a 2-week vacation after working for 6 straight months. The week prior to the vacation itself, she is doing her job happily, preparing to leave everything in order. Her happy disposition is observed by her office mates. They all comment that she is so easy to work with, at her best element, even. She replies that she is looking forward to her vacation away from the pressures of everyday city life.

What kept her going the week prior to her vacation was the thought that she would spend 2 whole weeks in a tourist destination. For 2 whole weeks, she could get up at the time she wanted to, do all the things she always wanted to do but never had the time, and spend the all time she wanted to with people she liked. She was, in fact, living in the FUTURE.

The first week of her vacation was as she dreamed, planned and imagined. Her face glowed with joy.

All of this changed as she was into the second week of her vacation. Every now and then, she would remember her stressful city life, i.e., waking up before the sun rises, resignedly waiting to reach the office during the morning rush hour, dealing with difficult clients, and the list goes on. She was actually gloomy 3 days prior to going back to the office. Again, in the last 3 days of her vacation, she was living in the FUTURE.

Another example of this is the person who had been unintentionally offended by a friend. The person might think that things would happen again and opt to distance herself from the concerned person. A classic example of living in the future.

This goes without saying that we should learn from our mistakes and those committed by people around us. The trick is knowing how to wittingly balance being cautious and LIVING IN THE FUTURE.

Letting Go… Emptying

We’ve heard it all before. Whenever the New Year comes, we should let go of all of the negativities we have in our hearts. This is so we can have a fresh start. What surprised me was the homily of the priest in the New Year’s mass I attended.

He said that we should also let of ALL of the GOOD things that happened to us in the past year. He mentioned that if we rest on our laurels, so to speak, we would tend to lay back and stop aiming to achieve something better. Should we hold on to the good things in our life, we would hinder our growth process and never reach our full potentials. It makes sense right?

This weekend, I heard a further improvement on this concept. It is not enough that we let go of the bad AND the GOOD things, we should also EMPTY ourselves time and again.

If we empty ourselves from time to time, we become receptive to fresh ideas. If we empty ourselves, we leave more room for improvement. If we empty ourselves, we leave ourselves open to have our inner viewpoint be rearranged.