The present: Its Importance and Relevance to the Future

One of my favorite TV quotes is from How I Met Your Mother. The main characters are Ted and Marshall. When they face an insurmountable problem, they often tell each other "Looks like a problem to be solved by future Ted and Marshall."

Then the two friends go back to playing video games until the show moves to the next scene, which always leads to repercussions of not dealing with the problem heads on, but who cares? It's just comedy, and we want characters to put themselves in funny situations. However, this simple comedy, despite being funny, underestimates life. It is a miniature of human desire to procrastinate; That is,  to take the path with least resistance, and to postpone dealing with pain until tomorrow.

The future is the accumulation of daily actions:

Pain can be caused by anything. You may want to get fit, but you don't want to start going to the gym and then put off your workout until "tomorrow". Or you may want to save some money for retirement, but the pain you feel from low income due to saving money is too much. Instead of saving, you tell yourself that you will start saving from "tomorrow."

However, I'm sure you'll push the pain to another day and so on until you get to the point where you lose the motivation to start.

Ironically, or perhaps coincidentally, the only way to achieve this long-term goal is to start "today". The only way you'll get the physique you want is to commit to 90 days of exercise and healthy eating.  The only way to retire is to take advantage of the compounding returns and save your retirement money from every paycheck you get.

Success, then, is not a distant stage you eventually find or stumble over. It's the sum of daily habits and the result of multiplying daily gains.

So, the only way you can have the future you want is to treat every day like you're living it. That is, how can someone live their life if they're healthy and in good shape? Or  how does a person who has financial control over their life behave? If  you want it, just start living it, but that doesn't mean you won't be in pain.

Everything in the universe has an equal and opposite reaction to it. Therefore, it makes sense that your double success will be accompanied by blood, sweat, and tears that come with each day, ignoring resistance and investing in your actions.

A Simple Example:

When I think about my future, I remember my retirement savings. The benefit of creating a retirement account, along with taxes is that you can't use your money while it's increasing at an exponential rate.

So, if you put $1 in your retirement savings and didn't use it for 30 years, assuming an annual return of 10%, you would have more than $17 in 30 years. That's because in the first year you earn $0.10, and then in the second year you earn 10% on $1.10 instead of $1, which is going to be $1.21, and so on. I apologize because I know this isn't supposed to be a math or finance lesson, but it does explain the notion of a complex future.

It highlights the need to start now, rather than later. Every year, you wait to start saving money for your retirement, reducing your double returns, which gives you less money in the long run. It doesn't stop there, as  everything you do in life has double returns.

Is this the future you want? Yes, it's best to start now if you want to enjoy the future you want in this lifetime.

DO NOT sacrifice the present:

Isn't this a personal development blog? Doesn't that mean the present moment is more important than the future? All  self-development experts say it is.  They are right, it is . This means two things:

For one, if your future is a compilation of your compound actions, then every action the moment it happens is the most important, as it will eventually lead to the perfect future. So, in a sense, the present is the most important because it creates your future.

For two, this also means that the present is the most important, regardless of the future, and if you are not satisfied with your present, you may not be satisfied with your future either. It's a matter of internal state, and you should be satisfied with what you have every day. So, essentially the goal of life is to enjoy the present moment and be satisfied with what happened, what is happening now, and what will happen next.

But ironically, one of the ways we enjoy the present is to work towards a better future. Man wants and needs to move forward, and if you don't take the first step, the present often becomes stagnant. Therefore, the future may be the most important, but I think otherwise. I think the present is the most important, but the future is comprehensive for all your current moments, so it may really be the most important.

Bottom Line:

I think the point here is contentment. However, to be satisfied, you have to appreciate the present moment, and at the same time, you have to appreciate the direction your life is going, so wherever you want your life to go, you can start now, and you owe it to yourself now and into the future.