I was flipping through an Elle magazine last night and came upon this article about why we are always unhappy despite living safer, longer, and more comfortable lives than our predecessors. The article is typical of women's magazines, but I gave it a percusory read and noticed what an interviewee said. He's a psychologist or counsellor, I think, one of those annoyingly well-adjusted people who have everything in perspective, anyway.
He said that to live life to the fullest is to live in the present. That's right, to live here and now. That is something I've got to learn. I'm always thinking about the future, about how everything would be better in the future. I would be a better person, I would learn to correct my faults, given enough time. What propels me forward is the future. It's like tunnel vision-- you're so focused on the future that you defer living. I always forget that to change myself or to start a journey, I should begin now, this day, not this weekend, not the near future.
Have you ever had an experience like this: I bought a pair of shoes that was so comfortable but I kept them in the shoebox and did not take wear them, because I thought: this is a good pair of shoes and I want to save it for the future, perhaps when I go travelling. A year later, I still have not worn the shoes. I took them out of the shoe box and they were peeling. The sole came out of one of them. I couldn't wear them anymore.
Is it that the saving-the-best-for-last mentality is not always the right one? That we should enjoy the fruits of our labour right now, instead of "work, then play", deferring the good things to the future?
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