The practical way to think about the future
There are two ways to think about the future. It’s easy to fall into the less-than-helpful one.
I’ve never had a clear view of my future. I know I’m supposed to have goals and ambitions – but most of them have come from a sense of obligation. I chose ones that sounded kinda right.
Today, we’re going to look at why. To do that, we’ll break down two things:
The two ways existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir thought about the future (and why one of them doesn’t work).
A Buddhist POV on building a great future without getting lost in it.
Staggering through life
Growing up, I had one undeniable goal: leave my hometown of Geelong. That directed everything I did up until I was 19.
I had been told I was a smart kid that’d go to university. So, sure, I went along with that – but because it’d be a way out of Geelong. I had no idea what I’d do there.
When I was 16 or so, I had an idea. But that was quickly squashed. I went into a little meeting with my high school’s “career councillors” (just three random teachers in a room by the library) and, confidentially and brightly, told them I wanted to be a philosopher.1
One of them chortled with surprise. We can’t help you with that, they said. We have a literature class you could take.
The shutdown was brisk and brusque. So I let that goal go – it wasn’t for kids at my school. I took the literature class and picked up psychology because, hey, it’s kinda close.
When it came time to pick a uni degree, I applied for a social science with a major in psychology because I thought, eh, may as well. On my application, I wrote down what I thought would get me into the program. It worked.
But it wasn’t the most robust search. I didn’t even know there was an applied science stream for psychology along with the social one.
Around the same time, I had gotten into writing and graphic design. Loved ‘em both. I didn’t even consider studying them at uni. Never occurred to me: authors didn’t get jobs and I didn’t even know “graphic design” was a job. I just made silly things in a cracked version of Photoshop. And, despite my love of drawing, I never really got any actual instruction at school.
Like, I knew people drew for a living. It just never occurred to me that *I* could do that.
So I studied psychology, did an honours year because I could, followed that up with an associate degree in professional writing and editing. And here I am: a copywriter with a psych degree who kinda wishes he was a visual artist.
Life’s weird.
The two ways people think about the future
A lot of things conspired to get me here. Part of it, though, had to do with the less-than-skilful way I saw the future.
According to French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, people tend to think about “the future” in two ways:
The continuation of today, where their life and projects will unfold and be fulfilled.
A transformative existence where all will be happy, peaceful and just.
Some people give into the second view of the future.
They start to believe that today’s problems will solve themselves as “the future” arrives. Or maybe they think today’s injustices are unimportant because they’re part of what will lead us to the better future.
It’s what I was going as I grew up. I was unhappy in my hometown and saw leaving as the only solution. I relied on that future to solve my problem.
But it affects bigger problems too. For example, this is how a lot of people think about climate change. Some mysterious technology will arrive in the future and solve the problem. We don’t need to do a thing about it now. Don’t be silly.
When you think about the future like this, says de Beauvoir, the present is only ever a transitory state, here to be negated.
A practical way to think about the future
Treating the present as a transitory state is a problem because, really, you can only live in the present. Your life is the here and now.
That doesn’t mean the future (or the past) are unimportant, though. You’ll still need to plan for tomorrow.
There are three things to keep in mind:
Avoid getting lost in mental time travel by thinking about the future or the past too much.
Don’t assume the future will be great magically.
Approach the future in a helpful, practical way.
Looking back at my life, I did bits of 1 and 2. I ran on autopilot to get to the magical future. I didn’t spend enough time thinking about that future practically (beyond the bare minimum).
Really, thinking about the future in helpful ways without getting lost in mental time travel is tough. Thankfully,
We can turn to Brother Phap Huu for number 3.
Huu is the abbot of Plum Village’s Upper Hamlet, a Buddhist community established by the late Thich Nhat Hanh. In an episode of his podcast, *The way out is in*, Huu shared a practical way of approaching the future.
We only exist in the present moment. But that present is made up of all the past moments we’ve lived up until this moment. That means, right now, we’re defining our future.
The best way to build a great future, says Huu, is to attend to the present moment well. When we’re thinking about what to do now, we can ask ourselves a simple question:
What do I want to bring with me into the future?
How you think about the future guides your present
Huu summed up this approach by talking about a time he considered giving up his life as a monk. He shared his dilemma with some of the other brothers at Plum Village and they asked Huu a question:
One of my good friends was like, Phap Huu, when you die, do you want to die in your robes or without your robes? And the joy that you have and the aspiration, the challenges, do you want to walk the path with the robes or without the robes?
For Huu, the answer was clear: he wanted to reach his end with his robes.
It wasn’t just about the future, though. That decision clarified how Huu could best attend to the present. The future wasn’t some distant land where everything would just work out.
Huu looked forward briefly and then returned to the present moment, treating the future “as a continuation of today, where their life and projects will unfold and be fulfilled.“
Living your future
I’ve stopped treating the future as something that will deliver me unto happiness just by arriving. But that doesn’t mean I’m 100% into the “fulfilling my projects” space just yet.
I’m still a bit reactive (see: one bad day kicking off a good but snappy “let’s buy a whole new home” project) or driven by self-propelled obligations and should.
Casey Neistat – a successful (and prolific) filmmaker on YouTube – once explained his motivation in a Q&A video:
In short, I’m here, all my dreams and aspirations are here, and the only thing in between these two is a bunch of work. So tackling that work is a way of moving this needle. That’s all the motivation I need.
That’s the embodiment of treating the future as a continuation of today – the place where your goals will be fulfilled if you work at them.
It’s where I’m trying to get to.
So… what now?
Making that change takes some practical action. Here’s how I’m going to approach it – it might help you as well.
Take stock of the goals I have (and the ones I’d like to have).
Decide which ones I want to keep and which ones I want to drop.
Design a plans to bring those goals into the present.
Review and reflect.
Let’s break those steps down into something a bit more actionable.
Take stock of your goals
The goal here is to uncover all the goals you’ve set for yourself, no matter how vague they are.
Take some time to list out all the goals you’ve thought about in the past year. They can be a full-blown statement of intent or a half-formed reckon of something you’ve thought you should do.
Once you have the list, go through it and mark out the goals that are:
A genuine passion of yours – they’re truly meaningful.
Vague or unclear.
Inspired by others’ expectations of you.
Once you have those lists, make note of the goals you’ve been putting off or avoiding. Jot down some thoughts about why you’ve been doing that.
Look at the list of goals you have that were inspired by others. Make some notes about them: why did those expectations turn into goals? Do you want to follow those expectations? Why?
Decide which goals you’re going to keep
Now we’re going to go through your list and pick the ones we want to continue on with. We’re looking for things that are:
Specific: can you describe the goal in a clear way?
Actionable: can you break the goal down into steps you can take? (Don’t forget to think about your time here. If you have 10 demanding goals, it doesn’t matter if they’re all actionable if you can’t make time for them all.)
Aligned: does the goal ring true with your core values?
Personal: does the goal truly feel important to you?
If a goal ticks all those boxes, you’re a SAAP baby.
These don’t have to be big ol’ career goals either. I’ve used this to learn how to play guitar as a creative hobby – I talk about it a bit below.
If you’d like a more concrete way to measure up all your goals, you can give them a score between 1 and 5 for each criteria. Rank your goals from highest score to lowest and drop any below a certain benchmark (e.g. 10/20 points).
To start with, focus on the one or two goals that have the highest score. It’ll be easier to focus on a couple instead if a full squadron of ambitions.
If you’d get really stuck, go back to Brother Phap Huu‘s example. He asked himself if he wanted to reach the end of his life with his monk robes or without them: you can do the same, replacing his robes with your goal.
Do you want to walk the path of your life with that goal or without it?2
Bring your goals into the present
You have your list of ambitions. Time to make a plan to bring them into the present moment.
For each goal you have that resonates with you, make a small action plan for yourself. Give it a realistic timeframe – maybe it’s a week, maybe it’s a month. Then define some concrete actions you can take over that time. Schedule those actions (with a set time period).
For example, I’ve started learning how to play guitar. It’s a meaningful goal for me. I got a instruction book from my dad and I’ve scheduled 20 minutes a day to work through it, focusing on two or three chapters a week.
That’s taken the vague goal of “learn guitar” and made it “learn 3 chords a week, playing guitar 20 minutes a day”. That’s something I can bring into the present moment – it’s easy to attend to.
Review and reflect
Book in some time with yourself to review your goals once a month. Remember, you’re doing this without judgement or assumption.
You can ask yourself these questions:
Have my plans been practical?
What obstacles popped up?
Are my goals still meaningful to me?
Do I need to make some adjustments (that aren’t just “do better”)?
Do I need help or support?
The goal, as always, is to bring your future into the present. Keep that in mind as you reflect.
If you’re feeling stuck, simplify the process. Ask yourself, “What’s one small step I can take towards my goal today?” The smaller the better.
Tomorrow is made from today
Whenever you focus on the present with mindfulness, you’re designing how your future will look. Your goals will only come to life if they’re a continuation of today.
That’s great news because you get to decide how that happens.
Bring your attention to your goals. Think about them without judgement, without assumption. Decide how you’re going to bring them to life.
Then it’s just a matter of attending to the present moment well. That’s where your life is, after all.
I know, I know.
You can apply this to hobbies too (but that’s a whole other article).