Why do we live our lives striving towards the future?

Question

Is it just me, or every minute of your life are you always looking forward to something, whether it's your dinner, the weekend, or just something slightly interesting happening in your life? Are we ever just happy in the moment, or happy to meet each thing as it happens?
It seems to me sometimes we just wish our lives away and one day wake up to find we're older and no better off.

Answer 1

Escapism. Some people escape into the past as well as the future. It's easy enough - either place is completely inside your head.

And if you spend all your time living in your head instead of experiencing the world around you, then maybe you don't have to care or worry about the world around you. You can wash your hands of your life and the whole universe because you have a different universe all to yourself to spend all your time in.

People do it because it's easy. Living in the moment and dealing with the mind-numbing vastness of the present is hard. It's, sadly, just another form of suicide.

Answer 2

What do you mean better off? I'm older and past the age of striving! It's too late to make much difference financially but I'm more content so better off in many other ways!
life is all about time but you might wake up one morning to find that the future you look forward to is just a lot shorter than it used to be! The past a lot longer and the present about the best time to live in! The future to a child is the same as the future to an old person. It's counted in days or weeks rather than years. Children don't understand the concept of time and tend to live more in the future and the elderly know it's running out and may live more in the past but babies and the very elderly have only today!

Answer 3

I'm 53 now.In the past,when I was younger,I wondered how my later years would turn out.At that point in my past,I was thinking about my future.Sadly now,what were my thoughts from the past,have become my reality today.In other words,the future I thought about in my past,is now sadly all too real.I didn't anticipate being disabled,not from an accident,but by multiple osteo-arthritis and fibromyalgia.Where I live there is no light pollution.I can see the stars and planets as clearly as though I were in the London Planetarium years ago when I was a child.I look up at the stars and ponder over what it is I am seeing.I see formations,clusters,stars and planets like Mars and the Moon.I see in them the signs of the Zodiac.The stars remind me of pinpricks of light shining down through a colourless sky.I am happy in that moment knowing it will not come along again.I look around at my friends and love them because they are in the here and now.I try to look forward to seeing them sometimes when I do go out.I look forward to composing a tune on my computer.I start with a blank canvass and over a period of time,I fill that canvass with sound.I try not to wish my life away as I know one day it will end for me.I am older now and healthwise and worse off than even six years ago when I was 47.My thoughts have turned to making a Will and preparing a funeral plan.I worry about the friends I will one day leave behind which I hope won't be for many years.When it it my turn to pass away,I hope that I will be going to another place that is somewhat better than this.It seems to me these days many lives are complex and complicated.I have a very simple life now.My computer and phone is my contact with the world.My days are for me to do with as I choose.I love my friends very much and dip into and out of their lives. I like simplicity and this is what I want for my now and future.Life is here for us.It is real.Very real.How we live it is very real.Wishing our lives away never really happens.Our lives go on no matter what until it is our time to go.It is what we do,and the legacy that we leave,that determines what our lives have been given to us for.I still look at the stars and the planets - and all I can do is ponder and wonder as to all that which is me and my life. Alan L.

Answer 4

Humans are never satisfied. They always think that whatever happened in the past can be bettered. Part of this reasoning stems from the fact that you cannot undo any event that has occurred in the past. You can only hope to do the same thing in a better manner and anticipate better results in the future. And talking of hope, it springs eternal in the human breast. Future is a very wide term and could mean a minute or eternity. However, our outlook towards the future is the same. For argument's sake, if you know that you have just one hour or one day more to live, your attitude towards that limited period of time would be the same as that of a person who knows that he/she has plenty of time in hand. Both of you would strive to make the most of the precious time you have in this world.

Answer 5

There's nowhere else to go except forward. Why humanity strives for a better future is unclear to me, because often what we do in the present can have disastrous consequences for the future.

Most people simply want to enjoy their lives as much as possible and save for their future.

From age 5 to 10 times passes slowly, or so it seems. From 10 to 13 seems an age. The teenage years are gone in a flash. Adulthood begins with time passing quite slowly. From 40 to 60 the pace picked up. From 60 to end game it's all gone in a single day.

Answer 6

Those who think otherwise are unhappy and depressed, often contemplate suicide. It is not easy to be happy or positive all your life. Too often we believe that happiness should just be a given, but you have to work for it just like anything else you want in life. You have to be wise and think things through before you say or do anything. You don't have to be rich or a genius to be happy. Just knowing that you've done your best and are consciously aware of yourself is a step in the right direction. Hopelessness is not a sure way to gain happiness, pity perhaps, but that's about all. Ever notice how no one wants to be around the person who's down and out? The alienation and loneliness eats away at the person's soul like cancer. It's dangerous and totally preventable. Random acts of kindness are beneficial in this regard, I believe, cos you never know who's life you could be saving with a simple smile or thoughtful gesture towards someone who was ready to give up on everything. If we at least try, it's worth it.

Answer 7

Jen, I'm older and no better off.

We have a choice in life, either to live in the past, the present, or the future.

Of course, technically speaking, we can only live in the present but, hell, I'd rather look forward to something.

Aspirations, ideals and desires are all built for the future. We can change the future and, by making plans, we might strive to do so, inevitably for the better.

"Living in the now", the common expression, relates purely to something we cannot change, but is actually going on at this moment.

"Living in the past", another common expression again refers to something we cannot change; it has already happened.

I believe life is an individual balance of past, present and future and, depending upon the individual preference, can reflect on happy memories, enjoy whats happening at the moment, and look forward to that future event or opportunity.

The other choice is regretting the past, feeling unhappy about what's happening, and dreading what's likely to happen.

Somewhere between the two extremes, lies a choice for all of us. Your choice is up to you, I wish you well with it. I have made mine and I'm older, better off and happier for it.

Answer 8

It's the carrot on a stick, always hoping that tomorrow will be better and a new start. A college professor once told our class that when people find happiness, it doesn't last long enough. Guess that's true whether it's 5 days, 5 years or 50 years.

If people didn't look forward to a better future and that tomorrow would be better, they'd stay in bed.

Answer 9

No, it isn't just you Jen.
Forever driven by the past and concerned for the future we strive and strive for a future which, by definition, never comes.
And yet this very moment is the only time that we're actually alive!
Little kids know this. They're totally present in what they're doing - and look at the intensity of who they are in the moment.
What we do is to react to the present and thus lose it, rather than just being there and losing ourselves in it.
It actually isn't easy to do, but if we can let go of the past and the future and just be totally present in the now - it's fantastic!
It's a brilliant posting - and absolutely spot on.
Jon C

Answer 10

It seems to me a lot of people spend their lives looking over their shoulder to the past. We are all getting older and so heading towards the future. The Now is important but tends to be the then after a while. Looking forwards is positive if it is channelled in a positive way. Its no good looking forward to winning the lottery, it might never happen. Look forward to the achievable things.