Dear Hivers,
If you didn’t know, the devotion series explores life, knowledge, and the truth around us. The last devotion series was published two months ago. We now continue.
In this article, we will explore the fantasy of the future.
Quick question: As humans, why do we look into the future? You see, last year I hired a freelancer to work on a project. He committed to this long-term.
And then in a week?
He quit.
Everything collapsed — those dreams and promises made during the interview were meaningless now.
I have personally seen dozens of writers come and go with dozens of promises created and broken. If you think about it? Life is built this way — people offer hopes and promises. And then walk away.
Think of those projects — plans — and even articles you planned to execute but never did. So even the ideas in our head that sounds perfect are left unfinished, isn’t it?
In fact, if you saw my blogs few years ago, you would discover hundreds of half-written articles that are now untouched. They are lifeless drafts with no hopes and directions. Not a single one is useful.
Everyone goes through this phase.
But when you put everything together, including your life experiences, you may begin to see a pattern. There is a psychological reason that forces us into the future. It has nothing to do with passion, culture, or background.
The fact is, all of us enjoy building a fantasy land around us. And then we make this land our private home.
The fantasy of the future always looks brighter than the reality of the present. That is why we start and never end.
As humans, we have divided time into three parts — the past, present, and the future. Past contains stories and events of our life. It cannot be changed.
Therefore we look into the future — which offers a ray of hope for a better tomorrow. It could be seeing your fav token going up 10x — or dream of a healthy body, new lifestyle, or extreme wealth.
Our present is often spent this way. In our present, we begin to daydream our future:
Therefore most of the ideas die before execution. You can take writing, for example. We start writing and then leave it half-way through. Even a book. Or a project.
We “start” for a reason. This start helps us swim into the future. We glorify the idea — magnify it — and then decorate it with our dreams. Therefore it drives us to take small actions — which is never enough.
Millions of people live this way. They walk into the fantasy land hoping and wishing for a change. And then those fantasies never change — they don’t even move an inch. If anything, they watch us grow old. The clock ticks as the gap between the reality and the fantasy widens.
Therefore several spiritual texts talk about living in the present — and actually working in the present. When you do that, you are not setting yourself any big future goals. All you do is commit.
You commit religiously to one task and then move onto the another.
To drive home this point, there is another process worth trying. Consider this an exercise. Indian priest Anthony De Mello once revealed two simple secrets about life. They are applicable even in our case:
- Step 1: Accept the mess.
- Step 2: Cure the mess.
The mess is the fantasy. Accepting this is important. Once we know we are fantasizing — we are now aware. Through this awareness we can stop our mind from diving into the future. We pull it back into the present.
The second step is to find a cure to this mess. Once you are in the reality, the best cures are:
- To finish what you promised.
- To work without expectations
- To change one day to day one
Simple yet profound, right? Something we know but often forget. So if I take writing an article as an example? Then the only goal is to finish the article. And once it is finished, we move onto the next article with no expectation of the previous one.
Such a life of no expectation leads to zero disappointment. It will, as you will notice, also lead to miracle — which is a by-product of living in the present.
With this, I hope and wish everyone is going to achieve everything in life by staying in the present — by starting and finishing now — eliminating expectations — while dropping the fantasy forever.
So that you can finish your dream work. Or complete that article you once planned to write. Just like I am dong it right now.
Cheers,
Sid
If you liked the article? Feel free to upvote and reblog.
More From Devotion Series:
'If you can dream, but not make dreams your master...you'll be a man, my son.'
'If' Kipling.
Good post sir, and one very relevant to toady's society.
I wrote yesterday about getting out a debt,which is closely aligned to your post.
What is debt, but a foray into the dreams of the future?
Unfortunately, it's becomes a case of making dreams your master. (repayment of debt).
Thank you! I can't believe you shared the poem. Has been my go-to since this happened. Filled with nothing but gratitude to discover this poem.
Beautifully said. Love it.
I like this thought provoking post and will be on the lookout for your Devotion Series. I am guilty of procrastinating mainly due to fear of not being able to deliver. I finally found my way around it by throwing myself over the fence, by promising a client a deadline and sticking to it despite the fear. Sticking to it no matter what. My only focus is to make it to deadline and give it my all, aiming to silence expectations. You are right, expectations kill moments. This is something I need to reflect on further.
One of my friend had a similar journey. He would prefer deadlines (from clients) to get work done. Yet his own apps are never executed because no one is going to give him deadlines.
For many, the "external" pressure creates action. Perhaps you also prefer this way! :)
Right. I was reading a spiritual book where it was mentioned to walk one step at a time. Not thousands. Applies here too. We lower expectations by looking closer and not farther. By doing one thing right now. And not hundreds.
Wishing you all the best.
Cheers on the inspiring and eye-opening post. This is a trap I fall into as well, having this sudden surge of ideas of all the posts I want to make. I'd start listing out some key points and details for that post. Eventually, it remains forgotten, and I've moved on to something else.
A fault worth accepting, a lesson learnt, and a habit changed :-D
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Surprised. Can you write 3 this week?
Yeah, I had planned to make one post per day, alternating between short and long-form content. But while I sometimes have made it, it hasn't been too consistent given how much work I've had outside of Hive recently. The good news though, is that I've almost always been able to make at least 3 nearly 10-minute posts every week, sometimes even four. It's been a long gap since my last one, though :-(
Hehe @ last one. Well, it's okay. Just do a one week challenge as the new month is here. Knock it out and see how it feels. :)
Yep, I'm certainly keen on a one-week challenge of a post every day for 5 days, preferably the full 7 days. I'd like to get started now, actually. I think my problem has been that I focus too much on the long-form content of nearly 2,000-words every single post, and I should try to summarise things more with shorter stuff, with less than 1,000 words.
I know exactly what it feels to live out that fantasy. During this long quarantine I have taken the time to evaluate those aspects of my life that I was overlooking; I suffer from anxiety among other things and concentrating on only one thing is super difficult, I spend more time drawing in my mind than in reality, it is a constant struggle but fortunately, little by little with meditation and with small tasks that I set myself, I have managed to finish projects. Thanks for those advices ;)
Absolutely wonderful to hear this. Meditation is the way. How long do you do it?
Yes, thank you. I've been practicing meditation for about four years now. At first, I did it for reasons of physical health but then I realized that other aspects of my life needed attention, meditation is the best, it taught me that I should not pressure myself to reach that future, my present is the most important and during this quarantine, I've needed it more than ever, even if it's only 20 or 30 minutes or just three deep breaths, it's amazing that you immediately feel different.;) Namaste!
Damn - if there is one fantasy that Covid-19 has successfully brought attention to, it's that fantasy of control, making plans and the future. I say that on a steamy, hot Thai Monday with just a slight cool breeze blowing - and no idea what the day will bring. Open and ready. Enjoying tea and this moment. 😍
Appreciate the incredible contribution you make to #hive, @sidwrites. Thank you.
Gosh. I want to be in Thailand. Have you settled there?
Love this:
So clearly and beautifully explained. Thank you for this inspiring and enlightening post :D
Absolutely delighted to know this. Thank you so much. :)
I had already praised how good I found this post, but this time I do it on behalf on the Natural Medicine community. Upvoted, reblogged and mentioned in the Mindful Life Curation of today ;) - @fenngen
MINDFUL LIFE is a Natural Medicine project which supports meditators on HIVE. Earn LOTUS & HIVE for your #meditation #mindfulness #yoga & #spirituality content! We also run twice weekly online meditations in our Discord server.
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I loved this - it explains very well how to WORK in the moment over BE - we all need productive lives. Meditation helps you be more productive because you become more focussed on the task at hand, rather than the outcome of it..