...the elephant in the room
I can sense the question.
It’s okay!
Let’s dive right in…
Isn’t the future where everyone’s stress and worry are located?
Haven’t we be taught:
Now is all that matters!
Won’t focusing on what is coming keep us from enjoying the NOW we are currently living?
Wonderful question, indeed; thank you for asking! I am truly grateful to answer.
Here is what is being discovered.
The more connected we are to who we are becoming, the more we can recognize the transience of the moment we are living. Furthermore, and even more excitingly, the more we recognize we are still developing into who we are daily becoming, the more grace and understanding we have for the person that we are, here and now - today.
As you probably know, we can all benefit from a quick injection of grace and understanding. (Not to mention how enjoyable the patience to see our regular changes happening is.)
Technically, it’s exactly what we all need.
Dr. Benjamin Hardy states in Be Your Future Self Now:
“The quality of connection you have with your own Future Self determines the quality of your life and behaviors now.”
He continues, “The Future Self concept is simple yet rarely practiced.”
Dr. Hardy goes on, “...neuroscientists now agree the brain is essentially a ‘prediction machine,’ guiding behavior toward the expected future.”
Dr. Hardy’s focus determines, our disconnection with our future-self is what keeps us mindlessly engaging in short-term dopamine generation that distracts us from the long-term commitment of authentic living.
And I agree!
The more connected we are to our future-selves the easier and more comfortable the present moment feels; because we have the empowered calm, confident, clarity of the one who we choose to be.
Another, who you can trust even more than Dr. Hardy and myself, is of course Dr. Victor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor, and author of Man’s Search for Meaning. In the book that motivated his survival while being held captive in the death camps of Nazi Germany, Dr. Frankl clearly states he could tell within a 48-hour period when another prisoner would simply succumb to their shared conditions; because they would decide to focus on remembering the reality of their past rather than staying connected with the potential of their future.
"A man who let himself decline because he could not see any future goal found himself occupied with retrospective thoughts. They preferred to close their eyes and to live in the past. Life for such people became meaningless.”
So, I ask you:
If thoughts of the past cannot comfort a prisoner awaiting their death, as much as dreaming of the future can, how can living in it help anyone?
We’ve all heard Dr. Frankl’s quote:
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
I am here to assure you, in that space between stimulus and response lives your Future-Self. They are ready, willing, and able to assist you to live an empowered life of choice.
And it all comes down to the thoughts being believed in one’s own head.
Which returns us to the reason we are here and now, talking about an elephant.
An elephant is trained to stay put by tying a rope around its ankle.
Have you ever seen how big an elephant can be?
I have never seen a rope big enough for a beast with such potential, have you?
The limiting thoughts that keep an elephant tied in place, by no more than a shoelace, are mere misperceptions of capability.
The same as any one of us walking around in a “trance of disempowerment” as Milton Erickson motivated us all to realize…we need to be empowered out of.
Just like the elephant,
We are that close to our freedom!
Because:
“Every day in every way, we are getting better and better!”
Do you feel as free as you know you should be?
Your Future-Self Connection may be the only thing missing.
They are reaching out, are you ready to accept their connection?