#121 – How do you balance living in the present with preparing for the future?

Plans can be helpful, if they don't replace your present.

Like training for a marathon: it can be hugely motivating and makes you feel like a super-hero. But what count are the 55,000 steps you'll take while running it.

Unfortunately, many times we skip the thought of the journey because what we're hooked on is the destination.

I've experienced this future-focus before. When I still hadn't finished my PhD (and not even started it), I used to think, "I'll be happy when I have my PhD."

This "I'll be happy when" is what some people call, "destination addiction."

You focus so narrow-mindedly on a certain, specific future, that nothing you encounter along the way can satisfy you. But you don't care because you think your deepest fulfillment awaits you in that future. So you keep plowing through.

Is it true that fulfillment awaits you on the other end, though?

You know it's not.

Because fulfillment isn't in the goal. It's in you, in the resonance you experience with (or in) your endeavors.

Does that thing you're doing make your soul vibrate? Does it make you happy and satisfied while you do it? Then, yes, it's a resonant goal.

Or on the contrary: does it make your brow frown and your jaw clench? Do you find it grueling and laborious? Then it's not – and pursuing it will only drain your soul.

What’s something you’re sticking with for its purported future benefits, even though it’s draining you right now?

Love,

Carolina