I heard these words at an MEA retreat last year from a 68-year-old man who had been hyper-successful in business and was in great shape. For so many of us, our primary motivation has been to pursue shiny, new objects, and just as we attain them, something else attracts our attention, and we undervalue what we’ve just accomplished. Guilty as charged!
In reality, this healthy fella probably has 30 years of future ahead of him. He might have almost 40% of his adult life ahead of him if he started counting at 18. So, he does have a future, but it may be a future that’s very different from his past.
By the end of the workshop, this newly-minted modern elder acknowledged to the group that he’d spent his life purely focused on the future and never appreciating the present moment. Without a workshop schedule to rely upon and trusting our expert facilitators, he had to surrender control and appreciate that all the little moments we were creating would sum up to a momentous experience.
There is ample social science research that documents how those with a shorter future shift their attention to the present moment and, in so doing, grow their life satisfaction. Maybe more of us need to recognize this and change our focus once we realize:
“What I’m missing is a present.”
-Chip