“The Anticipation Of The Future Is More Intense Than The Future Itself”
Benjamin Hardy

Excitement and fear. Two most powerful anticipation feelings in a world. Both able to build and destroy, both can be motivating and discouraging, both are being used as tools to drive or stop the world.

When we were kids excitement and fear was rather in balance. We didn’t know so many things and were afraid of them coming to our lives (we also had the common, well known fears of monsters under the bed and “what will mom/dad/teacher say to that”), but at the same time we were constantly excited of not only what we knew was good, but also about the unknown entertainments.

Adults tend to experience fear more often than excitement – both in “motivating” other people as well as driving/stopping themselves. Living in fear of doing or not doing something becomes a person’s way to live and we all know, that a man can get used to anything, so after a while he may not even notice, that his whole life is about living in fear.

Excitement, good vibrations, positive anticipation – these are a bit underrated in the adult life and there’s a reason for that. The older we get, the less things amaze us, because gradually we feel like we know and have already seen everything. We tend to ignore the small blessings in our lives, because they are not new. They’re not inspiring. We only focus on the unknown excitements, the things we’re afraid of and uncertainty of our own future. At the same time we often forget about the things that we already have – the joys of life as we know it, our small victories and achievements, simple being with people we love and cherish, the fact that we can have so many things that our parents couldn’t dream of (and our grandparents wouldn’t even know there’s a thing to dream about). We take things we know for granted and we don’t use them as our drivers, because we underestimate them. We forget how much we can do, how far we can go and how beautiful is life filled with positive excitement.

This simple truth is really worth to be reminded from time to time, as the world is full of options and each of them can be exciting in an own unique way. Excitement is one of the keys to a well-balanced life. It keeps us going and motivates to move forward. And it feels so good :)

“Wherever you are, make sure you’re there.” 

 Dan Sullivan

 

It’s been a while since I wrote anything. Vacation makes a person lazy as hell. For 2 weeks I was getting up at 8:00 or 9:00 (can you imagine a breakfast in the hotel that is only served until 9:30?? Disgrace!), reading belles-letters just for the enjoyment of reading, lying on a beach, swimming with sea turtles and picking up mushrooms in the forest. On top of that trying to not think about work at all. In my humble opinion this is what makes a great holiday.

During vacation I was thinking a lot about where I’m going with my life. How whatever I’m doing now will impact my future self. What shall I do in the nearest months or years to fulfill my destiny (or just make the life I live worth living)? Unfortunately there was no groundbreaking discovery or spontaneous enlightenment in this department. Not even the small catharsis. But I did have some thoughts about life. And I'd like to share them here.

Although it’s really hard to predict the actual outcomes of the current actions, basing on the life experience and common knowledge one thing seems to be very likely. Today’s problems will probably mean nothing in the future. Today’s doubts will only make us laugh in 10 years. Whatever we fear or despise today, we might actually enjoy 2 years from now. What is enjoyable at this moment, might appear overwhelming or boring in 5 years’ time.

My friend once told me a story about how much she wanted to go kayaking as a teenager. It was her big dream, she was thinking and reading about it a lot and never really tried it back then, because of the usual teenage reasons. The years have passed and one day she had a chance to try. She got excited (it was THE DREAM!), went on the kayaking trip and… didn’t enjoy it. Turned out it was not her dream anymore and she couldn’t find the excitement from the past in herself.

Life is a constant change. We never know what the future will bring, but there is a great chance, that we will feel completely different about the same thing today, when we just imagine it and in the future, when it will actually happen. Personal conclusion? Carpe diem. We live in the now and now is what really matters. Our future self will most probably not care much about what we’re doing at this particular moment – they will have their own “now” to take care of.