Tag Archives: future

Intensely Local

This morning I read an interview with the futurist Brian David Johnson and he said, “The future is intensely local.”

One of his points is that we need to understand that we build our futures and that we have a lot of control over our role in this process. We aim our focus. We get to decide how we use technology so it is not using us. We can work backward from a version of where we want to end up. We plan what we want to work toward and how our future will look.

Too often, I think, we are transfixed by the big news, the faraway crisis, or the complex numbers on a stock index lurching up or down. Knowing what happens is one thing. Staring at disaster to the detriment of our own productivity or utility is quite another.

Building our future looks like how we interact in our day to day lives. It is not happening elsewhere or at another time.

It is how we live today.

Agency is everything.

Second Best Time

A Chinese proverb translates to: “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”

We are adept at finding things we wish we had done differently a long time ago. Past decisions we didn’t make. The path we did not lay for ourselves. 

Knowledge like this is useful, to a point. 

That point is when analysis turns to defeatism, resignation or a sinking self-concept. We didn’t plan ahead so we blew it. We chose the wrong path so we failed. 

Few things are irretrievable. Mislabeling decisions that are not hopeless is as bad as focusing all our attention on the truly unchangeable. On those circumstances we cannot control.

Is there a time in our past we wish we had planted that tree? Probably. Can we make a change or decision today to move in the direction we seek? Once we decide there is such a path, we can, “yes, and” ourselves into motion.

Yes, I wish I’d done this back then and now I will make the best decision looking forward. I will learn and act rather than wish and dwell.

Many decisions offer the chance to plant trees for our future. What are those things for you?

For some, those may include exercise, reading, online coursework, or estate planning. Maybe rekindling or nourishing an important relationship today so it thrives into the future.

Wishing won’t make it so, but acting with the future in mind just may.

A Favor For a Friend

The warm feeling of making someone’s life better. 

Because you could, not because you had to. It feels great when you do your friend a favor, often even better when that friend shows you gratitude. 

What about planning for our own future well-being? Sometimes that is harder than expected. We are not innately geared to sacrifice fun, money, dessert, or immediate gratification in favor of our future happiness.

It’s not always a given that we up our retirement savings, go to bed half an hour earlier, watch one less show, or choose to take one more flight of stairs. Each payoff comes later.

Consider re-framing the whole equation. If setting your future self up for success does not come easily, think about personal decisions as doing a favor for a friend. 

Only this friend is you in the future.

And you’ll thank you.