Now: Why We Should Bask In It
Instead of making decisions that shape what is to follow, I now make decisions to mold my current self. Every spontaneous trip and life lesson makes me the young, maturing and open-minded person I am in the present. This is the beauty of growing up.
To most people, adulthood is something that is a scary concept, immediately triggering anxiety predicated upon responsibility, the future. In other words success, and unattainable happiness. No one wants to grow up to live this predetermined life that is basically the same as being programmed like a robot. Meanwhile, most think that they do.
Fear now and Growing
This fearful state of mind can start at a young age like my own. I constantly want to wring thoughts of the future from my peers’ brains. Being forced to think about a time twenty years in the future only serves to puts wrinkles in my thought process. Why would anyone do that to themselves? This isn’t to imply that thinking about your future is a bad thing. It is actually a smart thing; however, both how you look at it and how it affects your present can be problematic.
Perception
In my opinion, it’s all about perception. I was fed messages from various adults about life from a young age. They would tell me what love felt like, how kids would magically appear in my life, “empty your wallet to a dry pocket”, and what the ideal lifestyle would be. Obviously, this skewed my outlook on my own future in positive, negative, and neutral ways.
Effects
Being mindful, I kept these perspectives in the back of my mind for a very long time. They didn’t shape my choices, but consequently they did have affect on the way I looked at my life. I maintained a strong work ethic not only because I am a driven person, but because somewhere in the back of my head I recalled that this is what lead to this magical land of a successful adulthood. In anything and everything I did, it seemed to immediately be for a greater purpose.
Now Is What’s Important
Once I reached college, I eventually began to shift my ways of thinking. I realized how absent I was from the present. The beautiful conscious state of now was completely overlooked. The present is what is important to celebrate. It would be insane to compare how I was to how I am. Instead of making decisions that shape my future, I make decisions to mold my current self. Every spontaneous trip and life lesson makes me the young, maturing and open-minded person I am in the present. This is the beauty of growing up.
