How do you live life? In the moment or for the the future?

[namkcuR]

This is a question I've been wondering about for some time now. How do you live your life? Are you the type of person that has long-term goals and makes the vast majority of your decisions based on how they will affect those goals - the type of person whose eyes are always on the future - OR are you the type of person that prefers to live in the moment, make the best of what it is, and move on to the next moment?

I started thinking about this question because it's one of the biggest differences between my older brother and myself. He makes the biggest decisions in his life based on how how they'll affect him 5 years down the line, 10 years down the line.

As for me, I live in the moment. I live in the moment, because the way I see life is that this moment right here and now is all we have. The past is done and the future is a question mark. If you keep looking way up in the distance for something, you may miss the things right in front of you. You may not get the chance to get to the future, you never know. It's like...say you're driving a car in a city or state or country you've never been in. You can look at a map, find the destination you want, and then use the map to get there. Or you can say, the hell with the map, and throw it out the window, and just drive around and stop at whatever place grabs your attention and interests you.

To me, in the end, I think the journy can be more important than the destination.


So, do you live in the moment or for the future?

 

[coemgen]

I'd have to say I try to do both. I think one without the other can cause things in your life to be out of balance. That's just me though.

 

[Irvine511]

i live waaaaaaaay too much in the future. trying to focus on the little things, taking baby steps ... it's hard not to get caught up, especially when you're like me and in the very beginning of your career, in the vision of what you think you want your life to be.

it's something i'm working on, appreciating the present.

i do believe, though, that it is a journey, and the destination is less important than the process. the process, the process, the process.

life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

 

[Rono]

I live for the future, i had enough time to live for the moment. But sometimes i look to far in the future and that makes me full of doubth when something ore someone is not going the way i want to but i am learning.

 

[Habib]

hehehe,,,, i fell over !!!

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

If you truly lived in the moment you wouldn't go to school or work.

I believe that everyone lives a little bit like both ways at different times.

 

[Habib]

never take life seriously. no-one gets out alive anyway.

 

[verte76]

I think I do both. I do my best for right now, but I have goals, and these are things that I'm going to accomplish in the future, not now, maybe not even any time soon.

 

[all_i_want]

i live for the future, though i have these little bubbles in time, where i just concentrate on forgetting all about tomorrow and concentrating on the moment. but overall, im all for the future. ive got a sketch of the next 40 years of my life. i mapped out my future, kind of, but i did it in pencil. cause nothing ever goes according to the plan. murphys law.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

In the moment. It can be gone in the blink of an eye. Or maybe I'm too stuck on things in the past to think too much about the future.

Thinking about the future is too scary for me, so I avoid doing it. It's denial and I know that.

 

[BostonAnne]

I guess for the future. If I truly lived for the moment I would have purchased the tickets available on ticketmaster for the last 2 days to the concert in Chicago on Bono's birthday. If I lived for the moment - I would buy them and not worry about the expenses to get there and the reponsibility of my job and the time off I will already be taking when U2 is in town, a vacation this summer to Kentucky and whatever spur of the moment things that can happen in my family of 3 kids when I'm a single Mom. If I lived for the moment, I would buy them - go and not think twice.

 

[Saracene]

I think I'm split between living in the present and living in short-term future. I can't say I think as far ahead as, say, five or ten years. Mostly because life can be so unpredictable and you and your priorities can change so drastically.

 

[nbcrusader]

This is really a far more complex question than it appears.

My actions may vary depending on the immediate or long term benefits, consequences, etc.

Also, is my motivation behind my actions for the moment, the long term, or for some other reason.

Also, if I am not planning for the long term, does that necessarily mean I live for the moment?