Future Fear

Posted by Parke Ladd on Mar 10, 2009 in Featured {Article}, Such Is Life | 3 comments

Ever get inundated with the future?  The future is a complex, not to mention unforeseeable, concept.  A lot of people spend a lot of time and get paid a lot of money trying to get to the future before anyone else.  

The fastest one to the future wins (apparently).  She who can perceive what it is that we will want or need 2 years from now will benefit more then the one who can only see what we want or need right now.  The future (apparently) belongs to those who can see needs that most of us don’t even realize we have.  They meet needs that exist but that the majority of people are completely unaware of.  Project developers, marketers, entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors all work under this premise.  Create something that people don’t even realize they need (or want), and then give it to them just in the nick of time.  It doesn’t have to be a completely new something.  An improved something usually works just fine.  The future is where the most progressive imaginations are headed.  However, the most mature and advanced visionaries are living in the present moment.  

Why?

There is a fundamental characteristic of all great visionaries that has been there all along but is only now beginning to slowly reveal itself as one of the most crucial aspects.  Visionaries do not live or make decisions based on fear.  They have the ability and the courage to not make decisions based on what others think.  They don’t fear the opinion or critique of others.  Living too far into the future makes us especially vulnerable to fear.  If I do this, others will think that.  If I don’t do that, others will think this.  I can’t make that choice, what will so-and-so think of me.  My family will call me crazy if I do that in the future.  What will the neighbors think if I do that!?  If we live too far advanced in time, too detached from the present moment, we open ourselves up to fear, giving it a greater hold in our minds.  Fear is best tamed and defeated by embracing the moment–by acting NOW.  If we act now, the mind doesn’t have enough time to fear or to come up with a list of people we may or may not disappoint if we do what we believe we should.  We simply act, and the heart grows stronger and more courageous.  

Many of the greatest visionaries who will have the most tremendous impact on our culture in the future are already there, creating and improving life for us all before we ever even get there.  But, they are not acting in the future.  They are acting right now, creating away, step-by-step, until eventually their threshold is breached, and their future vision aligns with our present desire.  It can happen to anyone.  It can happen to you, but fear cannot be allowed to be an active part of the process.

Don’t miss this moment because you’re mind is distracted by the future.