FOCUS

Voices of the present would like to propose a question for you.

Are you a present-focused person or a future-fosed person?

Let me offer some insight into each of these according to psychologists.

Present-focused

• Better at helping others than themselves
• Get fully immersed in the moment and lose track of time
• Avoid anything repetitive, difficult or boring
• Are playful, impulsive and sensual
• Appreciate life, nature, and people around them
• Focus on immediate gratification

There is a down side to this according to psychologists. For one, it is said that present-focused people are more likely to use drugs and alcohol. That these people may have grown up in unstable places and they tend to live in the present because imagining the future is hard. If you ask a present-focused person to to describe their ultimate career and write down the steps to get there, their focus will change to the future.

Future-focused

• Delay gratification
• Driven with self-discipline because they vividly see future goals
• Love their work
• Invest, exercise
• Better at helping themselves than others
• More likely to succeed, but at the loss of relationships

The loss of relationships is because it requires present focus. It is believed future-focused people tend to grow up in cold climates because they have to prepare for winter. If you were to ask a future-focused person to name every background noise, or where their body is touching a chair, their focus goes directly to present focus.

What you value tends to change your focus. Love or making art pushes someone toward a more present focus and being ambitious tends to push someone toward the future focus.

You need both minsets. A present-focus to enjoy life but too much can prevent you from having the deeper happiness that achievement brings.

I hope this article helps you take a look at yourself when you are acting out of character. Maybe, when you are acting too undisciplined it’s because you have stopped seeing the future. If you’re acting too disconnected, it’s possible you’re obsessed with your goals. You can only see your future.

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