I hear the same mantras over and over from my most successful and happy friends, as well as the famous artists and business people I admire most: Live in the moment. Be mindful. Live like there’s no tomorrow. It leaves me wondering… do they know something I don’t? What the heck do those words even mean, really?
So, as a project for the new year, I’m going to do a little philosophical experiment. And because I’m a writer, I’m going to write about it. If you don’t like philosophy, or you don’t care for experiments, stop reading now and go check out the latest cool article over at wired.com.
Okay, you’re still reading so let’s just dive in. I’m neither a philosopher nor a scientist, but in an effort to make my philosophical experiment be all scientific-like, I’ve developed a hypothesis. Here it is:
Screw the future. It’s irrelevant to happiness and it hinders success.
Think about it. What the heck is the future, anyway? You can’t touch it or see it or smell it. And yet we let it rule our lives, constantly thinking about it and worrying about it. It isn’t even real. It’s an abstract concept like democracy or mathematics or Santa Claus. The fact is, it doesn’t actually exist. It’s a mental construct, a repository for all our hopes and fears and doubts.
You don’t have fear and doubt about the past, right? The past has already happened. It doesn’t exist, either. Yes, you might worry about repercussions of something that happened in the past, but isn’t that really just worrying about the future?
So what is real? In all the universe, there is only one thing that can be touched, smelled, seen and experienced: the present moment. It’s the only thing that actually is real. You can’t worry about it or fear it or doubt it, because it’s happening right now. You can only experience it, or fail to experience it due to doubt and worry about the future.
Maybe you can see where I’m going with this line of thought. If there were no future, there would be no worry. And without hope, worry, fear, and doubt, what is left in life?
I’m not sure, but I’m betting that the only thing left is joy. Looking around at the successful, happy people I respect in society I seem to sense a common trait: they focus their entire attention on the moment in front of them, on their real, tangible present. Do they know something I don’t?
I’m determined to find out. To make things easy, I’m going to volunteer to be the subject of my own experiment. For the next twelve months, I’m going to live as if there is no tomorrow. I’m going to focus on what is right in front of me in the present moment, and expend my life energy exclusively on those things that are important to me. My family. My friends. My health. My intellectual passions. My life goals. I have a sneaking suspicion that the moments that make up my life will actually end up being much more joyful if I simply refuse to let the illusion of doubt and worry consume the joy of the present moment.
I’m pretty sure there’s thousands of years of philosophical thought to support my hypothesis, but I’m vague on the details. In future posts, I’m going to examine what some of humankind’s greatest thinkers have to say on the subject, and also get a few of the people I hope to emulate to share their life strategy.
Stand by, more to come…
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