I have recently been traveling more than usual and it allows me some private “thinking time”. On a recent trip, I took down some thoughts and decided to share an expanded version of them here. -- @mamund
The future is not a place to which we are inevitably marching. It is what emerges from the transformations we make in the here and now.
We sometimes talk about the future as though it already exists somewhere ahead of us on some distant shore. But, in reality, the future is formed in the present. Every action we take, every capability we acquire, every condition we change alters what may happen next. We do not simply arrive at the future with the passage of time. We constantly create it through the myriad choices we all make in the here and now.
The opportunity for our success exists in the here and now. Progress is the concerted effort of transforming our present conditions until that opportunity is realized.
Some of what we need is already here within reach. Other conditions may need to be created, modified, or removed. The work of transformation starts with seeing the present clearly enough to recognize what is possible, what prevents that possibility from being realized, and what we have within us to change conditions around us.
We don’t need to travel a path in order to arrive at success. We need only look around us, recognize the opportunity already present, and understand what must change to realize it.
Terms like path and journey lead us to think in terms of sequence, distance, and direction. More useful questions are about the conditions in which we find ourselves here. What is true? What is missing? What can we change? Progress comes from acting on the answers to those simple questions.
Success is not a destination. It is a possibility in the present waiting to be recognized and realized.
We may need to learn something new, acquire a new skill, remove an existing constraint, or change the conditions around us before that possibility becomes real. The way to measure progress is to focus on what is newly possible. Success itself is recognizable when the conditions of the present are sufficient to support it.
We are always trapped in the here and now. The future depends, in part, on what we see and how we choose to transform it.
