DAY 56 – KEY ASPECT: THE SHORTSIGHTED VIEW OF THINKING SHORTSIGHTED: SHORT TERM VERSUS LONG TERM THINKING

For the past hour I have been watching a group of ten year old children on a soccer team practicing how to keep a soccer ball at their feet while simultaneously running forward. They would continuously look down at the ball making sure that the ball would not stray away from their feet. They did not lift their heads to see what is in front of them or what is off to their sides.

Life can be like keeping your head down and just concentrating on what is at your feet. Without having a vision of what may lie ahead a person cannot see the possibilities for what may follow. The life that you want to have and the world that you want to live in becomes limited by the short term visualizations without taking into consideration the longer and wider aspects of life.

We hamper ourselves by not thinking about the future with the same vigor as we do with what lies right in front of us. How many people do not have nutritious food to eat, clean water to drink or a decent home to live in? How many physical and psychological health issues develop because we do not consider what may arise thirty years down the road? How many relationships fall apart because we do not treat the people we love with loving actions that can stand the test of time? How much discord is created between human beings of different nationalities, religions, races, ethnicities and sexual orientations that is passed down to future generations? How often do we carry out human affairs without incorporating the earth’s long term welfare into the equation?

Life is one continuous journey of day after day events. While the here and now seems to be what matters the most as it is happening, we forget that each moment leads to the next moment, each thought leads to the next thought and each action precedes the actions that follow. Putting all of our beliefs and energy into what we are doing at that moment is like having a blinder on as to what may develop. The future eventually becomes the present when it arrives.

After watching those kids practice I now realize that quite often my thoughts and actions are based upon my perceptions of how I will benefit in the short term without taking into consideration the longer term consequences. It is possible and essential to think about and act in ways that are beneficial now while simultaneously doing it in a manner that also incorporates a better tomorrow. It is imperative that we leave future generations a better world.