Modern Society: Its Obsession with the Future & the Problems with This Obsession

Last Updated on October 22, 2024 by The Unbounded Thinker

Recently, while thinking about life, I discovered the greatest problem of modern society: our obsession with the future. 

We are trained to focus on the future from a young age. School trains us to focus on passing exams so that we have a great future. And when we grow up, our friends and relatives urge us to focus on getting a good job that will ensure a successful future. After getting the job, our colleagues tell us that life will only get better when we get promoted.

For these reasons, almost everyone is future-obsessed. We wake up thinking about the future, spend the day thinking about the future, and sleep thinking about it. Thus, we are seldom in the present moment. We are so obsessed with the future that we sometimes succumb to depression because we can’t accurately predict it.

We must stop obsessing about the future because this obsession has several disadvantages. For instance, it has blinded us from seeing what’s happening to our world. Most of us are unaware that greed is causing deforestation and the death of several wild animals because we are busy planning for our future. We are unaware that there’s no future without the natural environment.

Over-focusing on the future has prevented us from experiencing the beauty of the present moment. We can’t take a break and take a walk in nature, or watch the beautiful sky at night because we are busy thinking about the future.

Most of us can’t connect with the radiant light of Infinite Intelligence because our minds are always in the future. Infinite intelligence exists in the present moment, and therefore, obsessing about the future prevents us from connecting with it.

Instead of over-focusing on the future, we must strive to focus on the present moment because of its immense benefits. The present moment connects us to a powerful and unlimited intelligence and increases our chances of having peak experiences. Besides this, focusing on the present moment enables us to notice what’s happening around us.

Lastly, this focus ensures that we align our actions, decisions, and thoughts with the type of future we want, and it also opens our eyes to the infinite opportunities around us, which we seldom notice because we are busy thinking about the future.

PEACE BE WITH YOU.

N/B – Some readers might think that this article wants them to avoid thinking about the future completely. This article supports thinking and planning for the future. It only discourages overthinking or obsessing about it. Its main message is, ‘you are free to plan and think about the future but don’t
obsess over it.’

Check out this post for more benefits of living in the present moment.

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