I think a lot about the future. So much so that I feel like I live there most of the time. For me, everything is about future plans, future goals, and what’s next, from my next project all the way to my next meal.
It’s one reason I love speculative and science fiction so much — as a genre, it allows us to peek, to extrapolate into the future and assess where we are going and what we can do better. How we can learn, grow, and improve.
I run into a problem with my future-forward mindset, though — and that is the difficulty I have with meeting myself in the here and now. You know, like all of the buzzwords say: living intentionally, grounding myself in the present. My mind is always jumping ahead to the thousands of possibilities in tomorrow.
Alternately, a lot of writers I know are stuck in the past, anchored there by past experiences, grievances, regrets, trauma, and even triumphs. Many of them feel like they can’t (or won’t, or shouldn’t) move forward and create until some element from the past is resolved. Until they can go back in time and somehow fix the wrong, or cling for just one more moment to their glory days — despite fully admitting that this is both illogical and impossible.
But the present is where our work is. The present is where and when our creativity must happen. It’s not going to get effortlessly done by future versions of ourselves. It’s not going to wait until we’ve fixed something in the past. We can’t simply pass the time and hope that our projects will be completed (or begun) “someday”.
We must take action and do it now.
I feel like this week’s letter was about a very specific problem that possibly only I struggle with… But I still hope that you found it helpful, encouraging, or inspiring in some way. Until next week, take good care of yourself, and happy creating.
I’m cheering for you, right here and now. 🙂
Words & warmth,
Sarah