How does the Future Influence Our Present? 🔮

We talk a lot about how the past influences our present—psychologically and societally. What about how the future influences us? There seem to be futures pulling us in a way similar to how pasts push, with some more influential than others. Like the past, these futures don't seem pre-determined, but can be transcended and reinterpreted in any now.

Examples of future pulls: Anticipation of an oak tree growing big and shady means we plant it further from other trees. A child who isn't expected to succeed isn't given as many resources. Assumptions of future population numbers lead to more or less babies born today. In a world where you believe relationships will end if anger is expressed, there's no room for your anger. This is still terra incognita for me but I think I'm pointing to more than self-fulfilling prophecies: Our conception of time is culturally constructed (do we think of past in front of us or behind us? Is time linear or cyclical?) so I think it's helpful to contemplate the ways we enact our relationship with causality and step outside them. We get more choices and get to play with our constructions of time. 

Putting this to practice: What futures seem unattainable to you now? How do these assumptions partially create your now-experience? The emphasis isn't on creating a better future per se (although I think that this opens up a lot of creative possibilities), it's on your now.

With love, Jordan