The Future Is Effortless

I am in the future now, the future of one second ago, one minute ago, one hour ago, one day ago, one month ago, one year ago, 10 years ago, 50 years ago. That is all the future is; it is now because now is the future of the past. This is a great perspective to hold. Instead of invoking a feeling of pushing ahead in our body, straining in our thoughts, it is effortless because we are always already in it with nothing to do to get there.

When we focus on the future being ahead of us it tends to cause pain, worry and fear. How will we get there, how will we do what we need to do, what will our life look like then? But if we define now as the future of the past, then we have all the answers to these questions. It’s so simple with just a switch of definition. The “future” is the future of the past instead of the “unknown” of the now. I like it. It’s easy, effortless. There is nothing to do and we can know what happened in our future, and how we got here.

We are part of a physical causal chain of activity, movement, ours integral to our own life. I like to call this my “tube” which translates into my body + time, or, my personal timeline. We have no choice about what our actions are (as I have put forth extensively on this blog) but, we get everything for free because the clock moves by itself.

Here is another of my favorite educators of this message coming from a philosophical and scientific standpoint: Jerry Coyne, renowned evolutionary biologist and author of “Why Evolution Is True.” I hope you enjoy!