Problems now (problems later) | Seth’s Blog

Individuals generally tackle now issues in advance of they operate on afterwards problems.

Each individual time.

On one particular night in 2004, you may possibly have had two decisions. You could go out for a extravagant evening meal with close friends, or you could invest in one share of Google at their IPO. A couple of a long time later on, your dinner is neglected but the shares are up a lot of occasions.

Of course, some folks did purchase that inventory. That’s not since they encountered an prospect to help save for their retirement 18 yrs later. It is because they explained to them selves a tale that folks in their sneakers sent money to the market place that working day. They turned a problem in the foreseeable future (retirement) into a difficulty for the now (I’m a loser if I go out to this dinner in its place).

Our story about the long term is in the now, irrespective of how far away the potential is.

All we can do with the long run is expertise our story about it right now.

All troubles are limited-phrase troubles if we explain to ourselves the right story. But we generally really don’t, because we lower price the long term considerably. A grilled cheese sandwich right now is a lot more important than two grilled cheese sandwiches following 7 days. Unless of course we convey to ourselves a present and urgent tale about what it feels like to overlook the upcoming.

Due to the fact faster or later, we stay in the current. A existing crammed with tales and cultural pressure and the urgencies we invent for ourselves.