The hope that tomorrow will be better than today is the greatest motivator of all time. And for the most part, if we plan and strategize, this Living For The Future works out. If we work hard and sacrifice a little today: saving money, eating healthy, buying stocks, teaching our kids to behave, obeying the law; tomorrow will be better for us. Just about everything we do, individually and as a society, is based on some reward we hope to receive in the future.

So what’s the problem with Living For The Future? It works. It’s been battled tested throughout human history. It leads to advancements in science and medicine. Planning for tomorrow has taken people from poverty to penthouses. It’s what makes hard work pay off. It rewards the disciplined.

It feels good to know the future will be pleasant for us…

The problem is that each time we look forward to the future we erode some of the joy of the present moment. Are we truly living life and enjoying what we are working for if we are constantly sacrificing for tomorrow? When does this sacrifice stop and when do we reap the reward?

The cost of living for the future

This future costs us whether we are aware of it or not. The very notion of saving something for tomorrow is a fee we pay to the future using the asset of time as currency. We give up some of today in exchange for tomorrow’s promise

Do we spend the money now on a moment we will never get back, or save our money for tomorrow where it might be worth more?

The fact that we have to debate about living for the now—reality—or delaying gratification for some futuristic possibility, just showcases the power that our own imagination has over us. Because what is the future? It’s a made up story in our mind of how things might be. It’s our equivalent of an academic hypothesis, but with added human emotion and wishful thinking thrown in for good measure.

Pursuing FIRE magnifies the future

I’ve never felt such a weight placed on the future than I do now that we are on the path to FIRE. This FI number of ours–28x our annual expense and the forecasted date we will hit this number–has made the abstract future more than just the hazy fog that it’s always been. This is because I’ve created a very detailed pathway to the future. Other futures were always very short term (vacations/purchases/holidays), or just very general directions I wanted to go with no precise plan (marriage/kids/title at work).

No longer is a promotion an ambition of mine. My sights have shifted. I don’t see myself with the company for twenty plus years anymore. I don’t see the need for participating in trivial workplace competition for an atta boy from an executive.

I am becoming Happily Disengaged with the present.

But this Disengagement, maybe to my detriment, or at least I worry it might. If I don’t stay engaged and keep up with the office rat race competition, my bosses may see it as a lack of work ethic, and I may get my two checks. This would be a major blow to my FIRE plan. I’ve always had a very strong drive at work. And it’s disconcerting to see this workplace drive drop off so quickly.

See how the future has taken a wrecking ball to my present moment?

Temporary job transfer

I’ve also been transferred to a different division due to the COVID slowdown. The job I’m on now is much less demanding than my previous project. It’s a remodel of a few rooms and a completely different world than constructing a new high rise. I get off early and pick up my kids by 3pm each day. My commute has shortened to 30 minutes from a previous 2 hour afternoon death crawl. It’s exactly what I needed after my last high stress job. It’s fantastic.

The crazy thing is I hated the new job at first. It was too slow. I didn’t know what to do with myself all day. I had to remind myself of the benefits of this change. It took a few weeks, but now I’m learning to truly enjoy the slow pace.

I know one day I’ll be called back to my typical division and I’ll miss getting off at 2:30pm like I am now. This job change is the perfect scenario for me to practice mindfulness to get the most out of today.

Using Mindfulness to savor the moment

It doesn’t have to always be a sacrifice to live for the future, not if we use mindfulness to balance things out. To not plan for the future would be idiocy and be our demise. After all, personal finance is all about taking control of our lives and not just looking down the road waiting for compound interest to work its magic.

We take action over our decisions today and a better outcome is bound to be inevitable. A balance can be achieved.

What is mindfulness?

Here are two quotes that capture what mindfulness might mean, from masters of two different, yet similar philosophies: Buddhism and Stoicism.

Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different…

Thich Nhat Hanh

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears, but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so, wants nothing…

Seneca the Younger

And here’s Wikipedia’s first line on the subject:

Mindfulness is the practice of purposely bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment without judgment…

Wikipedia

It’s when we stop and notice what we are doing in any moment, that we slow life down…and thus extend our lives by deepening the moment.

104 days a year

I remember being an apprentice carpenter in my twenties, and coming to the realization that life was flying by because I only lived for the weekends. I tried to grind through the work week as fast as I could to get them over with, so I could have fun and go out on the weekends. To live like that meant there were only 104 days a year that I truly enjoyed (not counting holidays). The other 261 days of the year I spent trying to get over as fast as I could. How silly was that?

Now that I’m in my mid 30’s, I’ve really try to enjoy each day. Even the bad ones. This is only amplified now that my kids are young. It pains me to get home on a weekday and know that I’m not truly present with them because I’m subconsciously on my phone or thinking about tomorrow at work.

Today is the future of yesterday

Pursuing FIRE isn’t just about numbers in a bank account. There’s a mental element that must be mastered and is arguably more important than a savings rate or stock market returns. I’m going through my own test now at work. Staying motivated while learning to enjoy an idleness I never knew could exist in construction.

I constantly tell myself that today is the future I’d been imagining for myself when I first started my career and family. What I have now is pretty darn close to what I used to daydream about for myself. But it’s all too easy to not notice what you have achieved, if you are busy looking down the road for what’s next. This is a daily struggle for me, but one that I’m happy to have.

As long as Living For The Future is balanced with mindfulness, we can avoid the FIRE paradox of losing out on today while trying to gain more of tomorrow.