Thinking about now is something you don’t always consider as an important thing. For me, I always see myself thinking into the future as I just want to get to where I want to be.

However, I am working on thinking about the now more as I don’t want to get to the future, look back on my past and think, I wished my life away too fast. Since COVID-19, this idea of thinking of the now is more prominent than ever. Even though you may not see the positive in the now, you’ll always come out of the other side. 

if you’re having a bad day, don’t think about getting through the whole day, just think about getting through the next five minutes

I’m not trying to say that you should only be thinking about the now because the future is just as important than the now. I just feel like they correspond with each other as you can’t get to the future without thinking about the now. It’s just getting the right balance. 

How do I get the right balance?

  • Start by planning out what you want to achieve overall in your life without having any timeframe on it. 
  • Once you have an outline of your life (without any details), you can then start thinking about what you will do now in your life to achieve those goals. 
  • What you put in your outline will come at different stages in your life, think about what will come first and focus on doing that before going any further into your schedule. 

There will always be times where you feel disappointed and that is ok! It just shows that you have achievements that you want to reach. Remember that if you do get a push back, that doesn’t mean that you should give up. Push yourself to get to where you want to be as in the end, you’ll get there.

Looking at the bigger picture but taking small steps to get there

What do I do if something does go wrong in the now?

As I said, thinking about both the future and the now are just as important as each other, if something goes wrong, think about the immediate future. 

Think back to results day this year, for example! The government let a lot of people down with their grades. On that day and the days following, a lot of people were stressed. However;

  • How did you feel on the day?
  • How are you now, are you back on track?

A problem shared is a problem halved

Remember, try not to stress about the things you can’t control but try but influence those you can.