The Pursuit of Happiness: Leap 6 of 7 — Design Your Future
The loop of past
We spend a lot of time thinking about old memories, crazy moments, outstanding achievements, setbacks, heartbreaks, and everything else. It is good to go back to cherish those happy moments. However, for most of us, most of the time, that is not the case. We go back, again and again, to revisit situations and do imaginary permutations and combinations. We wish if we had treated that person nicely or the other person had treated us well or prepared well for that exam or not given up that early or taken up that opportunity or got that job or taken a stand for ourselves or responded well to a situation or did otherwise. We also question why certain things happened to us or did not happen to us. There is so much that takes us back to our past and puts us in a lower state.
However, we all know that it is not going to change anything. All we can practically do is, learn from those experiences so that we do not repeat them. Having said that and having known that, we also know we can’t stop going back because we have got habituated with that. I was the same. So, the question is, how to get out of the loop of the past?
Make your present a gift
I have had my share of education, career, relationships, and family failures. But if I get the power to change anything from my past, I wouldn’t want anything to happen differently, no matter how disheartening, unbearable, toxic, or painful it was then. Why? Because I love the way I am today and the way I am progressing, and all those experiences have contributed substantially to build this version of Niket.
Your past will not bother you if you are happy with your present.
- Niket Gupta
Your past is not bothering you because things did not work out for you. It is bothering you because its adverse effects still exist in your present. Let’s check this with an enlightening activity. Make sure you do it seriously.
What are you currently doing in your life? Maybe you are studying to get into a good college or job, or having a job or a business. Consider a situation where you fail miserably to get good marks and forget about the first preference, you are not getting the eighth, ninth, or tenth preference as well. Or you lose your job today or make a massive loss in your business today. How would you feel about it? Think about it. Don’t rush. This blog is not going anywhere.
Now, consider a hypothetical situation. God shows up, and tells you not clearing your exam will bring far better career opportunities, or you will get a job with double the salary in an established company, or the business loss will fetch 10X returns. How would you feel now?
In the first scenario, anyone would feel devastated. But after the second scenario, one would be at ease. You can argue that God is not going to show up in reality, and that is true. And my answer would be, you need to become the God and creator of your own life. Your mindset plays a crucial role in converting the possibilities I mentioned in the earlier paragraphs into reality. I can help you build a winning mindset. However, before that, you need to have the desire to make your future extraordinary.
In short, when we take care of our present and future in all the areas of the circle of life, whatever happened in the past would cease to bother us.
Design your future
When I used to prepare for the interviews in my college days, I prepared for this popular interview question- “Where do you see yourself five years down the line?” I crammed a lofty answer so that I could impress the panelist. However, there is a greater meaning to this question, and it applies to all the other areas of life.
Everything happens twice. First in Mind and second in reality.
- Tony Robbins
You have to design your future and it is not only about how much money you want to earn every month or every year. We can think of the means to that future later, but first, we need to decide how we want our life to be. Let me tell you why it is so crucial.
- Some plan is better than no plan. The probability of you reaching where you want to increases exponentially if you plan it.
- You will get back the excitement of living life if you know what you are working towards instead of passing your days.
- Your vision will inspire you. You will face challenges and obstacles, but your dreams will help you pull yourself back every single time.
- Your life gets meaningful, and you won’t wake up every day to pay your bills and pass your days.
- You can measure your progress.
- You stop thinking about the past, start living in the present and stay excited about a better future.
- You will have a sense of success and achievement when you achieve them.
But how to start?
Ask yourself the following questions.
- What are the three things you want to accomplish in the next year?
- What are the ten things you want to achieve in the next five years?
- What are the twenty things you want to build in the next ten years?
These questions may sound simple but I bet you, try answering them and you will get blank. Though we are working for a better future, you would realize we don’t even know why we are doing what we are doing.
Answering the above questions elaborately will give you a lot to look forward to in your life. While answering, don’t limit yourself by thinking about the possibilities of these dreams coming true. If that is the case, then talk to me or go back to The Pursuit of Happiness: Leap 4 of 7- The Mindset Re-programming.
Today you learned how the importance of designing your future to create an optimistic outlook towards your life and be happy. You can appreciate my work with claps. Please let me know how you want your life to be in the comments section. I will see you next week with the last leap in our Pursuit of Happiness.
