I touched on future orientation and (with age and experience) having the patience to allow things to take their course, in This Too Shall Pass.
Future oriented people make great planners. We look the future, make plans, and delay gratification to bring about those good things we desire. Unfortunately, being too future oriented can have negative consequences.
F’rinstance, this has led me to fall into the trap of enjoying the anticipation of a vacation more than the vacation itself. At the time I recorded this video, I was planning a vacation to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. In the video I predicted I’d have more fun with the planning and anticipation of the vacation than I would the actual vacation itself.
While I did enjoy the vacation (also as expected), I was dead nuts on in my prediction. The anticipation was better than the reality.
This future orientation also leads me to borrow tomorrows troubles and sorrows to weigh upon today. This is not a good thing for a clinical depressive to do.
When there is trouble on the horizon, say the boys returning to school, and I know that sorrows are coming, I can borrow those sorrows to spoil the good times of the present.
Last year’s return to school led to one of the deepest, darkest, most dangerous spirals I’ve ever experienced. As August drew to a close, I remembered the hole I was in, and knew my mental health was soon to take a hit, and it began to weigh down the joys of the present.
Fortunately, having the foreknowledge of sorrows to come allowed me to buttress myself against them. I won’t lie to you and say I had no post-Labour Day troubles, I did.
But it was easier, and much faster, to get through them this year.
