Futuristic Thinking

I took the StrengthsFinder test as a freshman in college and I have let my top strengths guide me a lot since then. Perhaps I gave it too much importance, but the output of that test was difficult for me to ignore because I felt that it helped define me. Specifically one of my top 5 strengths has been a driving force of a lot of my past actions and decisions. I believe it has truly influenced where I am in life today because it occupies most of my thoughts. This strength: Futuristic

I live in the year 2022 (or approximately 5 years from whatever the current date is). This has been true ever since I remember. In 4th grade, I got into my first accelerated math class and started thinking about all the high performance courses I would take in 7th grade. By 8th grade, I was thinking about my 9th grade GPA and how it would impact my 12th grade college applications. Senior year is also an interesting time as you’re looking at schools that will ultimately get you your first real job and have to pick a major that will decide your career.

I’ve bought into these fables time and time again, accepting them as absolutes. Viewing the future like this, you never slow down long enough to challenge the system. We’re taught to take this moment and think about how it will impact the future. As a preteen, I let this drive me crazy. I started touring colleges in 9th grade because I could never feel like I was prepared enough to take that next step. Looking into the future with the pressure that every decision would impact the next phase of my life was constantly weighing down on me. Seldom did I ever feel like I could throw caution to the wind and just live in the present. It was hard for me to pause and reflect because my futuristic thinking would take over and snowball. For me it was always GPA dictates college acceptance, college major dictates career, career dictates future happiness in life. Why did I ever let myself live like that? For a while, believing that these life decisions are all directly connected like a Rube Goldberg strangely brought me comfort. Planning for my future left me less worried for what was to come. I try to see past this now because I know that life doesn’t go to plan and it shouldn’t just be planned all the time, where’s the fun in that? Still, I let the future take over my present sometimes. When I graduated college and started working full-time at my first grown up gig, I was already imagining which grad school I might attend and what second (or third) job I’d have while getting my MBA. Hurrah for the class of (approximately) 2024!

It’s good to have ambition and vision for the future, but when does it get in the way of me enjoying the here and now? It never seemed to bother me before, but I think that’s partly because I’ve never really found something that I’m passionate about — something that I don’t want to move on from. Without that “something,” I have no trouble looking into the future for the next best thing lined up. Recently, things have been different… I’m enjoying my brand new start in Colorado and have been trying to live every moment in the present. Right now, I’m just excited to be learning new things and pushing myself out of my comfort zone. Reflecting back on my time in high school and college, I see how my futuristic strength can backfire when you focus too much on it. I was always trying to grow up too fast and now that I’m here in post college adulthood, all I want to do is enjoy my youth, discover new things, and have adventures. This is what I want to teach my kids someday. I don’t ever want them to fall into the same traps I did and feel the pressure I felt about my future. I want them to think about the things they’re passionate about and make that their focus. For me, that would have been spending more time learning languages, traveling, taking a few more risks and exploring the unknown.

Making the decision to move to Colorado was the first time I didn’t really think things through and it has turned out to be the best decision I’ve made. So, while my futuristic thinking definitely helps me succeed in life, I think knowing when to let go is crucial to my enjoyment of life itself.