The Quick Thought as a One-Liner
Is there a way to not only learn from the past but from the future as well, to empower the present?
Why Did I Think About it?
Recently I am thinking more and more about how I make my decisions and what is involved in the whole process of designing my life. I think of life as a sequence of choices that I have to make in the present.
A big one for me right now is, how to align my passion of surfing with a job. I have to make several choices to align both. Where do I want to live, what job should I take, what languages do I need to learn, and so on. This is why I want to understand and improve my decision making.
How Is This Thought Helping in Real Life?
There are several ways to base decisions we make today on experiences of the past. The most simple one is to actually learn from mistakes. We experimented and tested something in the past and realize that it is not working this way. So the next time we encounter a similar situation, we try something different. We simply try, fail and adapt until we know what is working to solve the problem. This is actually pretty useful if we are confronted with a recurrent problem or decision, like fixing a bike, planning a trip or grabbing the right clothes for the weather outside. But what about situations or choices where I am not confronted with anything?
Using the Past To Empower the Present
For instance; how do I know, that I am not missing something in my life right now in order to be more happy or more satisfied tomorrow. In his podcast On Purpose, Jay Shetty said something that is in my opinion a really powerful tool
Use the past to empower the present
by asking yourself this:
What would my younger self be sad about that I stopped doing?
I was asking this to myself and the answers were super useful. When I was younger I did write short stories, poems, I made music with friends and I even did draw from time to time. This actually made me happy. I was curious about so many things, I explored and created. Right now I am still curious but I definitely stopped creating. This knowledge fueled me to become more creative again, whether it is in music, photography or writing.
If I it is possible to learn from my past, can I then learn from my future as well?
Using the Future To Empower the Present
In the podcast Sternstunde Philosophie, Harald Welzer, a German sociologist, said that the most powerful aspect of human beings is the ability to look at the present from the future. I couldn’t agree more with that. Since a couple years now, I am using the same two thoughts over and over again if I am facing very difficult decisions. I either ask my older self for advice (yes, there is a version of myself in my head that is older than me and no, it is does not look like one of those fancy social-media filters) or I ask myself the following question
If I am on my deathbed and look back at my life,
what decision would I prefer to have made?
For me, this is the most powerful thought I can have before making a decision. If you think from the future back to your present, most of the times you will have an immediate feeling of what you want to do in life and what you would regret if you do not do it. This is similar to the process of backpropagation in Machine Learning, where one improves a (future) prediction by weighting previous choices differently. In the same way, you basically envision your whole life looking from your deathbed backward to the present and then update your choice in the present based on what your older self thinks about it.
Again, I can also use this principle if I am not faced with choices but I am looking for direction in life. Jay Shetty has framed a similar yet powerful question
Use the future to empower the present
by asking yourself this:
If I am on my deathbed,
what would I regret that I did not do?
This question really embraces its power when I am looking for guidance and ideas of what to do in life. Because at the end of the day, I want to live a life that I created and designed in a way, that I would enjoy looking back at.
What Is The Bottom Line?
- If confronted with difficult decisions, think of them from your deathbed. This can simplify decision making and invites gut-feeling.
- If loosing direction, or feeling aimless, listen to the advice of a younger self and the regrets of the elderly. The latter actually applies for the regrets of parents and grandparents as well. Especially grandparents already experienced so much. Evaluating their regrets against my beliefs of life can give me a better perspective on how to lead a life.
Related Posts, Books and Discussions
Articles in Progress
- The Concept of Backpropagation In Machine Learning
- How Do We Perceive the Present and the Future?
Arising Discussions & Questions
- Does This Quick-Thought Only Apply to People with a “Stable” Past and Future?
Thank you so much for staying curious of all marvels of the world!
I am so thankful for every single one of you for reading this post. If you have any questions or comments, please share them with me right now. Write me an Email or message me on Instagram. Let me know what you want read more of and make sure to share your best insights and quotes from this post with everyone who could be interested in it. Keep on exploring and remember;
Together we share #allmarvelsoftheworld
Credit To Whom Credit Is Due
Here you will find further resources I was using for this post. If you find none, it’s all self-made.
- Podcast Sternstunde Philosophie with Harald Welzer (German only): https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Qh13TPbHz3D4Z0atZUSC3?si=b3371b5aef77407d
- Podcast On Purpose from Jay Shetty (English only):
https://open.spotify.com/episode/76HOrou4o9SGZgH87z3fMu?si=a9067ab7b6594ec1 - Pictures:
www.vectorstock.com