042 • Beware the near future and the recent past

I give too much of my time to the near future and the recent past.

Walking past the lake on the way to the gym the other day, I stopped. I had been thinking about what I was going to do once I got to the gym. Not only that, I'd just finished thinking about what I'd been doing before I set off to the gym.

My mind was everywhere, processing everything. Everything that is, except what was around me.

I stopped and looked at the light piercing the clouds and reflecting off the lake. What made me stop, I don't know. But I was suddenly struck with the thought that I hadn't appreciated the present moment in days. Instead, I was forging ahead, trying to do more, in less time, optimising, scaling the business and trying to hit the next level.

But being present doesn't necessarily require hours of dedication and meditation. In the moment I described here, I was brought back to this idea from Chris Williamson:

“The perennially difficult balance of the personal growther is between being and becoming.

Between feeling enough and wanting to be better.

Between a desire for more and a satisfaction for what you already have.

You want to leave it all out on the field of play, but you realise that if you’re constantly driven by desiring more, it’s difficult to take time to enjoy the process of playing the game.

It’s tough. This is THE personal growth problem.

My current best solution is from my Sam Harris episode a few months ago:

String together some moments of peace and gratitude wherever you can.

Just spend 30 seconds, 5 times a day really putting your mind where your feet are.

Take a deep breath in, allow your mind to focus on the peripherals of your vision and think about how the things you have now are only once things you dreamed of having.

Think about how insane it would be if you from 5 years ago could see this newly improved texture of your mind, quality of your life and clarity of your thoughts.

Realise that all the striving and pushing and grinding is indeed satisfying, but if you can’t have fun now, you’re never going to." — Chris Williamson

Remembering this, I endeavoured to do better at squeezing in little pockets of presence into my day where I could, starting with that moment. I soaked up the scene, watery sun rays cast over the park, the first tendrils of the new spring creeping in.

Then I carried on with my day. Considerably calmer and happier.

Try it yourself. Just take a few seconds a few times per day to notice what's around you and how your body feels at that point in space and time.

It's especially the near recent and upcoming moments that take up the most space in your mind because of anticipation and recency bias. And this is the way it's supposed to be, so you can process what's happened and what you think's going to happen, so you can make sense of the world. But it’s equally as important to be able to tune it all out.

Hope this little tip helps. See you next week!

— Theo

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What I’ve written this week…

I put out two pieces on Medium this week, about two completely different topics…

Addicted to the internet? Here are the fixes that worked for me - this is one of my longest pieces to date, all about how I turned the tide of content consumption on itself to become someone who creates and shares their own work.

Organising Your Notes in Obsidian - A Complete Guide - this piece goes into detail on folders, backlinks, properties and tags, and how to use them effectively.

I’ve also been publishing my more recent articles on LinkedIn, so if you’re someone who doesn’t have a Medium subscription you can now read the pieces for free if you follow me over there.