It’s amazing how happy we feel when we have something to look forward to like a
vacation, concert, party, etc. Everyone else in the office is in a bad mood, your clients
are still nasty and flaky but you are in a great mood because you have something to look
forward to. To experience complete happiness we not only must appreciate the good we
have in the present, but also need to have a future.
A person without a future has no present. Perhaps the greatest cause of depression is
hopelessness. Having no hope means having no future. In order to feel alive and
vitalized, we must find a good future. This is why we are constantly trying to plan
something to do for the weekends, so that we have something to look forward to–having
something to look forward to makes us feel happy; having nothing to look forward to
makes us feel depressed. This is the power of the future.
We live in world which at best is full of uncertainty and at worse is scary. I can’t
imagine being a young person growing up in today’s world that is filled with so much
danger, world terrorism, pandemics, climate change, political polarization, etc. How
does one find a future in a world like this? This is a big challenge and many people are
struggling with depression, addictions, and suicide as a result. A person without a future
cannot be a happy person. We must find a future in order to live peacefully. It has always
been a challenge to find a good future, but perhaps never as challenging as it is in today.