Podcast - The power of future focus on health & money
In this episode I discuss the power of being future-focussed when it comes to creating great outcomes for your health and money.
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Unfortunately today, many people are falling into the trap of sacrificing the future for the present which ultimately comes at a cost to their quality of life, health and money.
And its an easy trap to fall into, when you consider the way the world has evolved and is now set-up to encourage present-day thinking and instant gratification, even though it doesn’t necessarily lead to quality life outcomes nor a robust, resilient society.
You see, when the world is more “present” focussed than “future” focussed, it comes at a price…
Basic value systems break down, connection to the family unit starts to fracture, the quality of goods, services, architecture and everything around us gradually falls, and people become more insular and self-centred.
On a personal level, if you fall into this trap there is an impact on your health. Meaning, if you don’t place a high value on the future, you’re less likely to invest in your health and make smart lifestyle decisions in terms of diet and exercise for your long term benefit if all of your conditioning is based on satisfaction in the present.
If you think about it, everything now is based on instant gratification - from on-demand entertainment, to using credit cards and going into debt to buy things you don’t need to satisfy the “now”, to home delivery food so that you don’t even have to prepare anything anymore.
Also, the current situation in the world with inflation and people working harder for less, also causes many factions of society to get constantly “stuck” in the now without the ability or breathing space to take care of the things they know they should and plan for the future.
Personally, I am connected to two main groups of people that I clearly see this is impacting -
Younger people now who are struggling with the cost of living which is causing them to give up hope of owning their own home, having a family - instead of saving and planning for the future, they’ve resigned themselves to the NOW, just enjoying life for today and not worrying about how things might look in 5, 10, 15 years from now.
Middle aged people - who are stuck in the matrix, maybe we long range thoughts about a comfortable retirement with many active, healthy years to enjoy it…but they’re bogged down with day-to-day commitments that makes it very difficult to chart a path for the future in terms of health and finances.
So to change this paradigm, it requires very conscious recognition of the problem and creative thinking.
It requires thinking outside the box.
It requires being more proactive than ever.
It requires you to go against the grain and not allow the system to dictate terms.
How does this apply to your health and longevity?
It means there are going to be days where you don’t feel like getting out of bed and exercising for an hour, or being proactive with your diet, or taking care of your sleep because you’d prefer to binging on your favourite netflix series. But when you do what you know is right anyway because you’re taking care of yourself …then this is being future focussed, you know that your investing in your future self, delaying instant gratification because you know you’re going to be rewarded with ongoing health, mobility, resistance to sickness and longevity down the road.
How does this apply to your financial freedom?
To achieve financial freedom, requires you to do certain things now methodically in order to achieve the result you want in the future. It requires a future based mindset and planning.
But the problem is, if you dismiss it, if you put it on the back-burner for too long, you put yourself further and further behind the 8-ball…the longer you avoid being future-focussed and are present-focussed, the more it will cost you in the long run.
Just remember, when you sacrifice the future for the present, it might bring you short term pleasure…but in the long run it generally equals pain down the road.
So be proactive, do the things now…and look forward to a better, brighter, more prosperous future.
I hope you got value from today’s message.
ZT.
