PEOPLE AND THEIR FUTURE

Why People Die Sick And Unhappy With Their Future

Once again, the existence as well as the existence of humanity can not be thought of outside the context of time. They have a quality no other animals have the ability to anticipate and to do so not simply in limited ways measuring a week or a month but as far as they can conceive which may be years or decades. However, at the same time, it is precisely this ability that many of the times makes man unhappy, nervous or even fear the future. The negativity associated with the future is thus attributed to a number of causes, psychological, cultural and societal. Through these dimensions it is possible to identify why people lack satisfaction regarding the future and what might assist them in changing this aspect.

1. The Weight of Uncertainty

Cognitive factors are one of the main reasons why people are dissatisfied with their future. People are troubled by the uncertain future. The future is uncertain and this is rather uncomfortable as it is uncertain what consequences an action is going to have. Even though it seems like one has planned out what has to be done and even targets set for a certain period, there is no control. They no longer have to be in control of events to feel anxious since they know things are not going to turn out as desired anyhow.

In its simplest terms humans are creatures of habit, who look for safety and more importantly predictability. From an evolutionary perspective, this, therefore, prepared early humans to tackle future dangers such as existence threats such as predation or famine. Nonetheless, in contemporary reality, the same mechanism can turn into a problem. Now lovers are concerned with intangible and potentially distant issues like job security, global warming or finding a life purpose. The driver of such variations may not be foreseen or controlled, and this may lead to development of helplessness and dissatisfaction.

2. Panic, Low Confidence and Pressure of High Expectations

The failure has also been named as another major antecedent of unhappiness with the future. Present day society expects people to perform well in their endeavor, and the standards of what it means to perform well is often limited to the parameters of the financial status and societal ranking or accomplishments. This leads to a generation of hope which is a gap between the present state and the dream world.

People have a lot of expectations from themselves by picturing a better future in which they accomplish all their dreams and attain fulfillment. However, the steps towards realizing these goals are often characterized by obstacles, halts or even less optimal solutions. Where people think of the future as a line of hurdles or probable failures, then they can rarely approach it with positive expectations or even satisfaction.

3. The Pursuit of "More"

Today’s society runs on consumerism and peoples’ pursuit of the “better life”: better jobs, more wealth, more travels, and more things. Yes, ambition can be good if harnessed, however, it is the root of everyone’s never-ending cycle of unhappiness. While getting to a goal, one immediately turns attention to the next one and ends up not being able to appreciate success.

This perpetuity of the status of the good life might make the future seem like that unattainable goal, where happiness is a chimera. Instead of optimism and anticipation of what is to be expected, people are stuck in the race to be “more than enough.” It does not allow for finding joy nowadays or hope for tomorrow.

4. The Role of Negative Bias

It would be relevant also to mention here the negativity bias referring to a fact that the human brain processes negative stimuli faster and more closely as compared with positive ones. This bias was very useful to early humans since when they sensed danger in certain situations they were able to avoid it. But in modern society, thanks to it people pay more attention to the negative aspects or the threats for the future, than the possibilities.

In this way, for instance while planning for retirement, rather than dreamt a fulfilling lifestyle an individual may be overly concerned with financial risks. Likewise, a human being joining a new company might fear a negative outcome such as failing or being rejected as compared to embracing growth and success.

5. Culture and Society

Cultural narratives also serve a purpose of defining how people envision their future, as well. In many societies there is competition, productivity, and a linear success where it is implied that citizens must constantly strive to improve themselves.

Furthermore, those common worldwide issues like global warming, fluctuation of economy, and political unrest bring about gloom and pessimism at the end of the tunnel. Such issues may lay beyond the individual subjectivity of one’s goal, empowering a person or making her/him bleak about tomorrow.

6. Stagnation of the Living Life

A major problem of individuals who focus on the future is that they lose the beauty of the present reality. Such people think that they will be happy when certain objectives are accomplished thus denying themselves pleasure up to the time when they achieve these objectives. But this mentality forms an endless cycle of waiting on happiness. When people lean onto the future the things that go with it become unhappy or uninteresting and this only worsens the condition of people who already feel dissatisfied with life.

In other words, various authors that write about mindfulness say that true happiness only comes from being fully engaged in the present moment and not from yesterday’s and tomorrow’s fantasies. However, the contemporary world in combination with social demands is not conducive to following this philosophy.

7. Physical and mental characteristics

Finally, there are many biological and psychological factors involved as well. For example, anxiety disorders, depression, and chronic stress should be a recognized way of how an individual perceives a given future period. Such individuals feel extremely challenged when it comes to thinking about, or dealing with, what is in store for them.

Another one is how perception of time is embedded in people’s psychological perspective. Evidence exists which demonstrates that humans tend to overestimate the amount of joy which is expected from the future events as well as the amount of suffering. : This results in what is termed affective forecasting and in most cases results in disappointments.

Towards a Healthier Paradigm of the Future

There is, however, hope; the task of feeling happy about the future is not an impossibility, rather there are ways of positively programming oneself. Therefore to overcome this type of anxiety, there is a need to practice gratitude, set small realistic goals to be accomplished and accept change and the uncertain as a normal reality. Creating a habit of mindfulness can also help a person appreciate the pleasures of the moment, and learn not to associate happiness with the accomplishments that might happen in the future.

Therefore, the human beings’ discontent with their future is influenced by psychological and social factors. Uncertainty, high expectations, cultural pressure, and biology all work together to make the future look difficult. But by changing one’s perception from that of fear and perfectionism regarding the future to that of positivity and gratitude, people construct a better state of the future. Also, happiness is not in arranging what is ahead, but in being able to learn how to walk through the particular path.