How far do you look into your future?
My history teacher gave a lecture on the difference on time perception between young people and older people.
On average, we tend to think as far as what we are doing in the weekend, or perhaps a month later. Older people tend to look farther ahead in their future, for example, he plans to be finished teaching in 10 years, but he didn’t relinquish any details.
I wish I could be like Paul Muad’Dib and see into the future. Sometimes if I imagine hard enough, I see my future as murky grey fog, at best.
I’m travelling overseas to Asia this summer, and I’m going to enjoy certain activities this weekend.
That is pretty much the extent of my time planning.
How about you guys?
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I think about 4–5 years into the future – I think about my next degree, our next child, etc.
depending on the topic, it could this weekend (where to go for a night in the city), next month (leisure time out of town), next year (vacation overseas), next decade (whether to move or not) or retirement at age 65 or 67 (again depending on how Social Security benefits work out)
When I was younger, I only thought a few years ahead. Now I think about the entirety of what my life might be – even death.
i think up to the next meal.
I’m almost 23 and right now I’m looking ahead several years at minimum. I plan to start working on a PhD, I have a plan and a backup plan for that but I know that’s what I’ll be doing, one way or another, for the next 5–7 years.
Past the PhD I have vague plans to pursue a post-doc and potentially teach somewhere, but those plans aren’t nailed down. I might decide that academia is not for me and do something else, but what that would be I have no idea, since my research would be very hard to get funded without being in academia.
As far as “what I’m doing this weekend” kinds of plans, I make personal plans usually a few days to a few weeks in advance depending. Basically, I’m a committed over-planner. :)
@Simone_De_Beauvoir Aw, shucks! :) You know, my mother always said I was an adult from the moment I was born.
I am always seeing the future on several levels. I’m out there a week in the planning for my work with a Plan B in my back pocket. I’ve had the career plans and and retirement on a moving stage until last summer when I decided that it was finally the time to turn the future into now.
For 25 years I’ve planned for my daughter’s economic future after my death. I have changed careers and planned a frugal retirement to insure her future but there have been several events that have given me a less restricted future.
We can plan but we must always be ready to altar those plans as fate intervenes
1 day…I don’t know if I’m going to die tomorrow…and if I die tomorrow…what will become of my plans?
I view the future as a whole bunch of tangent lines attached to the point of present. Any interval is almost the same. Though the closer you look, the easier it is to predict accurately – except for when you can’t.
My answer on Time illusion directly relates: http://www.fluther.com/disc/72380/is-time-an-illusion/
On a daily basis I am really only thinking four or five days ahead. Thinking to much about the long term makes me very uneasy. There are certain times when I thinki about what the long term future holds and I try to be sensible with my lifestyle, spending habits (although I am not very succesful with that one) etc to make the longterm easier but I try not to think to deeply about it.
- tomorrow
– next week
– next month
– next year
– next 3 years
– next 10 years
– next 20 years
– next 50 years
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