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Future Perspective
When we consider the emphasis on immediacy, as
well as the mental health profession's extraordinary preoccupation
with clients' childhood experiences as the focus of therapy, it is
easy to appreciate why people become so intensely oriented to the
past and the present, while grossly misrepresenting or
underestimating the future. And there is no human condition in which
this is more apparent than in clinical depression.
Of all the factors underlying depression, none
is more powerful or wider in scope than your orientation towards
your own future. Thus, it is vital that your orientation be a
positive, realistic and motivating one. The ability to think about
the future in positive terms is called, simply, "optimism".
It is unfortunate that people are not routinely
taught to be future oriented. Thinking in terms of eventual
consequences, of how to take current conditions and transform them
into future probabilities, is necessary to survival. You are not
born with this ability. Ideally, you learn it as you mature. Those
who have a well-developed future orientation practise it
automatically, like walking or talking. But this happens only if
parents or other significant people in your life serve as examples
and encourage you - perhaps even force you - to develop the ability.
They do so by requiring you to plan ahead, predict the specific
consequences of your actions, and have a variety of specific goals -
short term, intermediate, and long-term. Too few people sense the
importance of specific goals, because they are caught up in
day-to-day living.
Explore:
What drives you?
What goals do you live for?