It’s one of the biggest dilemmas we all face. On one hand, life is too short and uncertain not to seek happiness and satisfaction right now, in the moment. On the flip side, to make progress on our long-term ambitions, we have to make sacrifices; time, money, and energy must be devoted to achieve big objectives (I wrote a little about delayed gratification once before here). Maybe you’ve heard Mahatma Gandhi’s words of wisdom before: “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever”. Easy concept to grasp, not entirely easy to really put into practice.
We’ve all seen both extremes. At one end there’s the person who absolutely, completely lives in the moment. Their mantra is summed up by the belief that life is too short to worry much about the future, so we might as well live it up right now. This can work out OK for a while, and they’re sure having the time of their life while it does, but it almost always crumbles at some point. It’s simply unsustainable.
At the other end of the spectrum is the person who takes frugality to the extreme by living out a deferred-life plan. They are essentially willing to live a voluntarily deprived lifestyle to pinch pennies. They don’t find much satisfaction in their current situation, but they’re motivated by some distant, often vague image of where they want to be. The problem here is that the person sacrifices some of the best years of their lives constantly trying to work for tomorrow.
Most of us are going to fall somewhere between these two polar opposites, which is certainly a good thing. However, I’m sure I can safely assume that the majority of people struggle at times to maintain a healthy balance between the two principles. I know first-hand how difficult it can be. Sometimes my decisions to save money have left me regretful. I can get so caught up in working on long-term projects and goals that I sacrifice my current state of affairs, normally my social life. I want to work on striking a better chord, continuing to move forward while having a blast right now.
I’m going to leave this post as a really brief introduction to this issue. I’ll pick it up again next week with a more in-depth look at this topic. Until then, I’ll pose a question for you. Do you ever have trouble with this, or do you feel you have a good handle on it?
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4 users commented in " Living in the Moment vs. Delayed Gratification "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThat’s a tough question there Blake. I was probably most out of balance in my late teens and early twenties. I lived for NOW. In fact, the lyrics to one of my fav songs back then was “Live for now, don’t give a f?#$ about tomorrow”. You are correct, that is absolutely unsustainable. It usually ends badly. Since then, I like most others have struggled with the balancing issues. My wife and I have gone through periods where we severely cut back, to the point of being unhappy. We then start to rationalize in our minds…”We work hard for our money, we deserve X”. Like a pendulum, we rocked back an forth, until about eight-ten years ago. That’s when we started seriously trying to live on a budget. A budget that allowed us some of life’s luxuries while still saving for retirement and other goals, both short term and long. Bottom line: We should all try to live within our means, while allowing for some fun! All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy.
I struggle to maintain a healthy balance, too. But I’m learning that there are plenty of fun things to do out there for cheap which makes saving for the future easier.
Thanks for the personal insight John and Frugal! Be sure to check back later in the week for the follow-up post.
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