Being able to dream about the future, and to be excited about the possibilities ahead, can be a powerful force for good in a person’s life.
I read once that thinking about the future makes you a better and more disciplined person in many ways, and that sociologists have measured and confirmed this. I actually used to schedule time daily for the purpose. I don’t do so anymore, but mainly because there’s no point.
I frequently find myself thinking about how excited I am for the future, and all I need to do at this point is give myself permission to enjoy thinking about what the coming years and decades hold.
I find this happens especially with my good habits. I used to dream about how cool it would be, how impressive I would look, if I learned a bunch of languages, for example. These days, for some reason (maturity perhaps? but not necessarily), I think less about how I will look, and more just about how useful it will be.
I can’t wait until I can read many of the philosophers that interest me in the languages in which they wrote. I can’t wait for my reading project to grow, to expand, to become more complex and more complete.
It is a long wait. It will take many years of diligent, lonesome toil.
But the wait becomes easy and even pleasant, precisely by virtue of the fact that I cannot wait for the destination.