The Envisionary
When we treat life like a video game we have a surprising amount of benefits…
See why there’s so much value in forward-thinking and why we can benefit when we keep moving forward in life.
We are often taught to live in the present even though our minds can be dictated from the past memories and assumptions we have. Of course, we can’t live in the future either – we can only ever be in the present – but there’s real value in adopting a mindset that doesn’t get stuck in the present (or the past) and instead keeps moving forward.
Contents
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Here’s 14 good reasons why we should keep moving forward in life.
1) When You Keep Moving Forward You Avoid Procrastination
You will only end up procrastinating and looking back on the things you didn’t do if you don’t keep moving forward.
We may think we will stop and remember all the wonderful things we’ve done but studies show when we stand still we tend to give opportunity for worry and doubt to arise. When we keep moving forward this doesn’t have as much chance to emerge.
2) You Force Action Towards What You Want
If we don’t keep moving forward we don’t manifest what we want. Positive thoughts are great but actions implement what we think so much quicker.
We can read a book about what to do, and then not do it, or we can learn as we go and get far more done. If we have a big picture of what we want to achieve then when we keep moving forward we give ourselves much more chance of making that goal happen because we are aligning our mind and our body towards that goal.
3) You Can Throw Away Clutter Much More Easily
I had a habit of keeping notes, thousands of them, just in case I would read them back one day and put them into a book/article/some form of practice. I found that when I did look over them I just got buried in the mess and found myself less active in utilising them. Very few turned into useful insight years later.
We can spend hours reading articles and watching videos only to not implement what we learn straight after, or simply doing repetitive tasks that take up time and energy we could otherwise save, and so when we force ourselves to use what we learn straight away it leads us towards forward motion in making things happen and gives us less time to get buried in creating a mountain of mess.
4) You Stop Doing So Much, And Accept The ‘Unfinished’
We are encouraged to always do more in modern life, but this is not really what moving forward means and the concept of ‘more is better’ can be as damaging as not trying to move forward at all. It can lead to a perfectionism mindset that ends up only holding us back, as we are never happy with what we do.
We may think we are only moving forward when everything we do has to be done to such a huge degree, to a point of complete finish (i.e. we are taught to have 30 years of specialist expertise to gain high status and respect etc.), but this is not necessarily so. Maybe something doesn’t need to be ‘finished’, or that everything is actually just on a scale of up and down, and never really finished. If a game is done you can be sure another one will start up again soon enough.
When we adopt the principles of ‘keep moving forward’ we can accept that we don’t need to get stuck in too many details or finish everything all the time, which frees our mind of worry when we haven’t finished everything we set out in life yet. We enjoy the journey and where it takes us instead.
5) You Learn To Take Responsibility For Your Direction In Life
We don’t just go anywhere though. When we learn to keep moving forward it means that we become more in control of our own steering, our own direction.
After all, we don’t actually need anything but ourselves to keep moving forward. The tools are within us. Only you can be you, and you are the best qualified person to be you.
We realise our problems are our own, and they will always be different from others. It doesn’t actually help to hear of other people’s hardships. Our mind is programmed to think of our own and no more. Even if we do learn to care for others, the hard fact is we are wired for our own survival, and when we keep moving forward we realise just how true this statement is.
Yes, we can all inspire each other, but we only feel and live our own challenges, and so when we move forward and put our lives in our own hands we appreciate each challenge as validation of our own ability to adapt and persevere.
Having this perfect tool at our disposal when moving forward should be more comforting than having to rely on anyone else for our goal to happen. Only you can make it happen!
6) You Become A Skills Guru
The more we keep trying new things in life the fewer fears dominate us, and the more we can achieve.
We can be totally dependent on ourselves. We know we can bring out the creative problem-solver in us and work out how to fix this or that. We know we will likely know something about this or that.
We are adaptable to different and new situations because we don’t fear change. We are used to it after moving forward and trying different challenges in life a go enough times.
Our skills keep building and developing into a very useful toolkit as and when we need it.
7) You Lose The Need For A Label Or Title (& Become Free From The Rat Race Mentality)
When we don’t move forward in life we can become so transfixed on our current place in life, almost being territorial about it. We fear moving forward from this. We may be comfortable and not want to, and so we do what we can to keep hold of our mantle (even if this is somewhat hard-wired unconscious conditioning within us).
We then become more attached to the need for status or a title, in climbing our way through job ranks because we can’t see ways to shift in different directions or create our own direction.
Once we become more used to moving forward in life we don’t get stuck in the same rat race mentality. We fight less like sharks to ensure our position is fixed. Instead, we keep moving forward because we want more strings to our bow, and not because we need more external validation.
We get to a point where we really just don’t care whether we are (enter glorious virtue-signaling title here). We stop living to impress and fit in, or even to stand out in the crowd. We just live instead.
8) You Are (More) Aware That Time Runs Out
When we keep moving forward we have seen things start and then ultimately end a lot more than if we stay within the same numbing routine day-in-day-out for years and years. Routines can be good for us, such as giving us a sense of security in life, but they can also see us live on autopilot as we may live blindly day-by-day without challenging ourselves to utilise the limited time we have better.
It may feel more comfortable to keep to safe routines but they can also indicate an ingrained fear, an avoidance tactic (or mask) away from having to feel a sense of loss when something ends.
When you get used to moving forward then you are more prepared for change and for endings, but this ultimately also prepares you for more new beginnings too. If something is stifling then a new fresh start can be all you need.
Being aware of the reality of expiry dates is an important lesson as it will push you to make the most of each day. Not just saying that as a cliche, but actually deciding that ‘wait, today might be my last, why am I worrying over so many things that would mean nothing if I wasn’t here tomorrow, so maybe I should be easier on myself and just do things anyway’.
9) You Are More Willing To Give Different Lives A Go
We aren’t a night owl or an early bird, we are both when we need to be. We aren’t destined to be in the same job forever, or become part of the dining dead relationships. There are billions of people out there, and with every person is a new opportunity to learn something, to create something with, to open our eyes to a different way of life.
When we keep moving forward we treat life as chapters or expeditions (or life-adjustment breaks).
These next few months we could try out something completely different, or work on extended skills in a different area to the job we already know etc. Life becomes boring when we don’t have ‘new’ goals. Having the same goals as others or as we’ve done before (to some extent) isn’t half as interesting or challenging as trying something completely out of our comfort zone or knowledge span.
10) You Don’t Become Overwhelmed By Past Goals (You Let Go Easier And Regret Less)
Of course, most will read this and then nod their head one way or another and then get back to what they were doing, or move on to something else that has momentarily caught their attention, and not really implement any of it. I know I did that, a lot, and whilst I thought I was gaining in wisdom, I just got older and still hadn’t really moved forward in some things I said I would.
I would still have so many bucket lists of things to achieve in life still left there (some not even started), and this wasn’t because I didn’t work hard or focus on something, but because I had too many ‘goals’ piled up that were in mind but never truly implemented or just let go, which became unsustainable.
If we just pile up lists of what we say we will do we end up with more regret of things we haven’t, and if we can’t let go and just erase some then we will find that we simply feel overwhelmed with the ‘less time and more stuff scenario’.
If we didn’t do it when we had more years ahead of us and fewer things on our plate, what makes us think we can suddenly do them all now? And why chase a dream of 20 years ago if it’s not right for us now, just because we worry that we haven’t done it yet? It’s far better to help us move forward by crossing off what we don’t really need or won’t really do.
Let go of that dream to be a professional footballer if your 35-year-old mind (and legs) are past it. By letting those dreams go you haven’t failed, you’ve just allowed yourself space to do something else. We just end up missing a lot of other journeys in the process if we don’t, and we may just end up bitter and resentful for not giving other things a go too.
11) You Learn Quicker About What You (Currently) Want To Do In Life
When we keep moving forward and trying something new we can learn quicker about whether we want to do something or not.
Sure, we should give some things ample time to manifest but with most things we can tell pretty quickly whether we would like to do it or not, and guess what, we’ve just done it. Sure, we might not be at the pinnacle of that field and instead may be a newbie with a lot of room for growth, but who is to say we have to turn everything we try into a career or specialism?
We don’t need to build everything into a huge following, or only do things for the sake of gaining superficial popularity. When we do we may miss the actual present moment in enjoying something new, and working out whether we actually like it or not.
When we just give it a go for the sake of finding out, we can quickly dismiss some things and pursue others, making our list much more sustainable than thinking we have to be everything to everybody.
12) You Give Yourself A Clear Head (& Tackle Problems Easier)
An advantage of having an active forward-thinking mindset is how quickly and easily you can clear your head or turn a challenging situation around.
You could get bogged down in stress at work and just keep grinding through it, or you could give yourself a fresh outlook by simply heading out away from your current work grind for a 15-minute walk in fresh air before returning (and do the world of wonders for your fresh outlook on return).
With a forward-thinking mindset you can see how you are best served to tackle a problems with both a change in action and with a visualisation of how things could be done differently, or how a break of the current grind can help you see differently.
When we have a willingness to move on, and not get drawn into the same repeated patterns (especially ones that aren’t working for us) we end up exploring new opportunities where other’s see only problems. We know that problems are fixed by changing the current situation, not by doing the same and hoping for different results (or for problems to magically disappear).
13) You End Up Avoiding Stagnation (& Embracing Unknowns)
We don’t just procrastinate less, we also stagnate less. Our mind remains more flexible and creative because we are putting it into use in different areas more, and we are more free and open to seeing new challenges as opportunities rather than fear them as scary unknown obstacles.
We end up embracing the unknown more. When we fear the unknown less we spend less time building up protective masks and excuses to stop us from trying things that may help us progress in life, and we spend less time believing the scripts of our childhood that may feed doubt or hesitation.
Instead, we are able to allow our mind to explore freely and creatively, and this helps us become more assured in who we are, living and thinking at our own pace, and becoming less likely to be lured in by other distracting temptations in life.
14) You Realise Life Is About Nurturing Balance (In Many Areas)
When we seek to move forward in life we aren’t just talking about work or career. Life holds many aspects and we realise we have to find a way to keep life balanced.
We want to have a good career, but good relationships too, as well as projects, holidays, family, education, and of course, health. Yet, in each area we need to keep moving forward, and when we do we benefit each area a lot more than if we overfocus on one area and neglect others.
Forward-thinking allows us to consider what is most important to focus on at any given time as we can visualse the life we want to build. If we are spending too much time just existing in the life we have now (but don’t like or are neglecting aspects of it) then we can change that easier when our mind is focused on improvement, growth, and a desire to keep going.
When we have an active forward-thinking mind we become used to working hard and exploring hard, and we realise we gain more energy in our day when we go from one focus in our life to another. We come back to each with more energy each time because we’ve had a break in between whilst we’ve been nurturing other important parts of life.
There you go. There’s 14 reasons to keep moving forward in life. I’m sure there’s more, but this is enough to go off, buut remember the most important part about being able to keep moving forward is in the actions, and so here at The Envisionary we’ve created a ‘Keep Moving Forward’ challenge course to help you develop the habit of forward-thinking.
