The future is merely fantasy

In philosophy, there is a school of thought called presentism. Presentists argue the thesis that the past and future do not exist as such. This means that everything past consists of subjective memories and the future is a construct of imagined events that exist only in our heads. So when we speak of our past or discuss our future plans, from a presentist perspective we are only speaking of invented and subjective thought-constructs whose existence exists only in our minds.

Everything we label as "our past" is therefore solely our interpretations of encounters, events and people. How you hold your past in your mind, how you remember that one day with your friends in the park, differs completely from how other people perceived that day. Everything that happened in your past no longer exists in reality. It is solely your perception of events that constitutes your past. In presentism, it is the same with the future. You can make as many plans as you like, set things out to do and set goals – with reasonable certainty none of it will happen exactly as you imagine it. The future consists of thought-constructs until it occurs. And then it has a different name, namely "the present".

I know that some physicists will strongly disagree with me here. Anyone who believes in Einstein's theory of relativity cannot possibly be a follower of presentism. I would not describe myself as an adherent of this school of thought either. But as a student in a degree programme that only conditionally guarantees professional security, the basic idea of presentism has helped me greatly to take the pressure out of my life.
Day in, day out, I catch myself worrying about my future. Will I find a good master's programme that guarantees me a secure professional career? Or is an internship after my bachelor's degree a better idea? Will I stay in Würzburg, or will I move to a larger city? What happens to my friends and the relationships I have built over my time here? And then of course comes the question that presumably everyone asks themselves at some point: Will I be happy?

All of these are questions that influence my decisions. The more I think about my future, the more I try to weave a thread of continuity into the uncertain, the more insecure I become. The more I get tangled up in my ideas and plans and lose sight of the here and now entirely.

But when I think about the fact that my future, from a philosophical perspective, does not really exist anyway and therefore definitely cannot be planned, it creates new possibilities for me to enjoy the present.

We concentrate far too much on what will happen to us in the future and forget in the process that we are living now. Today. Not yesterday or tomorrow, or in 2 weeks or in 10 years. We are living right now, in this moment. The only thing real in our lives is the now.

The best thing that can happen to us cannot be planned. The best just happens. I cannot and do not want to (I think) plan through how my life will continue anyway. Of course, we set ourselves guidelines and goals that could theoretically predetermine our path or serve as a helpful aid, but in doing so we must not forget to live the moment. If we occupy ourselves too much with what might possibly come at some point, then we might miss it.

What is stopping us from being happy now? From working on ourselves now, from making an effort now and acting now?

Perhaps we should stop planning into the future and imagining who we want to be in 10 years, but instead start working on who we are now. What matters is who we are now. How we behave today. How we treat our fellow human beings and ourselves in the present. And the most important thing about it is to always stand behind yourself and your decisions and be okay with what you do.