Many people believe that they will be happy once they arrive at some specific goal that they have set for themselves. Whatever your “there” is, and most of us have one, we become convinced that once we arrive “there” we will finally find the peace, happiness and contentment we have always dreamed of.

However, more often than not, once we arrive “there”, we will still feel dissatisfied and move our “there” vision to yet another point in the future. By always chasing after another ‘there”, we are never really appreciating what we already have right “here”. 

Think of past situations in which you have said “I will be happy when…” and then ask yourself, “Was I really any happier when I actually arrived there?” Perhaps for a brief moment, but the same longing arises, and we must embark on yet another quest.

So if we are not content in the “here” how can we be so sure that we will be content when we get “there”? By continually engaging in a cycle of longing, we never actually allow our self to be in the present. We end up living our life always at some point just off in the future.

We only ever have one moment – the one right here, right now. If we skip over “here” in the rush to get “there”, we deny ourselves the full range of feelings and sensations that can only be experienced in the present moment.

It is important that being human means coming to terms with the age old drive to look beyond the place where we now stand. On the one hand, life is enhanced by dreams and aspirations – these are what drive us forward. On the other hand, these drives can pull us further and further from our enjoyment of our life right now. There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve our circumstances. But the challenge is to focus on the present, and on appreciating what we have right now, while simultaneously holding the intention of future goals.