The way that I see it now, the present and the future are the same thing. See, I just realized that I've had this sort of fear about planning the future- making decisions that mean if I do something, it will be at the expense of something else. There is always a trade off- if you want to be in a specific place in 5 years, you will have to make some sacrifices to make that happen, and part of making sure that you get to where you want to be is planning for it. I've always had a tendency to find ways to do all of the things that I wanted and make as few sacrifices or choices as possible. But it can't go on forever. After contemplating all of this for a while, I came to a new perspective.
The present is the now that you're stuck with, you can't change it, it is what it is. You can only change your present by planning for your future. If you don't plan for your future, you'll end up in a present that might not be exactly what you want. On the other hand, if you make plans and decide where in life you'd like to be in one year, or 5 years, and take appropriate steps to make that happen, you will see that eventually the present moment in which you find yourself is pretty darn close to that future you'd been planning. My point is, quite simply, you can't complain about where you find yourself in the present moment if you didn't plan well enough in the past to manifest the present you'd been hoping for. If you suffer from 'future-planning-phobia' like I do, it might help you to realize this as well:
Planning for the future is simply planning your present in advance.
I wish you the best of luck in designing your life! I'm going to go and try to take care of some of that now.... ;)
*Maria
