It is a type of mental illness so common it seems normal. It is a thought system that tells you to do everything you do not want to do now, so that someday you will be able to live the way you want.

While your thoughts might tell you otherwise, the way you live now is the way that you live. How you are now is how you are. Your relationships now? Your skills and talents? How you feel? Who and how you love now? This is all that is real about your life, and it is all here now.

Then there are those thoughts of sacrifice telling you to ignore how you feel. Pay no attention to your intuition. Your inner world—the real you—it isn’t real, right? What matters is what the world can offer if you meet its demands. Who planted these thoughts in you? What was the intention if not to control? Are those promises even true?

What about those fearful thoughts to never trust anyone? To fight for what is yours or you will have nothing. Be careful. Be normal. Don’t try anything new or crazy. Is fear not paralysis, and does paralysis not hold you back from a more abundant, better reality now?

So many people are stuck in these thought patterns—waiting for and expecting a better future that doesn’t come. But here—in the present moment—there is so little enjoyment, little adventure, shallow connections, no real or happy learning, poor health, poor understanding of reality, no real values. Tragically, dreams of future abundance and the associated thought patterns cause a lack of abundance now.

Do not sacrifice being alive to achieve a perfect future. Love who you love now, even if you don’t know about your future with the person. Have kids when you feel the desire, even if you don’t have the perfect house or financial situation. Start your dream company now, even if you don’t feel ready. Go on that trip now, even if it makes you nervous. Say how you feel now, even if you don’t know how people will respond. Follow your intuition and pay attention to how you feel—the external world will adjust.

When you stop living for the future, you begin to realize that you don’t have to sacrifice the present moment to be successful, to earn a living, or to be a great partner or parent. In the present moment, you enjoy engaging in your responsibilities—responsibilities that you choose to take on for reasons you understand—and you are better at everything. You are focused, open, creative, friendly, and unafraid to take the healthy risks others shy away from.

The irony is this: when you learn to stop living for the future, your life becomes even better than whatever future you imagined. Everything becomes clear. Everything about your life seems designed perfectly for you—the real you. But this is only accessible for those willing to humble the mind and spiritually awaken. There are many books and guides who can show you the way and it is all real.

The reason that the ego wants to want is that it cannot be happy. Why not? Because the mind cannot feel, only think. To realize and accept this would be to look at the ego honestly. If you do that, you will no longer want this parasite and you will leave it behind.

Like any creature, however, the ego does not want to die. Therefore, it must trick you into tolerating it by convincing you to seek happiness in the future. The voice in the head tells you that salvation is found in the future—after you achieve this, have that, if you are with a specific person, or if you have a particular experience. But if you do achieve or experience what the ego seeks, your happiness will not last for more than a moment and you will be left still wanting and chasing the next illusion.

Thoughts regularly cause us suffering, but joy is never found in thoughts. Joy, rather, is the natural experience of life when thoughts subside for a moment or when thoughts are aligned with the reality of life.

Thoughts directed at present moment awareness bring you an appreciation of beauty and a feeling of alertness and vibrance. The joy you experience here comes not from the thoughts; rather, from the experience of true reality beyond them.

Loving thoughts also bring joy because they are aligned with the source of joy and no longer block it. Honest thinking and expressing, unconditional acceptance of what is, thoughts of openness, creative thoughts, pursuit of creative endeavors—this is correct mind activity because your attention is placed upon the source of joy.   

You will never “figure things out” in the mind; but if you can align the mind with divine truth, then there will be nothing to figure out or to want because joy is yours eternally.