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I feel hopeless about the future


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What to do if the future seems hopeless

March 23 Motivation

There are two easy ways to change everything.

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Arthur S. Brooks

Sociologist, professor at Harvard Business School, former president of the American Enterprise Institute.

The human brain is designed in such a way that when we think, we regularly "live" in the future. Sometimes this becomes a serious problem.

We humans are beings who think in perspectives. So argue psychologists and philosophers - for example, Martin Seligman, Peter Railton, Roy Baumeister and Chandra Sripada in the book "Homo Prospectus".

Seligman says that about 30-50% of the thoughts that arise in the human head during the day are worries, hopes, worries about what will happen in a week, a month, a year or 10 years. No other creatures look ahead so often and far. Why, only we and some species of primates do it N. J. Mulcahy, J. Call. Apes save tools for future use / Science.

The future-thinking monkey inside of us wants to see a lot of fruits in the short term and the opportunity to get them. The best way to upset her is to let her know that the tree will be empty or the fruit will hang too high.

Since we spend a lot of time mentally in the future, we are happy to think that it is full of pleasant possibilities that we can control. And vice versa: an almost perfect cocktail for suffering is to believe that the future is hopeless and we have no leverage to change it.

What is the danger of thinking about a hopeless future

Usually people take the concept of hopelessness lightly. They laugh at him. They create funny pessimistic characters like Eeyore. But in real life, this pessimism is not at all a reason for laughter.

Studies show E. C. Chang, E. A. Yu, et al. An examination of optimism/pessimism and suicide risk in primary care patients: Does belief in a changeable future make a difference? / Cognitive Therapy and Research that the feeling of hopelessness is closely associated with the risk of suicide.

Pessimistic young people who live to middle age are disproportionately common C. Peterson, M. E. Seligman, G. E. Vaillant. Pessimistic explanatory style is a risk factor for physical illness: A thirty-five-year longitudinal study / Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suffer from various health problems.

The same applies to the subjective feeling that you are not in control of your life. When, due to financial loss or other hardships, a person begins to feel that he cannot change anything, it hits R. H. Price, J. N. Choi, A. D. Vinokur. Links in the chain of adversity following job loss: How financial strain and loss of personal control lead to depression, impaired functioning, and poor health / Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

In short, when your inner monkey begins to see an empty tree in the future, it becomes ill. It is even more unpleasant if there are many monkeys on this tree at once and hopelessness covers them all. The collective sense of powerlessness is overwhelming, making each individual feel even worse.

What to do if the future looks hopeless

It seems that all we can do in such a situation is to sit and wait. Vaccines. collective immunity. Elections. Basically, anything that might change our perspective. Meanwhile, pessimism will grow.

However, we are not helpless. Yes, each of us can do little to speed up the emergence of vaccines or, for example, to influence the political structure of the state as a whole. But we can change our way of thinking so that hopelessness does not take over and break us, at the same time ruining our health.

Just two steps are enough for this.

1. Challenge seeming futility

Pessimism is actually a mirror that distorts A. Perlmutter. How negative news distorts our thinking / Psychology Today reality. We expect the worst and see in everything a progressive and inexorable movement towards this scenario. As a result, despair grows.

Seligman and other psychologists recommend M. E. P. Seligman, P. R. Verkuil, T. H. Kang. Why lawyers are unhappy / Deakin Law Review fight this with the so-called dispute technique. It consists in the following.

Imagine the worst version of the future you expect. And find logical inconsistencies, flaws in it - challenge it.

This is to prove to yourself that the future is multivariate, and a bad scenario may be less realistic than a good one.

Here's my example: I teach at a university and love working with students in the classroom. It fills me with energy, brings joy. However, due to the pandemic, all classes had to be transferred online. At first it was unusual and interesting. Then it started to scare.

A year has passed. The other day I found myself brooding over the fact that I would probably never again return to that open, student-filled auditorium that I loved so much. That having to lecture from home, through a computer screen, would be my new normal. That pessimism is fueled by headlines like “How Coronavirus Will Change Universities Forever.”

However, in fact, the feeling of hopelessness in my case is completely unjustified. And I challenged it by analyzing the facts. For example, he took into account the vaccination that had begun. I read the forecasts, according to which the pandemic will end by the end of 2021. And I came to the conclusion: there is a high probability that classes in the classroom will resume within a year. So my troubles are certainly tiresome, but temporary.

Most likely, your future is also brighter and brighter than the picture that you draw for yourself in gloomy reflections. So challenge your own pessimism. Only not thoughtless optimism, but facts.

2. Change your goals to see opportunities within your limitations

When I was 30, I made a living as an analyst at a major think tank in California. And when I had problems, the boss said: "Turn restrictions into solutions."

He suggested starting the study of each problem by enumerating how and in what way it limits me. And then, instead of sadly accepting this as an inevitable given, figure out how you can use the restrictions to your advantage.

A simple example. During quarantine, I often heard complaints about remote work. People said that it is impossible to work effectively from home when children and family are nearby. Which exhausts the need to constantly cook. Lack of live communication with colleagues. And because of all this, it is not possible to be as productive as before.

Yes, there are indeed restrictions. But look at them as opportunities. To do this, it is enough to adjust your own definition of productivity.

Many people have a distorted idea of ​​a productive life, associating it exclusively with work. Take the Americans: they work more than they need to indiscriminately.

For example, a survey conducted in 2018 by the United States Travel Association showed Study: A record 768 million U.S. vacation days went unused in ‘18, opportunity cost in the billions / U.S. Travel Association: 55% of workers deliberately cut their paid vacation time. And 54% of those who did go on a good rest reported What does America have against vacation? / The Washington Post that feel guilty.

Meanwhile, productivity can and should touch other spheres of life as well. For example, since you have the opportunity to cook more often, why not change your eating habits.

And since you can spend more time with your family, try to improve your relationship with your children and partner. Or use the hour you used to spend commuting to the office to learn English. All this will be a story about productivity.

I will not tire of repeating: the healthiest way to live in difficult, seemingly hopeless times is to see opportunities in them. And then use them to become better and stronger.

Even if your pessimistic inner monkey turns out to be right and the looming tree ahead doesn't bear fruit, at least you'll meet this unpleasant future in better shape.

Read also 🧐

  • How to stop doubting your choice and not always looking for the perfect solution
  • Why is the race for self-development dangerous and how to get out of it
  • Why do we depend on someone else's approval and what to do if no one praises

Read Our Future online by Jay Asher - LitRes, page 3

7://Emma

- Me? Josh asks confused.

I hardly slept last night - for various reasons, including his page. I should have told him this as soon as he arrived.

“Emma,” Josh waves his hand in front of my eyes, “what are you even talking about?”

“Last night, before you came, I was browsing this site,” I answer. “Remember, I said that I have three hundred and twenty friends there,” I pause and exhale slowly: “Your name was also on this list.

There is silence in the car.

“Josh Templeton was there,” I add. “And a picture of you older too.”

Josh taps his knee with an empty Sunshine Donuts cup. He clearly does not want to believe in all this and still wants to prove that this is just a hoax.

“Your hair is short in the photo, just like David’s,” I say. - And you're wearing glasses.

“My eyesight is fine,” Josh replies.

- Now, but not in the future.

Josh methodically presses a plastic cup with his fingernail, leaving semi-circular dents on its side:

– Did you see anything else there? When you clicked on the photo of Emma Nelson Jones, another page opened. Did it happen to me too?

I nod.

- Your birthday is April 5th, and it says that you studied at the University of Washington.

“Like David,” Josh says.

– And now you are living here again.

- In the Lake Forest?

I wonder what he thinks about this. Personally, I am determined to leave here someday. There isn't any woods here, and Crown Lake is actually nine miles down the highway, and there are rich houses all around [7] . The whole center of the town consists of three streets, and whatever you do, the whole city will know about it. But Josh is much more relaxed about it than I am. Sounds like Lake Forest suits him just fine.

– Where do I live? Josh asks. “I hope it doesn’t say that I’m still living with my parents at thirty?”

I shake my head.

- I think you live somewhere near the lake. There was a photo where you are in your yard, and in the background you could see a pier with a motor boat.

“Cool,” Josh remarks. They made me rich.

I roll my eyes in annoyance.

- What else are they? Why do you keep repeating this? Who are you even talking about?

- About those who created this site as a joke. Today I will go to the technical laboratory and check if someone scanned the photos ...

- Don't you understand that those "who created this site" are us? We have created these pages ourselves in the future. I don't know how it all works, but it looks like they are linked sites of different people who post their photos there and write about their lives, such as how difficult it was to find a place to park or what they ate for breakfast.

- But why? Josh asks.

The first bell rings. Graham probably wonders where I've gone today: we usually meet at his locker and go to class together.

I grab my bag and reach out to open the door.

- Wait a minute. Josh spins the wheel on his skateboard with his finger. - This Facebook, does it say whether I am married in the future or not?

I'm looking for a trunk key on a bunch.

- Yes, you are married.

- And what does it say about ... her? Josh went completely pale. - About my ... well, you understand . .. wife ?

“And I thought you didn’t believe in all this,” I remark.

- I still want to know. This is is my future, right?

I take a deep breath:

- You see, the point is that in the future you are married to Sidney Mills.

Josh's jaw literally drops.

I open the car door:

- Come on, we'll be late.

8://Josh

I picture Sydney Mills standing in front of me. Her long brown hair is tied back with a white headband, and her eyes are the color of chocolate caramel. She reaches out her arms to me, I wrap my arms around her to kiss her, and feel her high breasts pressed against mine.

I open my eyes, grab my skateboard and follow Emma to the trunk.

– Sidney Mills? I say. - Yes, it's just some kind of nonsense!

Emma takes her silver sneakers out of the trunk and stuffs them into her school backpack.

- Yeah, but now you want it to be true?

- Why should I believe in sheer rubbish? I ask. Although, frankly, I'm tempted to ask Emma to take me home to see for myself that this is exactly what the site says. But if we're late for school, the school administrator will call home and leave a message on the answering machine for the parents.

Sidney Mills is a year older than me, an insanely attractive girl, one of the best athletes in school, and besides, she has rich parents. I have no idea why it would have occurred to someone to marry us even as a joke. She and I have been in the same peer support group since last January, and in all that time we have never even spoken.

– Just look at yourself. Emma nudges me lightly with her shoulder. You are already in love.

She reaches out to ruffle my hair, but I step back, sling my backpack over my shoulder, and quickly make my way to the school entrance.

- Hey, where are you in such a hurry, Mr. Mills? Emma screams.

I stop and turn to her.

Emma takes a more comfortable grip on the saxophone case.

- I understand. I'd race like crazy too if I found out that Cody and I are married and vacationing in Waikiki.

“I didn’t walk fast because I was excited,” I say. “I just don’t like it when you touch my hair… well, anyway.

“Sorry,” Emma says, and I know she understood what was going on. She, too, tries to preserve our friendship - which is why she allowed me to distance herself from her in the last six months.

Emma points to a white convertible with the top up:

- This is Sidney's car... Would you mind slipping a note with a love sonnet under the wiper? Or with a haiku! You better not try to rhyme

In one of the junior classes, I somehow embarrassed myself by trying to rap. I thought I could become the world's first red-haired rapper, I even came up with a nickname for myself: Hot Sauce. Several times a year, Emma reminds me of that shame. But it's still better than my brother, who remembers that incident almost every time we talk to him.

- So Sydney and I are going to Waikiki? I say.

As we enter the wide double doors of the school, Emma leans closer to me:

“The future you is much more secretive than I am,” she says, and I can smell the sweet smell of cinnamon on her breath. “You don't say anything about what you and Sydney did on the beach, so don't get too excited.

She waves goodbye to me and disappears into the crowd of students.

- You're just jealous! I say, but she doesn't seem to hear me anymore.

9://Emma

I can't concentrate at rehearsal. After skipping the right bar for the fourth time, Mr. Markowitz points his baton at the brass section and says:

- How about a five-minute break? Flutes, come to me, we need to talk about your solos.

I look towards the drums, but Graham hasn't shown up yet. Sometimes the swim coach keeps him in the morning, and today I'm fine with that: the thought of meeting him terrifies me. I place my instrument on a chair and head to the drinking fountain. Leaning over the curving trickle of water, I wonder what happened to my computer after all. Today, everything seems less real, especially this marriage of Josh to Sidney Mills. It's like me marrying Leonardo DiCaprio.

- Guess who. Graham puts one arm over my eyes and wraps the other around my waist.

I wipe my lips, turn around, and my breath catches. He shaved off his head! His wonderful long blond hair is gone, now there is only pale spiky skin.

- What did you do? I ask.

He grins and runs his hand over his head.

- Greg and Matt came over after the Frisbee and we decided to shave our heads. Do you like it?

I look at him helplessly.

“Come on,” Graham intertwines his fingers with mine, “you want to run your palms over my big smooth head.

I'm not in the mood to listen to all this. When he tries to snuggle up to me, I move away.

- What's the matter? he asks.

- I don't know.

We say nothing more. Sometimes it seems to me that if it weren’t for kisses, we wouldn’t need to communicate with each other at all.

* * *

“Time to get over Graham,” I say, burying my face in my lunch bag.

We're sitting in the dining room because Kellan wants her favorite meal, fried potatoes, which she eats every day with her Sprite. Kellan is an inch shorter than me, with black hair and perfect skin. And she can eat potatoes in any quantity without gaining a pound.

– You were going to meet him in the park today and announce that you were leaving him? Kellan asks.

I smile at the girls passing by.

- I never met him in the park.

- And what's stopping you from breaking up with him now? Kellan pays for the food and heads to the sauce stand. If you haven't noticed yet, I'm not going to disturb you.

- Have you seen what he did to his hair?

Kellan shakes his head.

“He cut his head bald,” I say. “He and Greg and some of their swim team shaved their heads yesterday. Honestly, when guys get together, they are capable of the stupidest things.

“Yeah, like fighting,” Kellan remarks, placing a pile of napkins and ketchup bags on his tray.

- Or jump from rooftops.

“Or fart and set the gases on fire,” she adds.

I am laughing.

- Do you know anyone who did this?

“Tyson, for example,” Kellan replies. “That's what he did behind the dustbin of his father's pizzeria. Last winter when you visited your father.

Tyson's father owns a pizzeria like the old days, which specializes in birthday celebrations and thick cheese crust pies. Since there are slot machines nearby, and in the parking lot you can ride skateboards, Josh and Tyson spend a lot of time in the pizzeria.

- Was Josh with him? I ask.

Kellan thinks for a moment:

– He actually filmed everything. But he didn't set fire to anything.

- He was lucky, otherwise I would not have missed the opportunity to remind him of this.

We exit through the side doors of the dining room and Kellan asks:

“What does Graham look like without his golden locks?”

- To be honest, all his attractiveness was in his hair. Without them, it looks like apple candy.

It is sunny outside and even warmer than yesterday. We go to the place where we usually have a snack. I turn to Kellan:

- Can I ask you a physics question?

At the mention of this, she immediately perks up. Now she takes an elective physics course twice a week at Hemlock College. It's part of the same prep program she wanted to enroll me in so we could take biology classes together.

I shift my paper bag of lunch more comfortably and ask in as casual a tone as possible:

- What do scientists think about time travel?

She raises the tray to her face and picks up a slice of potato from the plate with her teeth.

– Why do you need it?

“Just curious,” I reply. “Back to the Future was shown on cable last night.

Kellan stops in front of a patch of wet dirt in the grass and starts explaining the theory of relativity and the relativistic expansion of time. I try to understand what she is saying, but I am hopelessly lost somewhere at the level of black holes.

“It's impossible to prove anything,” says Kellan, “but it's also impossible to rule it out. Personally, I think that time travel is real, but I wouldn't want to do it.

- Why not?

She shrugs:

– The past is behind us, we can read about it in history books. But what if in the future we are at war again? Or did they never elect a non-white or female president? Or even worse, are The Rolling Stones retirees still crawling onto the stage? I don't even want to think about it.

“I hope the future is still better than what you describe,” I remark, though not with much certainty.

- Do you remember I told you about a cool guy who goes to physics with me? Kellan asks. “Yesterday I met him by chance here, in the center of the city. Look, Emma, ​​you just have to sign up for biology with me. You won't believe what kind of guys are in Hemlock - they are already real men .

- Are you saying I have to take a biology class for the sake of the guys there?

Kellan shakes his head:

“It's worth enrolling in a biology class because you're smart and there aren't enough female scientists. But you and I can change this situation. And guys - this is so, the cherry on the cake.

- Maybe so. “I'm more interested in what she mentioned about time travel. If it were completely impossible, Kellan would definitely tell me about it. But she said something else.

“In addition to improving the sex ratio in science,” Kellan adds, “I also want you to fall in love before we graduate from college. Consider this my personal plan.

“You know how I feel about love,” I answer. “Love was invented to sell wedding cakes and Waikiki tours.

“My parents have been in love with each other for nineteen years,” Kellan says. - And, then, remember Tyson and me: we were probably the most ...

- He broke your heart! How can you call it love when he hurt you so much?

Kellan pops another potato wedge into his mouth.

- It was love because it was worth it.

10://Josh

At the old oak tree on the far side of campus, where we usually all eat together, I am the first one. I place my lunch bag at my feet, pull off my sweatshirt and stuff it into my backpack. Then I place my backpack against a tree trunk and lean my back against it like a pillow.

My peanut butter and jam sandwiches have been sitting in my backpack for hours and are completely wrinkled, but I still barely taste the food. All this talk with Emma about that strange site makes me anxious about the upcoming support group meeting. I'm afraid I won't be able to look at Sidney Mills calmly: I'll keep imagining how she emerges from the warm Hawaiian waves in a tiny bikini.

You can't tease guys like that!

Sidney Mills and I are like two planets in completely different orbits. She, like Mercury, shines in the rays of the hot sun. I'm more like Pluto. Yes, of course, my friends love me, but I'm still barely visible somewhere on the outskirts of the galaxy.

- Watch out!

A long "sandwich" subway curves and flops to the ground near my feet. Tyson throws his lunch like a grenade every day and I can't figure out why he does it. Kellan says it's because Tyson's father raised him alone, without the civilizing influence of a woman.

“You're a complete jerk,” I say.

– Listen, have you seen her yet? Tyson rips open the plastic wrap on the sandwich.

My heart is racing. Had Emma told him about Sydney?

“I know she talks bad things about me behind my back,” he continues. “And in my presence, he behaves as if nothing had happened. But when I'm not around...

It turns out that he is about Kellan.

- No, I didn't see her.

Tyson and Kellan are so different that neither Emma nor I could even imagine them together. The four of us were friends, but last July, out of the blue, a romance suddenly arose between them. It lasted all summer, but on the very first day of school, Tyson broke up with Kellan. Then everything was restored to them, but in the end Tyson left her completely. They were like two magnets that could not decide what to do: attract or repel. After their last breakup, Kellan was so depressed that she didn't go to school for two whole weeks. The strangest thing is that for some reason we still remained friends.

– She never said anything bad about you to me. I reach for my second sandwich.

Tyson pulls a piece of turkey out of his sandwich and pops it into his mouth:

- She just knows you're going to tell me everything.

I see Emma and Kellan, deep in conversation, heading our way.

“You see,” Tyson says, “they are definitely talking about me.

The girls come up, smile at us and sit next to us. Kellan pours ketchup on potatoes while Emma opens a lunch box.

- Aloha! Emma says, smiling mischievously at me as she fishes a piece of cucumber out of the container. - Have you seen her yet?

- Whom? Kellan asks.

“Looks like Josh has a crush on Sidney Mills,” Emma says.

Why is she doing this?

– Is there anyone who doesn’t have a crush on her? Tyson grumbles with his mouth full.

“I didn’t say that I fell in love with her,” I answer.

Kellan turns to Tyson in annoyance:

- What does "there is someone" mean? What, everyone should be in love with her? Are you serious? It's so trite. Sydney Mills is just a nasty rich bitch.

“Guys, calm down,” Emma says. “I didn’t want everyone to quarrel.

“I don’t know her at all,” I add. - I know who she is, but I don't...

Tyson pays no attention to me and turns to Kellan:

- Yes, Miss Conviction, I'm personally in love with Sidney Mills. You may not have noticed, but she is a real beauty.

“Yeah, if you like bitches,” Kellan replies, dropping a straw into his Sprite and taking a long sip.

Emma catches my eye and silently apologizes for starting this conversation.

I bite into my sandwich, pretending I don't care. After all, this whole site is just a hoax.

* * *

I walk past the open door of the classroom where the lesson is on the problems of the young generation, and I nervously look inside. Sydney Mills hasn't arrived yet.

I head straight for my seat, sit down and drum my fingers restlessly on the table, looking at the incoming people. Every time someone enters the room, my heart starts beating faster.

Rebecca Alvarez appears at the door and I give her a quick smile. In my first year, we met for six months. I haven't had a longer relationship yet. She and I still chat sometimes at school, but we don't call each other anymore.

She sits down in her seat on the other side of the room and silently asks with only her lips: "What are you staring at?"

I turn to the door and Sidney appears!

I clutch the edge of the table, unable to take my eyes off her. Her long brown hair cascades down her shoulders and back. A green jersey blouse hugs the bust. The top two buttons are open, revealing a gold chain studded with tiny diamonds. She walks down my aisle, tucking her cell phone into the pocket of her tight-fitting jeans. My palms are getting wet.

Sydney looks at me and looks like she's ready to smile, but then raises her eyebrows questioningly. I must be looking really stupid.

As she walks past, my nose catches the faint scent of coconut oil and my heart skips a beat in my chest.

* * *

Tyson and I put our skateboards on the bottom row of benches in front of the treadmills and sit next to each other. I'm sipping on iced cherry lemonade and my friend is sipping on the same ice-cold thing called blue raspberries. Under our feet lies an empty pizza box. Since Like the Old Times is owned by Tyson's father, we can eat any amount of pizza for free. In exchange, I occasionally help out with all sorts of celebrations: sometimes I have to look after the kids in the pool with balls, and sometimes I put on a costume of a smiling slice of pizza and give out all kinds of gifts.

Last year, Tyson and I brought pizza to every competition where Emma competed. The events themselves did not interest us much, but our presence meant a lot to her. And this year, during the first competition, I told a friend that I have a lot of homework. The next time he excused himself by saying that he needed to help his father clean the gutters. Then Tyson just stopped asking. But today I need Emma to drive me home after the competition and show me what she saw on that site.

The team enters the field. Tyson and I are yelling: "Emma, ​​go!". She waves at us, we grab our skateboards and head to the parking lot. There are two parking spaces next to the bike racks where part of the cement fence has come loose. Tyson takes one end of the block, I take the other.

- Raise! I command.

We are dragging two blocks, one after the other, to the center of the parking lot. Then Tyson fishes a piece of “sex wax” out of his backpack and throws it at me. Surfers use this to keep their feet from slipping off the board, but skaters love it too. Especially Tyson, who is amused every time by this name. I rub sticky wax on the surface of both cement blocks and step aside. Tyson sideways jumps onto the block and slides along the entire length, then rides to the next one and rolls over it too.

- Speaking of "sex wax," Tyson smirks. “Have you really decided to ask Sidney Mills out on a date?”

I take a few steps back for a run and put my skate on the ground:

– I don’t know why Emma started this conversation in the first place.

I accelerate, pull up to the first block and ride the whole length on the rear suspension. The second block I try to pass on the nose, but there is not enough momentum until the very end.

- Are you in the same class with her on the problems of the younger generation? Tyson asks.

- With Sidney Mills? Yes, why?

Tyson pushes the board forward and jumps on it while walking.

- So, when you discuss all sorts of sexual matters, you probably heard her say "vagina.

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