Why is it that majority of us live for the future, dwell in the past, but find the present moment long & dull?

Question

Why is it that majority of us live for the future, dwell in the past, but find the present moment long & dull?

Answer 1

The future gives hope so we live for it, The past is irreversible so we dwell on what we cannot control, and the present is keeping us from the future and waiting is long and dull.

Answer 2

simply because both past and future are out of our hands...but present is our job (boring).

love

Pluto

Answer 3

Because we're too fat and disgusting to enjoy, or even endure, the present.

Answer 4

The future holds hope for a better situation.

The present holds nothing.

The past holds mistakes.

Answer 5

As far as living in the past, I think this happens when we haven't fully processed some feelings about past events.  We push them into the back of our minds instead of feeling them and processing them.

I did this with a girl I met when I was 16.  We had like a 4 day flirting session when we were both at a vacation resort with our families.  After four days she went cold.  Don't know why.  Instead of feeling the pain of the rejection I put her on a pedestal as the perfect girl I missed.  And I always had this special affinity for that year and the music that went with it.  Recently I heard one of the songs again, felt those same old feelings and decided to go back to that time and really examine what happened.  Took me about a week, during which time it almost seemed like it happened yesterday, even though it was more than 20 years ago.  Went through each feeling, went through it over and over again in my head.  After it was all done, I realized she was just a girl who got me all cranked up and then dropped me cold after 4 days.  I realized I was actually angry at her and hurt.  She came off the pedestal.  She wasn't special anymore.  I forgot about her after that.  The songs don't mean as much anymore.

I think the past and the future can be obsessions that keep us from working on today as well.  We get into habits, perhaps learned from parents, of running away from today and counting on the future to fix everything today.  Our today gets more and more dull because we keep neglecting it in favor of the future fantasies or painting the past with rosy colors.

Answer 6

Nice question! I suppose it would be difficult to waste our lives in the future or the past without viewing the present as dull and yet all other exciting alternatives to the present are just fantasy. Of course, in our fantasies we have to option of being quite magical. How could the present compare. :-)

Answer 7

because we can change the future and regret the past

Answer 8

We live for the future...in hope of a better life.

We draw on our past experiences... to deal with our present situation in life.

The present moment... just seems long and dull, because we are IN that moment in time either dwelling on our past trying to learn from our mistakes so that we can make our future what we desire.

Answer 9

I believe the answer is in your question . It is because most of us do not live in the now . Only when we learn to live in the "now" , can we be truly happy .

Answer 10

Short attention spans.