We all live in the moment. Every second of every day we are all making little decisions that cumulatively define you and who you are. Your life and what you achieve or not in this life is a composite of all the little decisions that you make minute to minute.

While we all live in this moment, the disciplined mind is always thinking toward a bigger goal. What does my life look like in five years? Ten years? Twenty years? Thirty? All the little decisions in the moment cumulatively leads to the ultimate outcome.

Noted author and columnist Tom Greene addressed this subject in a recent column.

“It’s important to be able to answer the most important question of your life: “What do you want?”’ Greene wrote. “But, there’s a big difference between what you want in the moment versus what you want in the future. See, knowing what you want in the future is mostly fixed. It changes by degrees, over a long-time horizon. That’s normal. But, when it changes drastically in the moment, that’s when the trouble starts.”

Greene makes the point that what feels good in the moment can, and often does, lead to disaster.

“Our generation is bombarded with daily temptation our fathers and grandfathers couldn’t even fathom,” Greene said.

“Things like Tinder, Ashley Madison, legalized drugs and/or on-line porn & gambling. Can you imagine trying to explain Tinder to your grandfather? These are the temptations we face every day. Temptations intended to distract you from what is good and true. To make you stray from your chosen path. To make you question what you want.”

Life is difficult enough without creating extra burdens.

Spend time visualizing what you want your life to be and then discipline yourself to make all of the little decisions that it takes to make that life your reality. That’s not always easy — but avoiding disastrous outcomes often means avoiding moments and habits that can predictably lead to potential disaster.

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