The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

The Farsighted Human
Most of us live within a relatively narrow time frame. We generally
associate the passage of time with something negative—aging and
moving closer to death. Instinctively we recoil from thinking too deeply
about the future and the past, for this reminds us of the passage of
time. In relation to the future we may try to think about our plans a
year or two from now, but our thinking is more like a daydream, a
wish, than deep analysis. In relation to the past we may have a few
fond or painful memories from childhood and later years, but in
general the past baffles us. We change so much with each passing year
that who we were five, ten, twenty years ago might seem like a stranger
to us. We don’t really have a cohesive sense of who we are, a feeling of
connection between the five-year-old and thirty-five-year-old versions
of ourselves.
Not wanting to go too far in either direction, we mostly live within
the present. We react to what we see and hear and to what others are
reacting to. We live for immediate pleasures to distract us from the
passage of time and make us feel more alive. But we pay a price for all
this. Repressing the thought of death and aging creates a continual
underlying anxiety. We are not coming to terms with reality.
Continually reacting to events in the present puts us on a roller coaster
ride—up and down we go with each change in fortune. This can only
add to our anxiety, as life seems to pass so quickly in the immediate
rush of events.
Your task as a student of human nature, and someone aspiring to
reach the greater potential of the human animal, is to widen your
relationship to time as much as possible, and slow it down. This means
you do not see the passage of time as an enemy but rather as a great
ally. Each stage in life has its advantages—those of youth are most
obvious, but with age comes greater perspective. Aging does not
frighten you. Death is equally your friend (see chapter 18). It motivates
you to make the most of each moment; it gives you a sense of urgency.
Time is your great teacher and master. This affects you deeply in the
present. Awareness that a year from now this current problem you are
experiencing will hardly seem so important will help you lower your
anxiety and adjust your priorities. Knowing that time will reveal the
weaknesses of your plans, you become more careful and deliberative
with them.

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In relation to the future, you think deeply about your long-term
goals. They are not vague dreams but concrete objectives, and you have
mapped out a path to reach them. In relation to the past, you feel a
deep sense of connection to your childhood. Yes, you are constantly
changing, but these changes are on the surface and create the illusion
of real change. In fact, your character was set in your earliest years (see
chapter 4), along with your inclinations toward certain activities, your
likes and dislikes. As you get older, this character only becomes more
apparent. Feeling organically connected to who you were in the past
gives you a strong sense of identity. You know what you like and
dislike, you know who you are. This will help you maintain your self-
love, which is so critical in resisting the descent into deep narcissism
and in helping you to develop empathy (see chapter 2). Also, you will
pay greater attention to the mistakes and lessons of the past, which
those who are locked in the present tend to repress.
Like everyone, you enjoy the present and its passing pleasures. You
are not a monk. You connect to the trends of the moment and to the
current flow of life. But you derive even greater pleasure from reaching
your long-term goals and overcoming adversity. This expanded
relationship to time will have a definite effect on you. It will make you
calmer, more realistic, more in tune with the things that matter. It will
also make you a superior strategist in life, able to resist people’s
inevitable overreactions to what is happening in the present and to see
further into the future, a potential power that we humans have only
begun to tap into.
The years teach much which the days never know.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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L