[TheOwl]

Think of how you usually are and of personal situations.

 

[LotusBlossom]

Ideally, one should live in a mix of both, because IMO the whole 'living in the future' thing that a lot of Ns on this forum, esp Ni users, keep going on about is massively overrated. It won't be so bad if they didn't discount 'living in the present' so much or look down on it so much. Think about it, if you are so fixated on the future, you will never really get 'there', because by the time you get 'there', you're already going off again fixating, and working towards 'the future'. It's like a constant moving goalpost; never stopping to enjoy what you've anticipated because you never allow yourself to feel that attainment.

when I was younger, I used to live very much in the present. Now I'm not so sure.

p.s. i accidentally voted for the wrong answer, sorry

 

[TheOwl]

Ideally, one should live in a mix of both, because IMO the whole 'living in the future' thing that a lot of Ns on this forum, esp Ni users, keep going on about is massively overrated. It won't be so bad if they didn't discount 'living in the present' so much or look down on it so much. Think about it, if you are so fixated on the future, you will never really get 'there', because by the time you get 'there', you're already going off again fixating on the future. It's like a constant moving goalpost; never stopping to enjoy what you've anticipated.

when I was younger, I used to live very much in the present. Now I'm not so sure.

That's exactly how I think. I started to wonder if I was less intuitive because of it. Then I wondered if I'm only so live-in-the-present because I'm a perceiver and don't like to make decisions before I have to.
When I was younger, I spent all my time thinking about the future and how it would be better than the present and then becoming depressed when nothing ever changed despite all my plans. I spent way too much time waiting around and fantasizing. Now it's difficult for me to think of the future because I trust my plans will go awry.

edit: I just took a test for the first time in a long while, trying to see if I could come up as a sensor. I got ENFP. lol Wtf.

 

[Anubis]

I'm really working on staying in the present more, but I tend to always be off worrying about my future and coming up with ideas that won't go anywhere.

 

[LibertyPrime]

:\ don't know I live in the past, present and the future...it really depends on the situation. i could be daydreaming or working or remembering something (nostalgia).

 

[Blazy]

still not too sure of my type, but i did take the mbti and the results are in my sig. anyway, i voted that i'm an NP and i do live in the future. but "future" in this context is vague. i believe that "possibilities" is the most precise term. i live around endless possibitilies, constantly generating possibilities ranging from practical to extremely weird that even a meth addict will think it's weird. but yes, i sometimes to think about the future and it's enjoyable. my ISTJ friend doesn't mind "visiting" the future as well, since he loves to discuss topics that a stereotypical INTP would talk about and a stereotypical ISTJ would NOT talk about.

 

[basementbugs]

Why no 'past' option? I'd choose it if there was.

I suppose I exist in the present more than the future, but that's simply because I gave up on the future long ago. I don't call what I do living exactly... more just 'being' or 'existing', as I said before. Sometimes I think about the future, I suppose -- though usually only in the context of dreading it and worrying about it, or fantasising about what I wish it could be (in a fairly non-realistic manner).

I dunno, maybe it's many years of depression speaking, but I truly do live in the past. Live in the past, exist in the present, dread/daydream about the future (with far more dreading than daydreaming).

 

[counterintuitive]

Ideally, one should live in a mix of both, because IMO the whole 'living in the future' thing that a lot of Ns on this forum, esp Ni users, keep going on about is massively overrated. It won't be so bad if they didn't discount 'living in the present' so much or look down on it so much. Think about it, if you are so fixated on the future, you will never really get 'there', because by the time you get 'there', you're already going off again fixating, and working towards 'the future'. It's like a constant moving goalpost; never stopping to enjoy what you've anticipated because you never allow yourself to feel that attainment.

I've heard this point a lot, but for me, living in a mix of both is far from ideal. I get the most happiness from the process of solving a problem, not the solution itself; the process of developing an idea from potential to reality, not the completed reality itself. I don't live in the future either, I live in a reasonably large set of possible futures. That inspires me and keeps me going. It doesn't matter if I've already moved on to the next idea by the time I finish the first one, if I finish it at all, because my joy in life is mostly centred around the idea's potential and not the finished product itself. To me, trying to "enjoy" what I anticipated is stagnation -- not enjoyable at all.

That said, I'm referring exclusively to possible futures that I want. Envisioning a terrible (or even just bad) future gets me depressed and hopeless really fast.

Our different views here seem to centre around the phrase "stopping to enjoy what you've anticipated", and are probably a result of our different perceiving functions. You're Se-Ni, and they're your middle functions, so it makes sense that you'd be able to live in a mix of both present and future quite comfortably. I'm probably perception-dominant, probably Ne, so it makes sense that I'd view standing still trying to enjoy what I've anticipated as stagnation. It pushes me more to the inferior.

Anyway, I'm not sure there is one best way or one ideal, except perhaps an ideal for each perceiving function set (Se-Ni / Ne-Si) or each person, even.

 

[Stephen]

Our different views here seem to centre around the phrase "stopping to enjoy what you've anticipated", and are probably a result of our different perceiving functions. You're Se-Ni, and they're your middle functions, so it makes sense that you'd be able to live in a mix of both present and future quite comfortably. I'm probably perception-dominant, probably Ne, so it makes sense that I'd view standing still trying to enjoy what I've anticipated as stagnation. It pushes me more to the inferior.

I think you're confusing Ne with Ni. Ne is present-focused, and object-focused, like Se. If you're curious about my opinion, you sound like a Ni user.

 

[LotusBlossom]

I've heard this point a lot, but for me, living in a mix of both is far from ideal. I get the most happiness from the process of solving a problem, not the solution itself; the process of developing an idea from potential to reality, not the completed reality itself. I don't live in the future either, I live in a reasonably large set of possible futures. That inspires me and keeps me going. It doesn't matter if I've already moved on to the next idea by the time I finish the first one, if I finish it at all, because my joy in life is mostly centred around the idea's potential and not the finished product itself. To me, trying to "enjoy" what I anticipated is stagnation -- not enjoyable at all.

That said, I'm referring exclusively to possible futures that I want. Envisioning a terrible (or even just bad) future gets me depressed and hopeless really fast.

Our different views here seem to centre around the phrase "stopping to enjoy what you've anticipated", and are probably a result of our different perceiving functions. You're Se-Ni, and they're your middle functions, so it makes sense that you'd be able to live in a mix of both present and future quite comfortably. I'm probably perception-dominant, probably Ne, so it makes sense that I'd view standing still trying to enjoy what I've anticipated as stagnation. It pushes me more to the inferior.

Anyway, I'm not sure there is one best way or one ideal, except perhaps an ideal for each perceiving function set (Se-Ni / Ne-Si) or each person, even.

Your view on this matter is also very consistent with the E7 fixation.

 

[Neon Knight]

Most likely xSFP. Not confident enough to chose without skewing the results.

I force myself to live in present as much as I can with only a short a glance towards the future because it's crazy to do otherwise right now. Anything can change or come up and you have to be ready for those, otherwise fogetaboudit.

 

[counterintuitive]

I think you're confusing Ne with Ni. Ne is present-focused, and object-focused, like Se. If you're curious about my opinion, you sound like a Ni user.

Ne is present-focused in the sense it is stimulated from the present, like Se. But as far as I understand it, the Ne user's mind leaves the present fairly quickly because of cross-contextual thinking. Ne kind of has infinite limbs, and has one limb in each context the Ne user has experienced in life, not just in the present. It spans space and time (ETA2: I should've said Si spans space and time, not Ne, but they work together). But as you suggest, I might be misunderstanding Ne.

Thanks for your opinion. If I'm an Ni user, I must be misunderstanding Ni too, because I don't relate to it at all. The Ni-Se set sounds totally foreign to me.

 

[Impermanence]

I live in the present moment because the future comes soon enough as it is.

 

[placeholder]

I live in the future. I'm actually having one of my robot assistants type this for me because I'm exhausted from drag racing in my floating muscle car. My droogs are always laughing at me because they think it's weird I don't just beam myself from place to place but I have a passion for classic hot rods from the 2020's and so I'm always fixing them up with anti-gravity nucleo-solar-getic mega turbines and racing them across the dystopian metropolis I live in.

 

[Kito]

I really don't like thinking of the future. It makes me feel very uncomfortable and saddened. I don't dislike change, but I don't deliberately initiate it. I guess I like the world around me to change, but for my little bubble to stay as it is. xD

 

[sleepyhead]

Most of my life I've typically been stuck in the future, but as a type 5 it often manifests as "I want to be out of this class/job/seminar so I can be at home in my safe space!" I've struggled a lot with convincing myself I don't have enough energy to make it through and just quitting and withdrawing. In the last 2 years I've been much more present moment focused and it's been a glorious change. I mutli-task a lot less, but it's a good change.

So most of my life, I've been a future thinker. I hope for the rest of my life to be a present thinker (meaning I don't ignore the future, but plan a little less and take things as they come).

 

[HandiAce]

My mind is either in the future or past, but never plans for the future. Only the present.

 

[electricky]

I don't live in the future so much as I live for the future. I don't do much planning of the future except maybe making outlines sometimes and daydreaming. So I live in the moment that way, handling stuff as it arises, but I'm rarely really fully present.

 

[Aelthwyn]

well I selected live in the moment, but that's not exactly accurate. For me it's more like.....live in some imaginary alternate reality.

I don't really plan for the future, I don't really think about the future. I have various ideas about ways I might like the future to be, but they are generall vague and I'm not really set on any of them. I'm pretty content wherever I happen to be as long as I can still be myself and can spend much of my time in my head rather than paying attention to the physical present. However, when I do engage the physical world I am much more about enjoying the current moment than working on any long range plans.

Now...that said, I'm not someone who just jumps into everything without thought of consequences. I certainly weight the consequences and pull in the reigns on impulse when there's risk involved, but I don't naturally plan and live for a future moment. I react to the present moment, and enjoy it as best I can. My speculations about the future are merely theortical hypotheses of the possible repercussions of what's going on now - 'this might lead to that' 'this will probably result in that' but it's not like I'm particularly attached to any of the specualtions coming into actuality. I just wait and see what happens - unless of course I forsee a possiblity for disaster - then I get all anxious and scramble around trying to prevent that.

 

[Owfin]

You can live in the moment?