Living vs Achieving

The paradox: we know that the "right thing to do" is to think long-term, which tends to be a costly upfront sacrifice, but it incurs the greater benefit (and less heartache and loss) in the future through less living now.
As a slave to the future we increasingly aggregate metrics on a weekly, daily, or hourly basis. Our new "living in the present" is the hyper-granular metrics of productive achievement for the future.

And yes, getting 1% better daily, aggregating marginal gains, and system optimization can get you to your goal. But even if you have to schedule it in, put down your system and return to the land of the living at least once a day.

attention awareness behavior belief change choice contradiction control creativity death desire ego empathy fear forgiveness freedom goals growth happiness identity individuality insight knowledge language life love nature pain perspective politics power present psychology purpose rationality reality reason responsibility self society stress time truth value work