Look Forward, Mostly
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. – Henry David Thoreau
There’s a reason why the windshield is so much larger than the rear-view mirror.
Ever think about why the rear-view mirror isn’t larger in a car?
Probably not, because it’s just about the right size.
We can learn a lot from the proportions.
The rear-view mirror in a car is, if I had to guess, five percent or less of its corresponding windshield.
And it works just fine.
When we drive we spend most of our time looking forward through the windshield, focused on what’s coming up.
We don’t concern ourselves – all that much – with what’s way ahead of us. We know that if we take good care of the next two-to-ten seconds of what’s ahead, we’ll be just fine.
Unless there’s something very wrong, like an accident or some-such, we don’t bother with what’s way ahead other than to occasionally glance ahead and check for big problems.
S0 should we live our lives:
Spending no more than five percent of our time on the past, glancing ahead to the “future” only occasionally and spending the vast majority of time focused on what’s right in front of us.