We can never start from scratch

Because the brain seeks straight lines and struggles with nonlinear relationships many of us envisage the planning process to be navigating the shortest route between the present and the future. We seek to change or maintain our current circumstances in the short, medium and long-term by following a linear path to our destination of choice. We tend to simplify things to fit our model of thinking by reducing the number of variables under consideration to those relating directly to where we are and where we want to be. 

The influence of the past

Unfortunately, many of us fall short of our goals and remain stuck in the unwanted present since we have not paid sufficient attention to those nonlinear relationships. We have mentally nullified the ongoing influence of the past on the present and in turn the future. In other words, we have applied the principle of causality (our experience that one thing leads to another selectively by making it applicable from our current vantage point (the present) only. In doing so we have neglected the effects of previous actions from ourselves and others which may still be on their way to influence our present circumstances, and in turn our future. An example is purchasing a bargain-priced car before setting off on a road trip. Our travelling plans may be in perfect order, but the past is bound to spoil our journey when we least expect it.

Attempting to control the future, or causing something to happen thus creates correlations between the doer and the effect, not only from the present to the future, but also from the past to the present. This knock-on effect cannot be reversed since we cannot move backward in time, only forward in line with the ‘arrow of time’.

The directional flow of causality

This directional flow of causality has a critical consequence for our future planning process: we can never start from a clean slate since the results of our previous actions (and those of others) are always in play. All our visions of the future and strategies to attain them are inextricably linked to the combined outcomes of previous plans and actions from ourselves and others. Technically we can start from scratch only once in a lifetime, the moment of conception from where cause and effect become increasingly compounded. Yet even at conception there had been no initial act from us, only causation in line with the omnipresent nature of change. The implication for the future planning process is that the straight line is in fact a feedback loop. The multiple effects of previous causes (known and unknown) feed back to our present circumstances where they influence how we plan and act. In other words: the outcomes of our plans (future) are captured as memories (past) which we rely on to act (present).

Accessing the past and the future

The directional flow of time influences more than just our future planning process, it represents our experience of reality. We experience our daily existence as a continuous movement from the known to the unknown – from remembering the past to imagining the future. We realise we cannot change the past but feel we can influence the future. The missing link between the two is the present – the only place from where the past and future can seemingly be accessed.

ge and development. Annual Review of Psychology. Vol. 50: 361-86. Available: Accessed: 13 March