End-of-History Illusion

“Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to ones awareness of ones ignorance.”

Everyone thinks that the bulk of their personal growth and change is behind them. It is extremely difficult for humans to predict the growth and change that they might experience within the next 10 years. Rather than seeing yourself as a work in progress with years and years of growth ahead, you see your present self as a finished product that will experience little significant future growth.

This is the End of History Illusion.

A study was done in 2013 that took the perceptions of multiple people at multiple ages. Each person was asked to recall the changes they underwent in the previous 10 years. Then, they were asked to predict what their life would look like in the next 10 years.

According to the study, participants consistently expected their preferences and lifestyle to remain rather unchanged over the next 10 years. Their predictions of what would be different 10 years from the present was much less variable than what had actually changed in the 10 years leading up to the present moment.

Here’s the point:

YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU WILL AMOUNT TO.

You will consistently underpredict what your future will be like. You think that your life won’t change much in the next 10 years because to you it seems like it hasn’t changed much in the last 10 years. But when you really break it down, your life has changed drastically in 10 years.

Your potential is unknown. Your future is unpredictable. You have no idea where you will end up.

You like to think that you will be in the same place as you are now because that sounds comfortable. It sounds likely in your mind because you don’t know anything different.

10 years is a lot of time. When I think back to the changes that I have experienced even within the last year, I am surprised. Would I predict myself to have that many changes within the next year? Not even close.

Life gets depressing because of the End of History Illusion.

When you feel like you have already lived through the most significant parts of your life, why would you wanna keep living?

Many people feel this way. That is why there is a cloud that follows them through their life that they can’t seem to chase away. They get so deep into this mindset that they can’t even recognize the growth that they have experienced. They get stuck in believing their future is insignificant and stagnant.

The people who are the happiest and most optimistic are the people who recognize the drastic changes that have happened over the last 10 years and are excited to see how the rest of the story pans out.

The study done on the End of History Illusion makes you aware that it is natural to believe you’ve already lived through the best years of your life. But now you know that this is not true, that’s why it is called an ILLUSION.

Quit believing the best has passed.

Be excited for what is to come.

Don’t believe your story has ended.

There is so much more left in the plot.

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Thank you for reading!

My goal is to inspire self-improvement in others through my personal stories and experiences.

This is The Exploration.