Author encourages thinking ahead for a positive future

Author Bina Venkataraman explained why it’s important to plan for future personal and societal success during a Zoom seminar on Sept. 30.

The event was held to promote Venkataraman’s book, “The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age.” Through her research and writing of her book, Venkataraman found that planning for the long-term future was increasingly important for one’s well-being and happiness. 

Venkataraman became interested in optimism and looking towards a positive future while serving as a senior advisor for climate change in the White House during Barack Obama’s presidency. While speaking to large corporations about their actions regarding climate change and ways to combat it, she began to become frustrated with how individuals were unable to imagine and plan for the future. This caused them to be unwilling to change their actions that could benefit the environment in the long-term.

Journalist David Boardman, who introduced Venkataraman to the audience prior to her seminar, said that she gave readers and attendees many ways to take action in their own lives. 

“[She talks] about some very low-tech ways, such as writing a letter, or the exercise of closing your eyes and imaging as well as some technological tools that could help us with [imagining a positive future],” Boardman said of Venkataraman’s advice to the audience. 

Venkataraman began her presentation by having attendees close their eyes, take a few minutes to imagine their life in 25 years and write down what they saw, which Venkataraman said was an important part of planning for the future.

“I want to acknowledge what might be an elephant in the Zoom room so-to-speak, is that it might still feel kind of strange to talk about long term thinking at a time of such urgent crisis,” Venkataraman said. “Virtually everyone I know is going through some sort of trauma because of the pandemic, whether it involves being separated from loved ones, losing people to COVID, losing jobs, losing benefits [or] losing childcare.” 

Venkataraman stated that while many people become cynical or feel as though they are unable to  imagine or plan for the future, we as humans must bridge the gap between lack of planning and planning for the future. In order to combat this, she said that we must plan our lives for the future and think of generations to come. According to Venkataraman, through these plans and imaginations we have, humans may be able to stop climate change.

When we have a lot of immediate demands on our attention, according to Venkataraman, it can be an inherent barrier to long term thinking. 

“Long-term thinking in a time when the near future looks scary and murky,” Venkataraman said, “we don’t know what’s going to happen on Election Day; we don’t know when this pandemic is going to abate, when we’ll have a vaccine, [having] that kind of anxiety about the near-term future. But casting our gaze a little bit further, imagining a time frame we don’t usually allow [ourselves] to escape to, can be a form of relief, and may even [be] anchoring and comforting.”