Time is a created thing. To say “I don’t have time” is to say “I don’t want to”.— Lao Tzu
American psychologist Philip Zimbardo theorizes that human beings live in 6 different time zones.
2 Focus On The Past
Some people are Past Positive: they focus on the good old days, happy family rituals of the past. They are about keeping the past alive through storytelling and whatnot.
While some others are Past Negative: they focus on the negative things from the past — in such a way that the past continues to influence the present in a negative way.
2 Focus On The Present
Some people are Present Positive: they are about enjoying life at the moment, hedonistically.
While some others are Present Negative: these people are not having a good time in the present. And they're fatalistic.
2 Focus On The Future
Some people are Future Positive. They're future-oriented, optimistically. They believe that better things will come to pass in the times ahead.
While some others are Future Negative: these people worry about the future. They torment themselves thinking that things will go worse as time goes on.
Whether We Know It Or Not
Each decision we make is influenced by such time perspectives. While the time perspectives themselves are influenced by geography, culture, social class, etc.
"We all begin life as Present-Oriented Hedonists," Zimbardo said. And that we suck milk from the mother's breasts in the early stage of life. But when we go to school, we get transformed into Future-Oriented People. And that, in order to survive, we have to see the future and then make predictions about it as best we could.