Poor. Choices.

I’ve been feeling a bit nostalgic lately.

Maybe it’s the holidays. Maybe it’s the old video game I’ve recently picked back up. Maybe it’s my back pain.

Whatever it is, it’s got me longing for a simpler time.

But did such a time ever exist?

Or is it best summed up in 6 words sang by Carly Simon in her 1975 hit, Anticipation: “These are the good old days.”

These are the good old days. Right here. Right now.

This simple sentence is powerful. It immediately forces a perspective shift. It orients every thought to three timelines: the past, present, and future.

But as creatures addicted to thinking, it’s easy to spend all day lost in thought, unaware of where you are right now.

With just a little bit of mindfulness, you’ll quickly recognize that almost all thoughts can be categorized in three ways: remembering the past, evaluating the present, and preparing for the future.

Remembering your last vacation and if you unplugged the curling iron.

Evaluating if you like the song playing and the weather outside

Preparing for whose turn it is to pick the baby up from day care and planning for your partner’s birthday.

But this one phrase seems to transcend all 3 states of mind.

It instantly reminds you of a pleasurable yet bygone era of your life, while forcing you to be grateful for your circumstances right now, because in the future you will feel about this moment the way you currently feel about the past.

And in this mindset, gratitude and appreciation come easy.

This is the sweet spot where financial freedom can be found, because mental freedom has been found.

If you have all your basic necessities met, this perspective shift can instantly cause most other forms of dissatisfaction to dissipate.

Even in the throes of conflict or loss or stress, you can appreciate the fact that in 10 years time you will be a stronger, more resilient person because of this challenge.

Simply think back to a similar challenge from 10 years ago and confirm the growth that was born of it.

It’s natural to want to improve your life and have things go well in the future and to own nice things. In fact, if everyone sat around perfectly satisfied with the way the world is, we’d never have social, cultural, or technological progress.

But way too often this frustration with the present can cause us to try to change our circumstances rather than our relation to them. And changing our circumstances is usually expensive.

And once you buy the new car, or go through the expensive divorce, or move and give up your 3% mortgage, you’ll simply move the goal post forward because it’s a never ending game. All humans do it all the time.

It’s what powers the most complicated and beautiful machine in the world.

But by remembering that you once wanted everything you now have, you will spend less money, enjoy your time more, and be less likely to think you need the salary of a hedge fund manager to be happy.

Invoke this phrase the next time you are scrolling through Zillow, walking the new car lot, or trying to decide which restaurant to dine at and see if it doesn’t save you some money and cause you to smile just a little bit.