For those who experience the occasional fear-of-missing-out—and who doesn’t—I recommend this essay by Jeanne Proust. Her perspective, grounded in The Possible and The Real by Henri Bergson, is worth your time and focus. While the conclusion is shareable, it will only resonate if you read the entire piece.

We should more radically let go of the assumptions behind FOMO…by changing our perception of what time and free will really are. Bergson’s freedom — durational, personal and creative — invites us to intuitively grasp the unforeseeable newness that our perpetually evolving personality brings with itself at every instant. That here and now in the making should not be just the object of a healthy, humble resignation; it should be the occasion of perpetual marvel.

Bergson rejected the idea of a tree of possibilities and the angst that it generates in us: There are no such things as missed opportunities, as “dead” branches left behind, as futures renounced. So say goodbye to the incapacitating shoulda, coulda, woulda obsession. And be amazed at the continual creation of unpredictable novelty.

We can only move forward with intent, not make believe.