Quote of the Day: Charles F. Kettering on Time & Perspective

Mid-February has a particular mood: winter is still here, but the days are unmistakably lengthening. You can feel the year leaning forward, asking for small decisions that will matter later, what you practice, what you tolerate, what you plan. That’s why Charles F. Kettering’s line lands so cleanly: “My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there”.

It reads like a clever quip until you let its logic corner you. If the future is the only place your next hour, next conversation, and next opportunity can occur, then “someday” isn’t a distant country, it’s your permanent address. The quote doesn’t ask you to predict what’s coming; it asks you to take ownership of what you’re building.

Kettering quietly reframes nostalgia as a leak in your agency. It’s fine to remember, but dangerous to live there. The practical move is to treat your choices like prototypes: run a small experiment, gather feedback, iterate. Instead of asking, “What will happen to me?” ask, “What can I make more likely?” That shift reduces anxiety and increases resilience, because you stop waiting for certainty and start creating traction.

Charles F. Kettering earned the right to talk this way. He helped invent the electric starter and rose to become Vice President of General Motors, turning applied imagination into products that changed daily life.

February 14 is Valentine’s Day, a reminder that the future isn’t just a career plan, it’s also the relationships you’ll inhabit. Today, pick one area, health, work, or love, and do one concrete act of investment: schedule the appointment, outline the next project step, or send an honest message you’ve been postponing. Make it small enough to finish, and meaningful enough to matter, then walk into tomorrow with courage.