“When I am anxious it is because I am living in the future ... when I am depressed it is because I am living in the past” - Anonymous
Why do we find it so hard to focus on what is right in front of us. I find myself in this conundrum on a daily basis. When you’re sitting at the office and have nothing to do but think (well, you actually have a ton to do, but you wind up just sitting) one inevitably removes themselves from their current situation, place and time, and shifts to yesterday or tomorrow.
Shifting focus into yesterday brings about most often regret. Things we wish we did or didn’t do. There is no way to avoid this. Many times things happen that are the direct result, of us being in a place and time, and we wish we could simply go back and be elsewhere and in a different time. But, that invariably carries a sense of depression and regret as well. I could say I wish I glued myself to my chair in the library during undergrad and I’d be a rocket scientist by now, but how many great experiences would have been missed by not making oneself available to a variety of experiences at that time.
The worse part of reflecting on the past is not the regret of things done, but rather the regret of things that were left undone. That girl you should have asked out, or that time you didn’t pull the trigger on a business opportunity staring you in the face. This, as far as I’m concerned, is the style of reflection that really gets you down. You are powerless to know what the result may have been if you’d taken that leap and you have no way of ever getting back to that place, to take that chance.
On the other hand, pondering the future is exciting stuff. It is an opportunity to start over, to make ‘the right moves’. In the future you’ll take advantage of all those perceived missed opportunities from the past, and to avoid the scenarios that led to poor outcomes. It’s a time to set lofty goals.
Thinking about the future allows us to become the person that we wanted to be to avoid those depressing, regretful moments from the past. We’re going to take the bull by the horns, make opportunities happen, take the ones presented to us, and live a more enlightened existence. This time the changes are really going to stick!
The problem with all of this is that there is no past and there is no future. The future is NOW and by the time you’ve read this sentence it is in the past. What the hell does that mean? Well it means that any positive changes that you are going to make in the ‘future’ need to happen right NOW. And anything that happened in the ‘past’ is completely irrelevant because NOW is the only thing that is tangible. To truly grow and make lasting changes, one has to grasp that the only time that we conceivably have control over is the moment that we are currently existing within.
Worrying about the past robs today of its strength, and sitting around cogitating about next week only wastes precious moments that could be used to right course and start on your true path from this moment.
Experience living in the now; start to see the ‘forest for the trees’. Appreciate moments, and be empowered in all the moments of life, and your true path will reveal itself.
Adam R. Steinhoff
Defined Presence Blog
Comments
Post has no comments.