I don’t want to make it sound the way everyone around you keeps telling you to live in the present. 

You are already aware of it, what you are not aware of, is the extent of difference it really can bring to your well being.

 When something that is lectured by almost every other person, it loses the impact.

To preach something that you already know but just that you don’t discipline it, is something that you feel boring to hear. And living in the present is one such overly heard good advice that despite being of paramount importance, it is not taken seriously.

BUT WHY?

Wise things that can up level your life are not new to you, it’s just that you are caged into a certain way of thinking and living life, that you fail to bring a change, even the one that can benefit you.

Besides things that you do for your survival, practicing living life by just focusing on the present turns out to be a major miss. Simply because it demands You from You.

Yes, to live life in a certain way that can enhance your well being requires an effort to bring the shift. And the effort needs a strong trigger.

Writing this blog post,  I intend to bring you closer to the hindrances that each one of us feel while we strive for the right way of living.

But my words will remain words if you do not stimulate and convert them into action.

SO WHO ARE YOU? PAST, PRESENT OR FUTURE!

The person you were in the past has no existence now and the person you will be in the future has not yet been born, what you are, is simply the Present.

Despite this physical existence in the present, you are stuck either in the past or you keep hopping in the future.

A life well spent is what a life well lived is and not the one just imagined ~thelocksandkeys.com

The “truth” that I woke up to very late  but happy that I’m awake. Your imaginations are never invalid, what’s invalid is when you sit with  them. They will continue to stand still in your mind where you started them, if you do not start for them!

Before I guide you to understand why living in the present is hard and how to make it a little less harder, I want you to dive a little deeper with me to know why it is even important to live in your  present.

WHAT DOES LIVING IN THE PRESENT HOLD  THAT MAKES IT SO IMPORTANT?

Beautiful awakening lines by Alan Watts will give you a fine understanding of why living in the present is the only key to having a great life.

 “For if we open our eyes and see clearly, it becomes obvious that there is no other time than this instant, and that the past and the future are abstractions without any concrete reality. 

Until this has become clear, it seems that our life is all past and future, and that the present is nothing more than the infinitesimal hairline which divides them. From this comes the sensation of ‘having no time,’ of a world which hurries by so rapidly that it is gone before we can enjoy it. But through ‘awakening to the instant’ one sees that this is the reverse of the truth: it is rather the past and future which are the fleeting illusions, and the present which is eternally real.

If anything that can give you what you want in your future it is only your Present and what you do with it.

What’s already created or what you will Create is all taken charge by what you are creating in the present.

The present is the only real existence of time that gives you the authority to take hold of and design what you want. 

How important living in the Present is, is beautifully said by John C. Maxwell in these lines

“The greatest of all miracles is that we need not be tomorrow what we are today, the greatest of all insights is that we cannot be tomorrow what we do not do today. That is why Today matters”

If you look into these three states, the Present, Future and Past by relating them to three stages of a Product, you will come up with a clear  understanding of what plays the key role to a great Future.

 Past being the old product cannot be altered ever. All the wrong ingredients added, all the errors made while making it will remain unchangeable.

 All that you can now work on is making a New and a Better product, The future. And what’s  needed for this is quality and better raw material, the Present. 

The more you emphasize and focus on raw material and collecting the best ingredients, the better the new product will turn out.

So what makes the Future, the brand new product great one?

Only the one who invests in learning from the errors of old products, and focuses on the quality of raw material, works on making the best product is sure to deliver a great new product.

WHY HAS LIVING IN THE PRESENT BECOME SO CHALLENGING?

Why is it even hard to live in the present that you have right in front of you, the one that exists?Despite knowing all the good it can bring to you, you fail to implement it.

Well, Human mind is in a constant process of longing for having everything better than the present and this keeps it glued to something that is not created yet, The Future. 

You keep racing in your imaginations to visualize a future you wish to see but fail to race it in your present, where lies the  entire control to shape a great future.

As the famous quote by Ryan Holiday goes,

“Being present demands all of us.  It’s not nothing.  It may be the hardest thing in the world.”

Lecturing you to live in the present will not push you to  practice it in Life, especially when your Present is what you don’t want to be in. The present that is not aligned as per your imaginations.

There are times, when your present comes up with a challenging situation that you are not prepared for and the pioneering thought that crops up  in such a demanding Present is, Escape.

You turn out to be a newcomer to such a demanding present that longing for a future that can comfort you, is all that you start chasing for.

The problem is not that you are ignorant of how life is lived, what  hinders you  to still not live in the present, is because your mind is clenched with thoughts of how you wish life to be.

How good it was comparatively from the time now is one aspect that keeps you clung to the past and how bad it was is another that haunts you for life. But then Past was supposed to just take the learning from and not dwell in it.

And when it comes to future, The attribute “desire” to have something that you have not yet had is more powerful than the contentment of having what you desired back then.

This is what keeps you chasing the future.

It’s hard to make yourself stop dwelling in the past or worrying for the future because your mind, without seeking your permission, involuntarily keeps imagining things you long to have in life. It loves to fantasize and keep dancing in the La La land but fails to summon up an action to finally dance there.

No mentoring can bring a shift, until and unless you are not shaken by this misleading way of living life.No matter how great a life can turn if you understand and believe the philosophy of living in the present, you still will be captivated by the future and drawn off and on into your past.

Despite the non-existence of the past and future, you will find yourself trapped in them.

And the only reason  is, Human minds fail to settle for the things they have!

Mind is never at rest. Rather than giving it the tasks to plan things for the future or repair things from the past, it keeps fantasizing about the future and lamenting over the past.

And this is how the great Future and beautiful past  fails to build.

The tragedy of humans is that their belief system rests upon an imagination that the Future brings Fortune. And this is what makes you overlook the Present that actually holds everything in it to create that Fortune.

MY FINDING OF PRESENT

I look back in life, and what I find is I too was caged for the longest of time in this almost an ailment of not living in the present.

Either regretting over things not done right in the past or hoping things to go perfect in the future was what I had stuffed my Life with.

My imaginations had no boundaries and the sad part was, they did not know that just imagining would not make me live them.

I was bound to a thought process that if I’m believing things, I’ll see them happen just by hoping for them. And that’s what kept me lagging behind for a period.

I somehow now perceive my older versions with a better understanding and figure out, more than half of my sorrow was born not out of my Life but the way I imagined it to be.

I dwelt in a world, imagining  Life would carve, grow and prosper the way I imagined it to. 

Waking up to a different world, I realized:

•  Life is Now, and never then.
•  Life is what you make and not what you think
• Life does not give you Happiness, you fill life with Happiness.
• Life is not what you get but what you give.
• Life shines if you shine.
• Life becomes great only if you make the moment best.

Now when I look around, I find almost the whole world losing its  present while it’s  busy chasing the future or still roaming in the past.

A person in the Present moaning over a bad past and sitting to hope for a great future, is completely responsible for another Present like the same one again.

3  RULES TO FOCUS ON TO LIVE IN THE PRESENT

1. Future holds nothing if you do not hold anything for it.

It will come, become your present and leave you just as the same past  if you continue to sit at your window.

Present is the action that precedes a grand Future only if it is honestly focused on, worked on.

No matter how hard your present is, you cannot expect a massive change in your future if you do not bring the change in your present.

If you look at life, all you have is present and everything else is just in the head and it will continue to be there if you do not shift the focus on action.

2. Future is not a gift, the Past is not a waste and the Present is never permanent

Future is not a gift, rather a reward for how well you went with your present. 

Sabotaging programming that your belief system of hoping great things to come up by themselves has hardwired in you, is the first baby step towards the future you wish to have.

 Future will not show you something different if you are continuing to show the same You to the Present.

It’s the price you pay in your present to make the future your prized possession.

No matter if you performed well or not, experience is always a gain. But if you lose the experience, it turns out to be a waste.

Your past is your experience that can aid you to redesign a better future. 

Your future is not some day in years to come but the very next moment that you are entering into.

In just a wink of an eye, your future is served as your present.

Once you wash away the layer of your preconceived notion piled up by your ignorant belief system , you will realize every present moment is spontaneously being replaced by  Future. 

Tomorrow will be a different Today if you make Today different and better than yesterday!

3. What you do with your Present, Future will do it for you.

 If you are living with the myth that the Universe conspires your future, you gotta break it before it breaks you.

Universe conspires only that you work for.

Life will not  grow or prosper, until we do not!

Until and unless you do not make your Present valuable , your future will not carry any value for you

Bringing the shift will not be easy but it will ease your life manifolds.

Start your concious living in the moment that you have right in front of you and have the entire control on. Shape it and see yourself  in a better tomorrow and best Future.