Nothing is better or worse than this moment because this moment is the only one that truly exists.
As is noted and quoted frequently, “the past is gone and the future has not yet happened” – therefore the only true moment we have is right now, this moment, this second, this experience. Nothing else matters.
So with this knowledge, I empower you to ask yourself –
what is your action?
Are you going to keep living in the past? Are you hoping to bring a certain moment back so you can relive that same experience? or are you desperately hoping for a “re-do” so you can take the knowledge you have been given and with that you can handle a situation differently. (Ahhh wouldn’t that be nice?!)
Are you going to keep trying to control the future by predicting or guiding the outcome in your favor?
OR….
Are you going to focus on experiencing the NOW..not yesterday, last week, tomorrow, 3 weeks from now, next Christmas…you get my point!
Planning ahead for your future is fine, and sometimes necessary but you must leave room for the changes or bumps in the road that may change the course of your Journey.
Don’t get me wrong, you can “plan” for something as if it may happen, but you simply cannot predict or control the outcome and guarantee that it will.
Example:
Your child is born –
In your eyes he is brilliant, a leader, he is going to do great things.
So you plan his future, save for college, as he grows and develops you start putting YOUR ideas about his future into his head and into action about what he SHOULD do with his life.
Well, eventually your child grows up and he becomes his own person with his own purpose, his own likes and passions (or not) and unfortunately they don’t match your dreams and goals that you have for him.
So you become disappointed and frustrated because your child has not followed the path that you have created for him.
Ultimately this brings up feelings for you – rejection, failure, and fear for his future.
This happens because you didn’t leave room for change, you didn’t understand that your child, although he is your flesh and blood, he is not an extension of you. He has his own Journey to follow that may or may not be aligned with your vision for his life.
So the one thing we have to realize is, we have no control over anything. Life is constantly changing and evolving around us.
Truthfully, I am grateful for this!
Can you imagine a life that didn’t change? What would we learn? How would we grow?
It is experiences, good and bad that shape us and make us into who we are (good and bad). We are never the same person – unless we stop growing.
Have you ever told a story from a long time ago. A story of struggle, a time you weren’t sure you were going to make it, but of course you did, and it made you so much stronger? You tell that story today with so much pride and even a little laughter at the situation thinking “wow, I can’t believe I made it through that!”
I have had some hard hard roads. Some of my experiences nearly broke me. However when I look back at those experiences I am truly grateful for them because they shaped me into the person I am today.
I am much more balanced from all these experiences and I am able to focus and appreciate each and every moment knowing that is all we really have.
This moment!
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