Own Today

I have to confess…I am guilty as charged when it comes to this one. See, I always had the feeling that I was going to do something great with my life. I always knew that somehow I was going to become something. And in that “always knowing”….I constantly looked forward. Into the future. Waiting to catch up to it. I neglected the present. I didn’t live for the moment.

Have you ever looked into the future, just waiting for that one break?

I would always catch myself saying something like, “just wait ‘til I get tool XYZ…then I’m gonna be unstoppable.” Then I would finally get my hands on whatever tool XYZ was, which was supposed to make all the difference in the world for me, but by that point I was already thinking about tool ABC, saying the same thing about that one. You see…the thing that took me the longest time to realize was that the key to success was in me all along. I didn’t need any special tool or gadget to achieve anything. It was in me. I didn’t realize it at the time but I was just making excuses internally as to why I couldn’t go for it in the moment. I was justifying my own complacency. Have you ever done that?

I am just as guilty when talking about reliving the “glory days.”

The past may have been absolutely magnificent. You may have done some great things in the past. You may have accomplished a great deal. But all the glories of yesterday do not guarantee you any success tomorrow. No matter how many touchdowns you scored in high school, or how many competitions you won, or how popular you were. Living in the past is a dangerous place. It’s a lonely place.

Or maybe the opposite is true for you and you are the type of person that dwells on the past, wishing you could just go back because you know you’d be able to make better decisions if you got a second crack at it. That’s not the way it works. Unless Doc Brown is coming to your house with the DeLorean, you can’t go back.

I think we get so caught up in emotions sometimes that we simply neglect the present.

We anticipate the future with such excitement because we know that great things are on the horizon. Or if you’re a negative Nelly (which I sincerely hope you aren’t if you are reading this), you may look at the future in angst, dreading the horrible reality that tomorrow is sure to bring. We remember the past, wishing we could go back and either relive those precious moments when we were on top of the world, or redo them so we can see what it feels like to be on top of said world. Either way…what we have to realize is that neither the future, nor the past is what really matters at this particular moment. What we are doing right now…in this very moment…will define what our future looks like.

If you know your future is bright then why can’t your present be just as bright?

Make every breath you take the best breath you’ve ever taken in.

Live for the now.Own today. Nothing else matters.