“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of“ – Bruce Lee
Yesterday is gone. What has passed, has passed.
Regret, that nagging feeling that we could have done something different or something better, is wasted. A waste of precious energy today on yesterday’s challenges. Yes, we should learn our lessons but dwelling in yesterday does a disservice to today.
Anxiety – the fear of the future is also an emotion we must try to rid ourselves of. An attempt to see and control that which we will never be able to truly see – the future. This also does a disservice to today – to the now. If we let anxiety take a grip, it will stop us getting out of the blocks on just about anything. Trying to convince us ‘we will never be good enough’ and ‘it’s not the right time’.
We can try to ease our anxiety and prepare ourselves by planning, but let’s call that what it is – educated guessing.
Plans changes, plans will need to flex. By default, we need to open ourselves to being able to adapt. Staying fixed in our thinking, and approach, will not serve us in a world that does not run in a linear pattern of fixed responses and reasons. We must adapt.
Life Sequels
Depending on your beliefs, there is a school of thought that says there are no more sequels. No more do overs. How we live our todays is how we live our lives.
This can be a sobering way of viewing our lives but it can also be empowering.
Challenges we face will not last. Tough times will be followed by better times. After darkness, comes light.
We can stop to notice the magic in our daily lives. The sun rising, the sunset, the miracle of new life. Magical moments are all around us if we just stop to absorb them.
We can live our lives invested in positive activities that engage us, in trying to improve ourselves and the world around us in some small but significant way.
We can do our best to be a positive role model for others. To provide a caring, non-judgemental and kind shoulder for those we love. To be a trusted ally, a committed partner and colleague to those we live aside.
We can speak plainly, devoid of negative agendas or scheming. We can dissociate ourselves with politicking for our own gain. We can commit to our legacy being our work, our word, our actions and behaviour instead. We can simply concentrate on being of service.
We can invest ourselves fully in this moment without fixating on what has gone, or is to come. We can commit to being present, knowing our minds will surely drift to the future and past but trying to discipline ourselves to bring them back to now, mindfully.
We can live our lives in the spirit that there will be no more sequels. Perhaps there will, perhaps not but we can let this approach fuel us to do our best, to be our best, to give our best with what we have right now.