Are there things in your past that still weigh you down? Are you worried about your future? Do the mistakes you've made in life haunt you? Are you afraid of what tomorrow holds? Do you wish you could go back to the way things were before? Do you wish you could just skip five years? Are you counting on your future to hold better days?
If you identify with any of these outlooks, you are not living for today. Don't worry, you are not alone. Most people have a tendency not to live for today. I get lost dwelling on my past or contemplating my future all the time. I have found people get trapped in either one of these four mindsets:
1. People have a tendency to hold onto hurt, regrets, failures, mistakes or anything in their past that negatively impacted their life.
They let these past events dictate the course of each and every day from that point on instead of letting go. They harbor bitterness toward people who've hurt them and lose friendships. They let a bad event give them fear in that aspect of their life. They lose all sort of self-esteem either due to their failures and mistakes or due to the words of another person.
2. People look back on their life and remember all of the good times they used to have, which leads to a negative outlook on their current life.
They hold on to old memories of friends that are gone, or a job they used to have. This causes them to be extremely unhappy with their current situation. They make no action to change what their current situation is, as it is a lost cause to them.
3. People dream about the future and everything that will be.
This is not done in a healthy way. They become obsessed with the idea of kids, a new home, a new job, a marriage or something like this. They fall off track of their life by clinging on to dreams instead of making them into realities. They fantasize on Pinterest about all of the lovely possibilities of their future life, instead of making their current one better.
4. People fear their future.
They have no idea what it will hold and instead of working toward making it better, they go about each day afraid of the next. They worry about each decision they make, and all of the possible repercussions. Instead of taking a leap of faith and going for something they really want, they step back and allow someone else to take it as they were too afraid of the potential consequences.
If you identify with any of these four options, then you are not living for now. Let me be clear to say that I am not claiming that setting goals for your future, being content with your past, learning from your mistakes or taking caution when making decisions are bad things to do. It is important to consider our past and future lives, but when these lives take over our present and prevent us from living in it, that is where the problem lies.
I will be the first one to admit that I have fallen into each and every one of these situations. There will be seasons when I am too caught up in my past that I fall behind in my current responsibilities. Also, as a college student, I often get lost in all of the possibilities of my future life. I will be too worried about how I will get everything I want in life done, that I will lose the motivation to do anything at all. I have even become angry at where I am in life because I am too impatient to wait for my future. Trust me, in these types of frames of mind, no one wins. Instead, you lose track of where you are and you miss out on so many things. There are so many times I said "no" simply because I was afraid. Likewise, there are friendships I've lost because I couldn't let go of the painful memories of others who have hurt me.
Consider your past life and learn from it. Make goals to accomplish for your future self. But, please, live for today. Enjoy the precious moments you have in your present life, as they are only moments. Take action and do what makes you happy. Be a present person.
