Category: The Power of Now

“Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows”. (Quote: Michael Landon)

We tend to live our lives subconsciously believing that we will live forever; there is generally always an expectation that we will have a tomorrow. An ideal world perspective is to live one day at a time although many believe that this is not a practical way of living. However, an appreciation for each day leads to an enhanced, healthy and enriched life. This does not mean that you ignore the future; it is always wise to have a vision and aim for your goals. Preparation for the future should always be done now; today is the only day you can take action for tomorrow.

Procrastination is putting off to the future something you know you should be doing now. We all know the adage, “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today” and as a wise man said, “If you want to make an easy job hard, just keep putting it off”. Realise that what you do or don’t do today will affect your tomorrow, so make the most of today for a better tomorrow. Concentrate on what is now, not what was or what might be. Today, the present time you are in right now, needs you. You have a purpose for this day in time and a responsibility to those around you to live in the now while giving positive thought for the future. Exercise the full power of your human will and become mindful of every action that you undertake. Constantly remind yourself to pay close attention to your actions, to relish every moment and everything you do .

Any astute businessman or Entrepreneur knows that unique opportunities will present themselves at any time and they know they must be ready to act now or they will lose that opportunity to someone else. By using each day to gain knowledge and by focusing on their area of interest they are always in readiness to make decisions and take action ‘now’ and so have a great advantage over their competitors. It is their ability to live in the present moment and focus on what needs to be accomplished, that determines where they will be tomorrow and how much better that tomorrow will be.

So, when you make a decision to do a task – take action and do it now! Don’t abuse time. So many things can change between today and tomorrow and more urgent tasks may crop up. The time lost now can never be redeemed.

As James Rohn says, “Life is not a practice session…we must challenge ourselves right now with a new level of thinking and drive ourselves toward a new level of achievement”. “That means making a commitment now to put into action all that we currently are, wherever we currently are and with whatever we currently have.” Read books now that will help you in your future, associate with people who have stimulating ideas, convert your dreams into goals and plans. Making time for all that now will harness your future for success.

You have the ability to achieve everything you want if you will just begin the process now.

James Rohn says, “For some people, their past deeds have charted a course which threatens to imprison their future and yet they do not take corrective and immediate action”. It is dangerous to allow the drift of neglect to continue unabated. You must learn that everything affects everything else and that your actions of today are forming the consequences of tomorrow. Careless acts can swallow up your most precious resource – the time you have now. Make the most of it.

If you are like most people, you have written goals and dreams on a list that’s titled “Tomorrow’s To Do”. You can’t pursue what is truly important to you now because your day is crowded by the demands of mundane routines and other people’s priorities. How do you break out and experience your full potential? The answer lies in a simple process to change the way you think about your life and accomplish what is truly important to you. It is another way of looking at the power of now, by imagining what you want your future to be and specifically creating it in the now.

Christopher Howard says, “I believe we are meant to celebrate the past and live fully in the now while consciously creating the future”. Creating you future is done by determining your personal vision and goals exactly in your mind and then writing them down. Be prepared, now, to sit down and creatively spend a few minutes thinking about your life and what you hope to achieve. As Christopher Howard says, “This powerful act alone gets your conscious and unconscious mind seeking more of those opportunities that are aligned with your purpose”. The best way to predict the future is to create it and you can only do that today, in the now!

Write your goals in the present tense. You do this because the unconscious mind doesn’t know the difference between what is vividly imagined and what is real. So visualise your future as if it is happening in the present – in the ‘now’. Write down your future goals as if you are achieving the last step now, in this moment. Make sure that you put a date of accomplishment for your goal; otherwise, it will only exist vaguely in your future and may never occur.

Note that you are in the present, creating your future and seeing your goal completed in the now.

You need to take control of your thoughts. Every action, every invention, every book – absolutely everything – began with a thought. If you want to change your present state of mind, you have to change your thoughts. After all, the present moment is an accumulation of your prior thoughts. Take the opportunity of controlling your mind instead of allowing it to control you. Being in control of your thoughts gives you control of your life and the more you control your life the more positive your attitude becomes. It is when you focus on those things you want, not on the things you don’t want, that you realise how much flexibility and control you innately possess. Then you begin to live a life that works for you not against you.

The habit of living in the past or jumping into the future inside your head is a difficult habit to break. Once you have allowed your consciousness to fall into a state of disuse, it requires a good deal of effort to regain its focus; however, the will becomes stronger the more it is utilised and if we persevere, the rewards will be well worth the effort we put in now as our consciousness expands.

When you work in the present moment with the intention of improving your life, you are harnessing the ‘power of now’. This, in itself, is a powerful message to your subconscious.

It is true that the future ultimately cannot be predicted; however, many people waste an enormous amount of energy worrying about it. Worry! The Bible calls worry ‘a sin’ and we are constantly reminded that ‘98% of what we worry about never happens”; yet most of us feel guilty if we don’t worry. When you worry about tomorrow or later, you are actually creating tomorrow and later. For example, say you have an interview later in the week and you can’t help worrying about whether you are good enough. The more you worry the more things your mind will design for you to worry about and before you know it you will have talked yourself out of the proposed job. Your mind’s job is to create and if you put worry, negative thoughts and doubt into your mind, you will receive more things to worry about and more negative experiences. It is far better to think positively about what you would like to achieve or experience and think about them with happiness as you gratefully undertake each day.

Of course you should be concerned about the future. You should dream and use your imagination to come up with a vision for your future. You should also spend time setting goals and making plans. The future is very important because that future will become your NOW; however, you can’t live in it until you arrive there. Living today and planning for tomorrow is what all successful men and women do day to day. They blend in today’s actions that lead to the results they expect tomorrow.

Empowered people, i.e. those with a sense of assurance, enthusiasm and well being, accept that they cannot change the past. They know that they make their future by what they do today. They refuse to create worries and fears for the future; they have a zest for life. Most importantly they are not selfish, but know it is important to touch the lives of others each day with a smile and a helping hand; and they have an ‘attitude of gratitude’ for just being alive.

Some of the most empowered people are those who suffer from terminal illness; they cherish each day and live life to the full, aware of their limited time. Their bravery so often has a positive effect on those around them, teaching them to make good use of each day.

Empowered people recognise that the past and the future are memories and thoughts and today is their reality. By living today well they do the most within their power to make tomorrow better.

Mark Twain once said, “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened”. The wisdom of these words speaks well, for reality lies within your words and actions each day.

The past is a map of the direction you have taken so far in life; a guide to making better choices for the future through the hindsight of your experiences. Those experiences teach you how to make the present and future a better and more fulfilling place through recognition of past mistakes.

Memories are a snapshot of your past that colour your perception of reality today. You evaluate your world through your memories and the experiences you have had. Sometimes memories can be diluted and warped in the mind, so they are not always an accurate representation of the past.

The past cannot be changed, so it is futile to waste energy on regrets or things said or done by yourself or others in years gone by. Don’t hold a grudge or resentment or fret over past mistakes. Such negative thoughts can literally make you ill and make it difficult for you to make a positive investment in your life today. A doctor once said, “Depressive thoughts, habitually held, increase the possibility of infection by at least tenfold”. Use the past only to learn from your mistakes and keep it in context with your life now. What happened in the past is over and if you want your life to be empowered, you must let go of the past and allow it to be just a fading memory.

A very well-known quotation from Albert Einstein reads, “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

If you want to achieve success and live the life you want to live, then living in the present – the NOW – is very important to you. Why? The past is behind you and the future does not yet exist. That is not to say that you should entirely forget the past but see it in relation to where you stand today, now. The only place that is completely in your control is the present but for many people, the present day is the least important day in their lives as their thoughts race on ahead to the future, often counting down the days to a special event, perhaps four days hence. Unfortunately, those four precious days are lost forever as you work on auto-pilot.

Now is all any of us have, it is all we will ever have. Now we can discern and analyse the past and how it affects us today and in our future; it is when we reap either the consequences or the rewards of our past choices. Today is the only day we can be creative and either go ahead and stay with our previous choices, or change those choices in light of the past. Now is when you need to be at your best so that you can create whatever future you want. Your creative mechanism cannot function or work tomorrow. It can only function in the present – now. Make long range plans for tomorrow but don’t try to live in tomorrow, or in the past. Creative living can only be successful if you have your full attention in today.

Be very clear about what you want to do with your life. See with crystal clear clarity what you want to achieve and believe you will achieve it with all your heart – “What the heart can conceive and believe the heart can achieve”. It starts at the ideas phase, you then nurture it, develop it, feel it as if it is happening “NOW” and live and breathe it until it becomes your reality. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift; that is why it is called the present!

Walk through the valley of the present Dwell not on the dust of the past Fear not the road to the future For this moment might be your last.