Always living in the future dilutes your ability to live your life in the present.

Future Focused

“Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day's work absorb your entire energies, and satisfy your widest ambition.”
Sir William Osler, to his students

I’ve spent quite a bit of time these past several months thinking about what I was going to do in the future. Will I continue to write this column or will I join the rest of society in my quiet den away from the light of other’s eyes? Will I continue on my path to self-integrity or will I stray and become like so many others lost amid a sea of rambling television news commentaries about how life should be? It is a quest of great dimension for me for within it lays the seeds of who I will become.

“The future is an opaque mirror. Anyone who tries to look into it sees nothing but the dim outlines of an old and worried face.”
Jim Bishop, New York Journal-American, March 14, 1959

Where will my future lead me? Will I be able to achieve all that I planned in my life? Could I have done more to create a better world? When will the questions stop and the center of my heart take over? Yes, when will the center of my heart take over?

“When you relinquish the desire to control your future, you can have more happiness.”
Nicole Kidman, in The Scotsman

It is the attempt at the control of your future that pain is found. Pain comes and goes through life but becomes obvious when you begin to ‘push the river’ or attempt to ‘persuade it in a direction of your choice’. When I spend time worrying over my future or determining my next move I dilute my present life and begin to veer from a trajectory of choice and I become lost, out of control, and fail to find the answers for which I was searching.

“A preoccupation with the future not only prevents us from seeing the present as it is but often prompts us to rearrange the past.”
Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind, 1954

The answers to our future life lie in the present moment. Each moment in time leads to the next and as such makes and natural linkage to that which we seek. It is our focus on the future that distorts that normal linkage and makes us lose the totality of our experience. We lose direction and thereby lose our hold on our dreams.

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865)

Each day, each moment I spend in focusing on the future creates a loss in the energy of today. It distracts from the pathway of choice because it draws me away from my heart’s center and thereby causes me to lose my way. It is important for me to return to that heart center and to allow it to become the beacon of my future desires.

“One day at a time- this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past, for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering.”
Ida Scott Taylor.

It is in the present that I feel my heart beat and I know that I am peaceful and in tune with what I am to be. It is in the moment that I hear my inner voice speak in words that lead me toward my most honored desires. It is in the second before thought that I find my Creator’s love. It is there where I can find my reason for being alive.

“The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.”
Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

The past, the present, and the future all lie within your heart. Within that small structure is found profound words, the axis of intent, and the ability to change your way. It is the intersection of all that is and provides the space and time to dream. When I think of my future I am within the dream world of my heart.

“Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.”
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121 AD - 180 AD), Meditations, 200 A.D.

The future lies in the smoke of time and is unimportant as you go about your daily life. It cannot be found but can be interpreted from the decisions you make each moment of your life. Instead of focusing on the future spend your time making your present moment the best. Make it shine as if you were going to become famous for writing its contents. Doing this will cause the smoke and haze of its future to fade and carry you into the beauty of your dream.

“Nothing happens unless first a dream.”
Carl Sandburg