Lao Tzu said:
“If you are depressed you are living in the past. If you are anxious you are living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the present.”
We cannot change the past. And in this time of change we cannot predict the future, let alone control it — not even if we have the resources of a president, a prime minister, a chief executive, or a billionaire.
So, if we cannot change the past and we cannot control the future, then the best that any of us can hope for is to live more fully in the gap between that past and future: to live more fully in the present, the past-ure.
When we do this, we replace anxiety and depression with clarity and calm. We maximise our ability to inspire ourselves (and others) to long to build the future we most want to create.
That brings us more enthusiasm and it makes our longed-for future much more likely to happen.
In this time of change, the most effective and the most enjoyable way that we can achieve our goals is by learning to live more fully in the past-ure.
What proportion of your time do you currently spend dwelling on the past, worrying about the future, and living in the past-ure? Would it be useful to change that mix, to live more fully in the now?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.
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Image used by kind permission of Michael Leunig