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 massive 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 present, the past-ure.
When we do this, we replace anxiety and depression with clarity and calm. And 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, which makes our longed-for future much more likely to happen.
In this time of change, the most effective way (and the most enjoyable way) to achieve our goals is by living more fully in the past-ure.
What proportions of your time do you currently spend living in the past, worrying about the future, or living in the past-ure? Would it be useful to shift that mix?
Adapted from Inner Leadership: a framework and tools for building inspiration in times of change.
You can sign up to daily posts here.
You can buy the book here and the workbook here.
(And remember: you can’t learn to swim just by reading about swimming, you also need to do the practice.)
Image used by kind permission of Michael Leunig