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 even predict the future, let alone control it — not even if we have the resources of a president, a prime minister, a billionaire, or a CEO.
So, if we cannot change the past and we cannot control the future, then the best that any of us can hope to achieve is to live more fully in the present, in the pas-ture.
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. And, perhaps counter-intuitively, we maximise our ability to create the future we most want.
In this time of change, the most effective — and the most enjoyable — way to achieve our goals is to live more fully in the present, in the pas-ture.
What proportions of your time do you spend remembering the past, worrying about the future, or living in the pas-ture? Would it be useful to shift that mix?
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