Look Forward, But Stay In The Moment

Do you ever catch yourself looking forward to something? Looking forward to the weekend. A relationship, better weather, a holiday? Do you ever look back on time and wonder where the week went? Month? Year? Or maybe even years?

I am guilty of wishing my days away and I am trying to stop myself. I believe as humans, in this day and time, we are never satisfied and are always looking toward the next big thing. While it is normal to look forward to an exciting event like a holiday, a new beginning, or perhaps moving, you lose time and enjoyment in the daily if you are always looking to events in the future.

Seize this moment.

When my daughter graduated high school, she couldn’t wait to move to college, live in a dorm and start her new life. By late fall, she couldn’t wait for the summer when she would move to an apartment. This went on for four years. And then, of course, she couldn’t wait to graduate. To get that job. She was always looking to the next thing and did not relish the moment, live in the moment. And the moment was lost.

Let life happen as it will.

Don’t wait for life to happen; live life now. Find little joys in today and celebrate them. You may have upcoming events scheduled but don’t allow yourself to forget about the not-so-exciting events scheduled today. All the todays lead to tomorrow. And tomorrow will be there waiting for you. The todays don’t want to become the yesterdays that are forgotten.

“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when we look back everything is different.” – C.S. Lewis

As you get older, time seems to speed up. Why is that? Why do we lose blocks of time? Perhaps it is because we are not living life, living our Mondays through Sundays, intentionally and fully. Perhaps we are too busy to stop and enjoy the little joys that life can bring.

The saying, “Stop and smell the roses” is an important piece of advice. When you look back and think ‘where has time gone?’, you realise that you’ve lost track of it all and forgot what happened in those moments.

Stop wasting today away because you are busy looking forward to tomorrow. Or next week. Or next month. Stop waiting for tomorrow and the day after.

While having something to look forward to can bring excitement to your days, some people forget to live in the now. Wishing your days away wastes the life that should be lived.

Another thing people wait for is perfection. The perfect relationship, the perfect job, the perfect house and perfection in yourself. Perfection may never come and then you have wasted time and energy waiting on something. And perhaps you even let someone walk out of your life because there wasn’t perfection. The perfect time is now. Life is too short to wait for perfection.

Don’t wait for things. Don’t wait for sunny days. Get your umbrella out and go play in the puddles!

Find things in your daily life that bring you joy. Relish your days. Protect them and live them to the fullest.

Live today. Let life happen.

Tomorrow will be there waiting on you, tomorrow.