All of our life and all events that are happening take place in the present. Not in the past, not in the future.
If there’s something bothering you, if you feel the need to do something, or if you think you need to do something, do it now. Now is the only chance you have. There is no other opportunity except now, nor will there be. If there’s nothing you can do now, then it’s not up to you. Then the only thing you can do is come to terms with it and accept the situation you are in.
So you have three options:
I am dissatisfied – I am looking at what is behind the dissatisfaction and what exactly I can do about it – understand what I can do – and then do it (the simplest way and mostly can work in most cases).
I am dissatisfied – I am looking at what is behind the dissatisfaction and what exactly I can do about it – I realize that it is not up to me and that there is nothing I can do – then I say ok this is not a field I can deal with and then I shift my focus to something else that I can deal with.
The third thing is to simply be dissatisfied and then drop down in dissatisfaction, looking for excuses in others, in everything around you, parents, employer, God, nature, genetics, life circumstances, etc.… Until this dissatisfaction grows into depression or some other form of serious disorders that will make it even harder to do anything.
Focus and energy need to be focused on what you can do now. One thousand things done now in continuity will bring you into some future-new now that you will be able to do what you are not currently able to do.
Perhaps the easiest way to explain it is this:
Now you can only do one push-up. You want to do 20 push-ups and you’re depressed because you can’t do them. Instead of doing the one you can do now – you feel guilt because you are not in shape to do 20. So you are developing dissatisfaction with your ability to do one push up.
But instead, if you would do one now and keep it constantly so whenever you can do one – you do it – after a while you will be able to do two in the present moment. Two push ups will be your new normal. If you continue with two, in some time you will be in a state when you can do three and so the cycle continues until you are able to do 20.
But remember one thing.
To get to 20, you need to accept the current state in which you can do one and not feel any problem with not being able to do 20.
Because otherwise, if you focus only on that state that seems unattainable to you at the moment (20 push-ups) even when you get to it, you will be dissatisfied.
If you’re doing that one now because you’re unhappy because you can’t do 20 – then that’s a problem. This actually means that you live in the future – you strive for a moment there when you will be satisfied and know for sure that that moment will not come. It may come as a short-term pleasure or euphoria over the achievement, but nothing significant will change.
You have trained the mind to deal with and occupy the destination you want.
And not the journey that leads to that destination. That destination must be a passing result of a thousand present moments in which you are satisfied. I am happy to do one push-up whenever I can. I accept this state, I feel grateful that I can and from that gratitude comes my will to work.
I prove gratitude and acceptance of the present state through my present actions – it is actually a state of mind that manifests itself through physical action.
By repeating or continuously dealing with the present, you project a future that will be ok for you. That future has not happened yet – and probably never will – because the moment it happens, it is no longer the future, it is actually “new now”.
Your new-future now can be doing 20 push-ups or none.
What is crucial in this process is to accept the current situation and the current possibilities and be satisfied – otherwise when you can do 20 push ups you will be dissatisfied because you cannot do 100. As I said, you trained your mind to be obsessed with the future, to be happy only when projecting that future result that should come. So your happiness is always somewhere around the corner but it’s never now.
This dissatisfaction with present leads to various depressive states, demotivation, numbness of the human body and spirit. And then it activates and stimulates the mind – the mind that projects negative images – whether it brings back past events and shows a person how something once was beautiful – or maybe it predicts the future as uncertain and something negative or catastrophic.
Then our mind seeks our engagement and activity to avoid a future we are not happy with – to avoid negativity = not being able to do 100 push-ups. So you will continuously do 20 push-ups because you are unhappy that you can’t do 100 – and let me ask you, when will you live?
When will you actually start living, when will you be present in the present moment and the present circumstances? Are you so powerful and have such abilities to control the future to the point of bringing everything into a state of total perfectionism – so you’re able to say: “Hey, now I have achieved what I wanted and now I am happy and satisfied?”
Although you know the answer yourself, I will answer you: No, you are not that powerful. You are an ordinary man who did not even choose to live but was given the gift of life by someone else. Therefore, stop dealing with the future that way. You are powerless to plan and fulfill plans perfectly. Deal with the field in which you have control and that is the present moment – and do not fall into the trap – do not deal with the present moment in order to control the future and come to a position where you will be satisfied.
Deal with the present moment because you are happy with it now – Do one push-up because you are happy to do one push-up now. Show the gratitude and respect you deserve through your current engagement – do NOW what you can.
Frequent dealing with the present = pleasure and happiness.
Why? When tomorrow, or the future after a month, a year or two, or three – becomes now – you will deal with the present because you have practiced it in the past. And during that period you were satisfied – during that period you did thousands of things that you were able to do in the present moment. All those thousands of moments have brought you to a state of complete calmness – you have become calm and able to behave adequately to the situation in the present moment.
You have aligned your actions, your behavior and your life with the present – and that means peace.
