The Importance Of Living In Present

"The more I give myself permission to live in the moment and enjoy it without feeling guilty . . . the better I feel about the quality of my work." Wayne Dyer (self-help author)

Some twenty five years ago my father bought me a book of general knowledge in which there was a quote by a Buddhist monk. In that he compares life with having a cup of tea. I don’t remember the exact words he used but it is something like this “life is like a cup of tea, you have to sip it slowly enjoying the aroma, warmth of the cup, the taste of the warm tea. But if you are thinking about your past or your future while sipping, the cup would be empty before you realize that you haven't enjoyed a bit of it". Present is where you could possibly live and experience the life.

This quote had a strong impact on me that I still remember it. But as I grew up and become very ambitious and understood the importance of desires, achievement, success, and goals, I failed largely to live in my present. Reading a lot of success literature available made me believe that life is nothing without success and money. Over years, my mind developed a pattern of thinking in terms of goals and success and always dwells in future. To my surprise the entire modern society baring few people who are different has the same pattern of thinking.

Success, achievement, and money are not bad words for me. The achievements of human being always fascinate me, but I knew that I am doing something wrong with my life. My problem was that I never thought living in present and success can go together and I was afraid of appreciating the present. But as I grew up, I realized that may successful people do live their lives appreciating and enjoying the present with great personal achievements. Secrete of living in present successfully and also achieving your goals is to convert your passion into your career.

Like many others I made a mistake of drifting away from my passion to build up a career depending on the demand of the job market. Once you get into a job and get used to the salary, it is very difficult to get out of it. At this point, life becomes miserable with you caught between a job which you hate, passion which you tried to sacrifice almost successfully for the same job which you hate, your belief in success and the meaning it can give to your life, and the inability to come out of job and not enjoying the present. In short, you stop living and start to exist.

Financial and time freedom is what you need to do what you would like to do to experience life. Or you need to have your passion as your main source of money. If you do not enjoy the path to your goal, the distance between your goal and you would always keep you in pain. So for a successful life you need to have a job which you are passionate about, you need to enjoy the path to your goal like a teenager enjoying his bike going to school, you need to have or get financial freedom and time freedom. And above all, good health to actually appreciate your life.