live in the presentThink back to when you were 26, 27, even 28 years old…

Were you’re really nervous about the future and what it held?

Did you wake up daily with the anxiety of the future weighing heavily on your present?

When you were 30 you lamented because you weren’t as far in your career as you’d hoped to be. Maybe you thought you’d be married. It’s about this time when you start to realize you’re not immortal. Your time on this planet is limited.

As you go through your day-to-day neurosis the anxiety creeps in to every aspect of your life. It consumes your mind.

Here are 3 reasons why you need to stop worrying about the future entirely.

Too Much Time is Wasted

How much time do you spend thinking about the future? Hours? Minutes?

Most people spend months of their life fretting over the future. When you’re a kid you worry you’ll never be the person you want to be. Each new school year you worry you’ll fail or be embarrassed. You worry about what college you’ll get into. You panic you’ll never lose your virginity.

As you get older you worry about when you’ll be able to afford a house.  Keep a tally. Every time you think,  Is there enough money? When will I be married? How much time do I have left to reach my goals?

I want you to write it down. I bet the tallies add up quickly. Imagine if you took all the time you spend worrying about the future and used it to build a future instead. Months of your life have gone to worrying about something you have no control over because….

The Future Isn’t Real

The future doesn’t exist.  It’s a made up thing in our brains.  There’s no such thing as the future.  Let me ask you a question.  Three years ago, if I told you you’d be exactly where you are right now, what would you say?

You probably wouldn’t believe me. Now do the trick in reverse. Imagine it’s three years ago and you’re telling me where you’ll be in the future.  They say make a plan and God laughs. Maybe you thought you’d end up where you are, but I bet you had to do something along the way you hadn’t planned for. Maybe you knew you were going to get married, but the wedding never came.

It’s too easy waste time thinking about what might be. You don’t know if hurricane Sandy’s going to strike, an earthquake will rip apart your house, a sudden death in the family, you could be laid off, you might win the lottery.

Anything could happen so why worry about a future that doesn’t exist?

There is Only the Present

Every moment you spend thinking about the future is a moment that you’re not living in the present.  The present is all we have. The past is a history and the future is a mystery. Our present is where we create our future.  When we work on what we need to do in the present, we’re actually presenting the future.

When we’re worried about the future, we’re not creating the future.  What we’re doing is we’re worrying about the future. When we worry about the future, we create more worry.  When we create more worry about our future we get stuck in our present. It’s a vicious cycle of self-doubt and loathing and it can end today.

Don’t worry about the future.

Think about what you could do in the present to be to reach the future you want. Take it minute-by-minute, second by second.  When you’re fully present you’re able to create a future that far exceeds expectations.  The future always takes care of itself.

It’s coming no matter what. You can’t stop it or slow it down you can only embrace it.  I know it’s a concept that most people don’t want to hear, but believe me, when you’re 100% present, accepting every gift, every opportunity that comes to you and stay focused on the present, the changes that occur are immense and the rewards are great.