The Present

I had been reading a book recently naming "The Present"! It is such a motivating book. The more I read, the more I am motivated to move on in my current life. You might ask, what is the best present that you can give yourselves? Indeed the best present that You could give yourselves is the present!

In Compact Oxford English dictionary, the present means

1. being or occurring in a particular place.

2. existing or occurring now.

3. expressing an action now going on or habitually performed, or a condition now existing.

4. the period of time now occurring.

5. give formally or ceremonially.

6. offer for acceptance or consideration.

7. formally introduce (someone) to someone else.

8. put (a show or exhibition) before the public.

9. introduce and appear in (a television or radio show).

10. be the cause of (a problem).

11. exhibit (a particular appearance) to others.

12. (present oneself) appear formally before others.

Well, this book explains on a very common yet rather powerful concept to live in the present life while learning form the past and planning for the future to achieve satisfaction and gladness at work so as personal life.

The present (gift) is neither the past nor the present, is now! At the very moment! Meaning that we need to focus and pay attention to the situation that we are in now. What is happening right now! However, focusing on present doesn’t mean that we should forget about the past or ignore the future. Everybody does mistakes in the past but never let the past or the mistakes worrying you and become the barrier that stops one from moving forward!

I was enlightened that, it is hard to let go the past if you have not learned form the past. However, as soon as you have learned from the mistakes, you can easily let that go away and move on in the present. I believe this is what most people failed to achieve! People loves or I should say would rather remain in the current pitiful situation, sympathizing themselves. I need to treasure the present, focusing on the present which would be the energy and the confidence that will indirectly urge me to perform in my career.

There is a quote “To achieve happiness in work and personal life, live in the present, learn from the past and plan for the future!”

Plan for the future doesn’t mean that we have to be anxious over it. What commonly people do is to live in the future and get anxious about the events in the future! The writer shared that we should plan for the future but we should not live in the future. Planning for the future reduces the uncertainty, anxiety and fear about the future events as we are actively working on the plan in order to achieve the goals of the future. Thus, it is a good suggestion to visualize a wonderful future and create a realistic plan to make the dream come into reality (achieve the desired success).

The Present by Spencer Johnson