Becoming Fiercely Present
The reason I am able to be so fiercely present today is because I know who I will be one day and I reconciled who I’ve already been. That is to say, I know who I’m becoming, and I’ve come to accept my past.
It seems we live in a world where we are trapped in the imbalance of one mode, whereby we cannot find the perspective to see the beauty of the past, the present, and the future. For most people, it is only one at a time. Let me explain.
The people in their past are perhaps the easiest to understand. We all know the high school football star who still brags about that one game, or the person who’s trapped in college and wishes they were still going to a party with cheap beers. They cannot escape the history of who they were, and they become trapped in a vision of constantly comparing their past to who they are now, angrily wondering why things can’t be the way they were in that one time. Whatever that one time is, they’re trapped there.
Then there are the people in the present. In truth, these people may be the least wrong. There’s a peculiar beauty to some people who are only in the present, but I also see a flaw. People who are so caught up with the here and now have no perspective — they can only focus on the immediate, and do not plan their actions for the best of themselves and those around them. They only do what is right in front of them, which ultimately ends up in a life of passivity. Without planning, there is little purpose. People who are present act as such.
Last, there is the future. These are the people gazing forward, dreaming big, and creating a goal for every possible fragment of their lives, to the point that every single future aim becomes all-encompassing, and they become lost. When you are too consumed with what lies ahead, you forget who you are right now. You forget who you’ve been and how you even got there in the first place. These are the type-A personalities that plan so vigorously that they lack the capacity to look back on what they have done, or are doing right now.
So who are you? Are you trapped in your past school, partner, or high? Or are you addicted to the goal-setting, dream-hunting culture of entrepreneurs? You are perhaps something, but we should not be just one. We were made not to be trapped in the singularity of one mode of being, but in the balance of our past, present and future. In order to see the world for what it is, we must embrace the truth of everything. We should be fiercely present, so enwrapped in the moment because we see the peripheral wisdom of our past and future. In this, we are not discouraged by our past, but see the possibility of mistakes as a bridgeway to the present mode of learning and growth. We are also joyous at the future, knowing that our bold presence creates in us the person that we desire to be, an identity we strongly hope to become. There is no presence without balance. Are you balanced enough to see the present for all it should be?
