The past lies behind us, the future before us, and this moment, within us. Today is nothing but the sum of yesterday. Tomorrow is nothing but the sum of today. Thus can your tomorrow always be changed today, and any day, henceforth and forever.
The past would have us looking always behind; the future always ahead. It is in the space between the two that we must seek to live. In living in the present moment, with one eye upon the future, we can live from the lessons of our past and move towards the hope of a brighter day.
There are three truths we must learn to live by if we would become the pioneers of our own futures:
- It is important that we live from the past but not in the past.
- It is important that we live for the future but not in the future.
- It is important that we live in the moment but not for the moment.
It is in choosing the focus of our hearts in this moment that we determine wherein we are free or wherein we may become bound. Within us lies the key to all freedom, all happiness, and all hope. Within us also lies all deprivation, all unhappiness, and all the fetters of our soul. Happiness is a choice. Hope is a perspective. Freedom is as real as we allow it to be.
Ask yourself:
- Am I stuck in the past? Do I choose to focus upon the pains, regrets, and inconsistencies of the past?
- Am I stuck in the future? Do I choose to focus only upon our dreams of the future disconnected from the actions of the present and somehow hope that they will still come into being?
Living in the future can trap us just as surely as can living in the past. Learn from the past, look to the future, and live (act) in the present.
It is in exploring our hopes for the future that we find the desire, and will, to learn from the lessons of the past, plan for the future, and act in the present.
WILL YOU BE A PIONEER?
Do you seek to enter unknown territory in your life and establish and settle yourself in a beautiful place? Do you seek to open up new areas of thought, research or development in the world around you? Or even within yourself? Do you seek to become more, to learn more, to do more? Do you explore the boundaries of your world and wonder what is outside it? Are you curious about the future and your place in it?
Action is the word for which pioneers are best known. Action. Exploring the unknown. Breaking new ground. Doing and accomplishing things that have never been done before. Seeing and discovering things that have never been seen before. Questioning everything. Pushing the boundaries of their own minds and the minds of others… these are but a few of the things a pioneer would do. All of these require action. All of these exist outside your comfort zone, outside yourself… And all of these exist without only after having existed within…
If you would be a pioneer of your own life then you must become a man, or woman, of action. You must act today, to establish the habits and patterns of your life, in such a way as to draw the hopes and dreams of your future into the present moment. Go now and bring the future you seek to create tomorrow into your life today by taking the small, simple, actions which will help you be the pioneer of your future.