Staying in the Moment While Planning for the Future

-
One of the greatest pieces of advice that I've ever received is to stay in the moment. We live in an extremely busy time. Everyone is always on the move, thinking about their next move, or actively planning a move, at all times. There is no rest, and because of that, it's easy to miss out on the everydayness of life (yes, I just made that word up, and I'm going to leave it there. It's cute.)

The trouble I have with this advice, though, is that staying in the moment can lead a busy bee like me to get stuck. I am the kind of person who is constantly working on something, and a lack thereof can make me feel like I'm in a rut. There is a fine line between being at peace and being complacent, and it can be hard not to fall into the latter.

The key is finding a balance between the present and the future. 

I know, but how? 

 It's important to have goals, and to take steps everyday to achieve them. For example, if your goal is to save for a down payment on a house, then you have to be very conscious about your daily spending, because little purchases here and there can really add up. For an aspiring writer like me, the goal is to finish my first manuscript, so I have weekly word count goals that I set for myself (sometimes I break them up into daily writing, other times I cram it all into one mega writing session).

The point is to have a goal in mind and actively work towards it, but not get so caught up in the future that you envision for yourself that you miss out on your present.

80% of the fun in reaching a goal is the journey.

The people you meet, the lessons you learn, the challenges you overcome, they're all a major part of why the accomplishment itself feels so amazing! Don't take the journey for granted. It becomes a permanent part of your story and shapes the person that you will eventually become, but don't get so caught up in the moment that you disregard your future.

Balance is such an important part of life, yet it's so difficult to achieve. I'll leave you with a quote that helps me when I'm feeling like I'm failing both ends of the spectrum:

"Hold tightly to the dreams of your heart, but hold loosely to how they're going to come true"


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cleansing Your Oily Skin...With Oil??

-
Image
If you've had acne most of your life (like me), you've likely tried all kinds of products and treatments to try to get it under control. I have used everything from Proactiv and Dermalogica to Clean & Clear and Clearasil (remember when that was cool?). The only bandwagon I absolutely refused to jump on was the one that claimed that people should cleanse their oily skin with oil. Any person with this skin type will tell you that oil is an absolute no-no, and that you should stay as far away from it as possible...right? Wrong. Oily skin is actually parched skin that overproduces its own moisture because it's not getting enough (the human body really is amazing). I have always been taught that I should wash the oil away and slather on oil-free products and ingredients to keep my skin as matte as possible. Turns out, that really only makes the oil production worse.  Some initial research revealed that there may be some truth to this whole idea, but it became a
Read more

The Lies I Was Told About The Causes of Acne

-
Image
If you're an acne sufferer like me, you've likely heard many different opinions about what causes this pimple-formed version of hell on your face. Personally, I've only recently started believing that the way I eat has something to do with it, but all of the experts said that was a lie. I've seen three different dermatologists now, all of whom have said that diet is not an important enough factor to make major changes.  Well, they were wrong.  **Backstory: I do some copywriting for an online company that connects freelance writers with clients looking for articles, blog posts, website content, etc. One of the clients that I work with the most happens to be a dermatology clinic, and they recently requested an article about this topic so it's all fresh in my mind** There was a study done recently that linked dairy, chocolate and fatty/sugary foods to the cause of acne (insert jaw-dropped face here).  WHAT?  So, basically, if you're a milk choc
Read more

Here's The Thing About Us "Difficult" Women...

-
Image
"Most women, regardless of where they grew up or what their cultural background is, have been taught essentially that to be a good woman is to be good for other people." That is a direct quote from Rachel Hollis' book, Girl, Stop Apologizing. The first part of the book is dedicated to exploring the excuses that women use for not pursing their dreams or living their authentic lives. In the very first chapter, she addresses the excuse that speaks to me the most: "It's not What Other Women Do." What does this mean?  It means that we hold ourselves back from doing and saying the things that we truly want to do and say because it's just not what we're "supposed" to do. I could go on and on about the expectations placed on women in our world, but the POINT is that those expectations have a tendency to shape the way we THINK, and our thoughts are what drive our words and actions...so those are pretty important. The issue is that we have
Read more