Love lives in the Present

All these years as a coach I have always taught my students to focus on the variables that we can control. These would include but not be limited to how hard we work, what we put into our bodies, how we sleep, how much we study and things of this nature. And this applies to our daily goals also. I will explain that everyday when we wake up we can set the goal to be the hardest worker and the most loving person in everything we do and when we accomplish these then we will always continue to improve the person we are today versus the person we were yesterday which I believe should be an ongoing goal of every single person every day of their lives. The best part about these particular goals are that they are realistic for anyone all the time. Setting goals such as being the strongest, fastest, smartest, etc. will eventually all end in disappointment as there will always be someone out there who will eventually out do you in such endeavors. This is not to say we should not set goals to improve our strength, speed, intelligence, etc. but we will do this with the aforementioned goal of being the hardest worker in all we do and this would include creating plans with daily routines to improve our physical, mental and spiritual health. And as far as being the most loving person in all you do, this is very important also because no one ever gets through life and all its challenges totally alone. And with your love you can drastically improve your environment whether it is your family, your community, your classroom, your sports team, your work crew, your spiritual support network and on and on. And when your environment improves then your individual opportunities for success also improve. Again, the very best part of the these goals is no one can ever stop you from attaining them ever, it is totally up to you!!!

With all of this being said, what are some things we cannot control? Number one, we cannot change the past and number two, we cannot for sure know everything about the future. Why do I focus on these two elements? Because I see so many that suffer from regret about things that have happened and I see so many that suffer from anxiety about things that might happen. And although regret and anxiety have a place whereby they can benefit us, they can really hold us back and destroy our goals when they become us. A healthy amount of regret is when we learn from our past mistakes and shortcomings and overcome them and never return to them. A healthy amount of anxiety motivates us to prepare as much as we can for our future by making the most of our present moments and avoiding certain risks that endanger us. This brings me to the point of the title of this blog and to a lesson i learned from an orthodox priest, "evil lives in the past and the future, Christ lives in the present. evil lives in the past through regret and in the future through anxiety, Christ lives in the present through Love!" There are so many lessons within the quote one could spend a lifetime analyzing them. But, let us proceed with the mindset that everything created has a good purpose when used with the right intention and within the right amount and only through the misuse do they become bad and detrimental. When focusing on regret and anxiety we in my above 'healthy amount' examples can see where they can be of good use but when they exceed this healthy amount and become excessive regret and excessive anxiety they can quickly become debilitating and thereby rendering us useless in the pursuit of our goals and true purpose. Much like every vice is just a misuse of a virtue.

To conclude, our success depends largely upon our hard work and our love and in this world with so many unknowns it is increasingly important that we make the most of our time, talent and treasure every single moment that we are given by constantly learning from the past and always preparing for our future through our hard work and with Love!