“The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.”

– Seneca quoting Epicurus

Today is your life. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Today is the only day that you have.

Many of us fall into the trap of living in a day other than today. We’re either stuck in the past, wallowing in regret over our mistakes (guilty, I’ll admit), or we’re frozen in fear with worry about the future (what if?).

Years ago, there was an Ann Landers article that extolled the virtues of living in the present. While the details are a little fuzzy, I’ll always remember its message.

We’ll never be content so long as we’re waiting for the next big thing in life. “I’ll be happy when I get that promotion,” or “I’ll be happy when I get married,” or “I’ll be happy when I can finally afford a Mercedes.”

No matter what goal you set for yourself as to when you’ll be satisfied in life, there will always be something else on the horizon, waiting to steal your joy.

As the old saying goes, “Yesterday is a canceled check; tomorrow is a promissory note; today is the present.”

When we devote all our mental energy to the past or the future, we can’t focus on the present. We don’t give our full time and energy to it. And the present (today, right now) is all we have.

By the time you read this sentence, it’s already the past. You can never actually live in the past or the future. Only this very moment.

What can you do right now to further your life? Take a moment to relish the present. Here. Now. Before it’s gone.