Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.ALBERT EINSTEIN
Each moment in life is important and precious. The best way to live life is to follow the Latin aphorism, ‘carpe diem’, which means to ‘seize the day’. The present time is very precious, life is in the present. Whatever you have to do, whatever you have to become, all depends on how you use your present. So, can we then, ignore thinking about the past and future? The answer is, not quite.
The past, present and future are bound together and shape each other. It is true that the present time is crucial. Your dreams, ambitions come to life only when you use the present time productively and optimally. But, there is another truth. The present is shaped by the past. What kind of ‘present’ you have depends largely on the kind of ‘past’ you had.
For instance, if you get promotion in your job in the present, it is only because of your impressive work in the past. Similarly, if your present is good, it also gives you hope for the future. You can consolidate on the present to realise an even better future.
As a human life is nothing but an accumulation of moments put together, past and present converge to shape the future. The wisest of man will learn from his past, live in the present, and hope for tomorrow. It is often said that it is better to bury the past but in doing so, you miss the chance to learn from your past mistakes. Keep the past alive only to learn the right lessons and not make those mistakes again.
Essentially, everyone hopes to be in a better place than he is in the present moment. That’s what drives man and motivates him to improve. If this hope for a better future were to be taken away, man would have no desire to keep on living. It is this hope for a better tomorrow that makes all the struggles of the present worthwhile.
There are people who do not learn from the past and keep repeating the same mistakes. For instance, the world did not learn its lessons from the First World War, and failed to contain the reasons that led to the Second World War; America has lost billions of dollars and lives fighting wars that are not theirs to fight; Nokia failed to evolve and keep pace with modern technology, to name a few.
When you keep repeating the same mistakes of the past, you can’t expect the present and future to be any different. Approaching the present with a fresh perspective, while keeping the lessons from the past in mind will give you a promising future.
Live in the present because that’s what we are alive in/for. The past is gone, we can’t change it, the future is ahead of us, we can’t predict it, what remains with us is the present. And we must ensure that our present is well- lived.
