Summary – WARNING : one of the hardest thing to do in life
The Scenario
Imagine you are in a room. Guess what, there’s a bomb in the room next door and that bomb will only starts to countdown when you enter the room. To make things more interesting, you are a bomb expert, and if anyone can disarm that bomb, it would be you.
What would you do?
The bomb will only tick when someone enters that room. You can be evil by ignoring it, and it’s someone else’s problem. Or you can lock the door to the next room, and finish what ever your business is in this first room (taking your time).
If you choose the latter option, which is taking your time. Will you be worried about the bomb next door? The room is locked, and the bomb is not ticking yet. Why should you be worry?
This is actually the secret to being calm. Which is to live now. Not in the future or in the past, but now.
The Past Person
Some people like to live in the past. They may have done something good, or bad in their past, and they really love to think about that. For example, a man may have received so many rejection from girls that he now doesn’t have any confident to speak to girl. A lot has change to this guy, he may have good job, with good money. His behavior also may have changed to better, but still his mindset is in the past. He still prefer to think about all the rejection he had and thus fail to live in the now.
The Future Person
Another set of people, like to live in the future. They worry too much about their life. What will happen if they didn’t have enough money for retirement? or if there is an accident? Or what if their teenagers rebel and join a cult.
Now this is a tricky one. Don’t stop thinking about the future. But try to differentiate between planning for the future and worrying about the future. Take the retirement issue for example. He can worry all day long, but still he can’t do anything about it. Unless of course he can find an extra one million that day. What he need to do, is to plan how much is enough, and try to work in reverse on how to achieve that amount. As long as he stick to his plan, he shouldn’t be worry at all.
The Now Person
Live in the now. Coming back to the bomb disarmer in the room. What he should do is to take his time, watch some movie, or order some Burger King. Enjoy his “now”. But in the same time, prepare all his tool for the bomb, and maybe brush up his knowledge on the most recent bomb cases. That’s planning.
He should open the door only when he’s ready. And at that time, only focus about disarming the bomb. Nothing else. He shouldn’t be thinking about the movie he just watched or the burger he just ate. Just the bomb.
Don’t you think he is a very calm man?
– I wonder –
Which are you, a past person or a future person?
——— Personal Note ———-
I must admit, I am a past kind of person. I like to linger my mind to the past. My reason is so that I will not forget all the memories since all of them are that precious to me. In my opinion, doing this sometimes is OK. Just don’t let any of the past experience affect you.
Don’t you agree that living in the now is very hard to do?