This seems to contradict the whole living in the moment thing. It’s the exact opposite. Every moment is incredibly important. You must be mindful and maintain positive energy in all encounters. Each step you take can take you farther on the path. Each misstep can get you off course.
Either you take charge of the day and do what you want to do or you listen to other people and do work to further them. Stop living your life based on the ideas of other people. Start to take charge of the day and use every minute to better yourself.
If you are headed in the right direction with the potential for a great success, you don’t need to change. All this talk about change might have had you believing that you must change instantly or you’d fall behind. The fact of the matter is that you might already be on the right path. If you are headed for the stars, perhaps you’ve already made the changes needed.
Have you identified some things in your life that may be the wrong thing to chase? It’s funny how as time goes by some of the things you found important at some time in the past don’t seem that important anymore. You could still be chasing them on autopilot. Once you give up the chase, the right things, the things you want in your life right now, have a chance to catch up to you and you can have what you really want. Give it a try and see if it happens for you, at the very least you won’t be wasting time on the wrong things anymore.
Ever get caught watching the clock and stressing out about the ticking seconds and thinking that you won’t be able to get your current task done in time? That’s a dangerous thing to do because the clock doesn’t stop unless the batteries go out on it. You should take the same approach and work with the clock rather than against it. It keeps ticking methodically and so should you. Make use of each second and don’t waste time because you’ll find that eventually you’ll be looking at the clock and stressing over it, which doesn’t produce anything.
There are many uncertainties in life, just like a swimming pool where you cannot see the bottom. We often dive into life with the uncertainty to diving into a pool. We are confident going in but we really have no idea what the outcome will be.
Life is a constant stream of new lessons to be learned. These lessons can only be lived through to understand and learn. One cannot learn from a second hand source about some factors of life. We must learn through our own experience.
Getting caught up in the cycle of living is simple. Work, eat, sleep, repeat. Our routine can become us. That’s not living; that’s surviving. You need a little bit of the wild to keep you fresh. Get outside and soak up the sun. Basically, stop and smell the roses.
We have little control over the circumstances around us. We are limited to seeking new employment, ending a relationship, dwelling on something or someone we’ve lost, or some other forfeiture. Instead, we must look at what we do have control over. We must go within and approach change as an opportunity for personal growth.
Covey is an expert on leadership. He knows that the only things in life are these three categories. You have your principles that come from deep within you which you must discover for yourself. Then you have choices to make. Each choice can lead you down a particular path which gives you the opportunity to grow and change.