In all of this talk on developing better Focus, and learning to better appreciate what I am doing I have come across this problem, a problem best summed up in this quote:
~ Nobody seems more obsessed by diet than our anti-materialistic, otherworldly, New Age spiritual types. But if the material world is merely illusion, an honest guru should be as content with Budweiser and bratwurst as with raw carrot juice, tofu and seaweed slime ~For most of my life, up until a couple of years ago the above quote represented an important point to me. If you really believed in an after life, and wanted to focus on the here and now, who cared if you had that double cheeseburger and fries? If you really and truly lived only in the present then the goal should be to enjoy that present, right?
Edward Abbey
Of course that sort of philosophy leads to the following:
Eat, Drink and be Merry;The lesson being to be focused on the present, in order to enjoy it, and savor it, but be mindful of the future, there are lessons to be learned, and consequences to be avoided if possible.
End up Fat and Drunk
The opposite problem is to be too mindful of the past and lessons learned there. This coming from someone who treasures his past, whose greatest joy from Facebook comes from reuniting with old friends and acquaintances. But you can get obsessed by that, and live in the past, and let past lessons paralyze you in the present.
In this I prefer to try to think like a child. Kids really don't think much about the past, it's just a kind of hazy thing, because it is either very close, or because their sense of time is different it really doesn't mean anything to them. You never hear a child talk about how great they were at something when they were younger. You never hear kids sit around and talk about their 'glory days'.
All of the above can be summed up:
Learn from the past, Focus on the present, Consider the future
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