Do you constantly think about the past or fantasize about the future?  If you do, you are missing the ONLY way to have a great life – living in the present moment.  When you live in the past or the future:

1. You are always in your head thinking, never just experiencing the moment.

•       Thinking your way through life, you have kept the energy above the neck, and it needs to be below the neck, in the heart.  When the mind is quiet, the heart opens.  Only then, can you experience joy.
•       Thinking keeps you one step away from the action.  The action is the moment and anything else is either the past or the future.
•       Remember, even when you are in the past or the future, it is thinking that is taking place in the present moment. (The koan of living in the present moment)

1. Fantasizing is different than actually doing something about your dreams.
   • There is nothing wrong with planning for the future; that is very different than feeling your life cannot begin until some future date.  If you are WAITING for something to happen before you will feel good, what you are waiting for, even if it comes, will never make you feel good for very long.

1. Always talking about the past keeps you stuck and fearful.

•       We keep going to the past because we are immobilized.  We may rationalize that the future is scary but that is only because we refuse to accept the present moment and make the required changes. 
•       Memories are wonderful but they do not substitute for a life today, right now. 

1. Know that the future is nothing more than the present projected forward.

•       I often have clients that wonder what the future will be like.  I tell them that if they do nothing different than what they are doing today, that what they have at this moment will be their future, the same way today was last month your future. 
•       At every moment you are living out your destiny (what you have created in the past) and at the very same moment you are creating your future by how you deal with what has come to you.

In a national competition, Chandra Alexander, MSW, was selected by THE OPRAH MAGAZINE as the Life Coach to deliver a series of coaching sessions to the grand prize winner of their prestigious Toyota Moving Forward contest. She also spent five years on NBC/TV “DAYTIME” giving a weekly “Reality Check”. Chandra has been living and teaching authenticity for the last 30 years and is the founder of Coaching for Authenticity, a place to explore and discover the essence of who you really are.