07-20-08 – The Moment is NOW

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what is within our control, and what is not. The conclusion I’ve come to is that there is almost no moment within our control, yet we have the capability to control almost every moment of every day. Now, this may sound contradictory, so let me explain what I mean.

When I say there is almost no moment within our control, I mean we can’t control the past, because it’s already history, and we can’t control the future, because it hasn’t happened yet. The only moment we can exert any control over is the moment we’re living in right now. Granted, there are times when things are just beyond our control, and there’s nothing we can do about that, but NOW is the only moment we have any chance to control. I don’t mean that we shouldn’t use some of the NOW moments to plan for the future; we just have to recognize that a lot of it may change due to circumstances beyond our control.

I know this idea is not unique, because I have read it in various places, just in different words. I’ve been looking up a lot of weight loss blogs this weekend, and I found a funny little tidbit related to this idea. Unfortunately, even after scouring through my history pages for the weekend, I can’t find the blog it was posted on, but here it is –

If you have one foot in yesterday,

and one foot in tomorrow,

then you’re pissing all over today.

I’m not sure if I got that exactly right, but it’s pretty funny. The point is, today is the day we can control. Yesterday may as well be ancient history for all we can do about it, and tomorrow may never arrive.

I’ve spent a monumental amount of time during my adult life preoccupied with mistakes I made yesterday, and mistakes I made on all of yesterday’s yesterdays. Meanwhile, I was repeating the same mistakes today, and I was repeating them over and over. Overeating again and again and again. In other words, I was pissing all over today.

I hope that the journey that I’ve begun over the past 3 1/2 months is going to lead to a better, healthier life, and I’m sure that it will, as long as I control the moment that is NOW. So, why am I bringing this all up now? First of all, I just wanted to post it for all to read. Maybe, like me, you’ve read about or heard this idea from many different sources. I think it’s a good way to approach weight loss. Also, I was bad yesterday on my meal plan. I’m not sure what happened, but here’s what I think – I ate a light diet on Wednesday, and clear liquids on Thursday plus the colonoscopy laxative prep, then had the colonoscopy on Friday, so I ate light on Friday. Yesterday, when I woke up, I was ravenously hungry, and I was unable to quell that hunger. The cheat involved olives, which of course are loaded with fat and sodium. Now, I think a couple olives is OK, because it’s good fat, but I didn’t eat a couple of olives. I ate about 30 olives. Then, I ordered a pizza. I’m surprised I didn’t make myself physically sick.

So, what is the point here? I can’t turn back the clock and take yesterday back. I can’t change it. It’s ancient history. I can, and have, learned from the mistake. I know now that the next time I have a colonoscopy, which will hopefully be after I turn 50, I will have to deal with ravenous hunger the day after. Yesterday is now beyond my capability to control, and I’m not going to expend any mental energy obsessing about it. I’ve already made my mental note about the experience, so it’s over with and done. Today is within my capability to control, and today I’m being good. Tomorrow isn’t here yet, so there’s no sense worrying about it.

I think we spend far too much time worrying about moments that we can’t control, and this ends up ruining the present moment, which gives great fodder for future ruminations on past moments. It’s a vicious circle. Going forward, I’m going to try and stay within the confines of the present moment, because it’s the only moment I can control. I can’t control the past. I can’t control the future. The Moment is NOW.