Most people wake up and have a constant stream of negative thoughts until they go to bed.
And the majority of those thoughts will never actually happen. And the things that will,
don't even really matter or are simply going to be challenges that they're going to overcome.
It's funny that most people might not even realize this. It has become the norm. Unless
you've tried to become aware of your thinking or tried meditating, you might not even realize
what your mind is doing to you. Now the mind is probably one of the most powerful tools
that we have, but the more powerful something is, the more dangerous it is if a person doesn't
know how to be in control of it. It's literally like taking a chainsaw and giving to the guy
who has no control over his limbs. So why is that you want to become aware of this or
as Eckhart Tolle says, "watch the thinker?" Because it's killing you. The more we study
this, the more we realize that it's physically killing us. If you go outside and look at
people, you will see cortisol producing machines. That's literally what everyone has become.
And it'a apparent in how they walk and how they interact with each other. It is literally
killing you. Not only is it ruining your life, it's literally physically killing you. So
a lot of people have come to understand this, and most people have started to see the value
in becoming present. But really, there are two obstacles to becoming present. And it
is the past and the future. And people have an easier time reconciling the past with the
present, even though I'll still get questions like, "Oh, so uh, what are your biggest regrets
in life?" And I'm like, "Uh, I don't know." They're like, "Come on! You gotta have some."
But I really don't know, because I don't think about that. It just doesn't make sense to
take something that isn't and let it negatively affect something that is. And I think most
people understand that, maybe not in practice but at least in theory they understand that.
But the really big problem has come with the future and the present moment. How do you
reconcile those two? I want to set those powerful goals, I want to have a powerful vision, but
how do you reconcile that with being present to the moment? And there are really two kinds
of people. The first one is the classic rat racer. In two years, he's going to get a $2
raise, and that's all he's anxious and stressed out about for the next 2 years. After he gets
that $2 raise, he'll be quasi-happy for 2 minutes, and he'll be back to another 2 years
of stress and anxiety for another $2 raise. And that's most people. And then some of those
people will pick up the Bhagavad Gita or Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now and completely misunderstand
it and say, "Well, no more goals! That's just ego gratification! From now on I'm staying
fully present to the moment!" And honestly, anything's probably better than being a rat
racer, but ultimately you don't want to get stuck in either one of those paradigms. So
let's look at an analogy from Tal Ben-Shahar that should allow us to never ever have a
problem understanding how you can have a vision and goals and stay present to the moment at
the same time. Tal Ben-Shahar says, imagine you're a mountain climber. Okay, we all get
it. Happiness isn't in the peak. If a helicopter picked you up and dropped you off at the tip
of the mountain, you wouldn't say, "Oh, look! I'm a happy mountain climber! Look at how
proud I am of myself!" But he says, neither is it in aimlessly wandering at the base of
the mountain. Happiness is the experience of climbing towards the peak. And that's literally
how you want to look at it. You set up that powerful vision, that worthy goal of yourself
which is the peak, and then you follow that path that leads you there while you stay present
to the moment on the journey. And again there's going to be some guy that says, "Well, you're
taking out all the spirituality from Eckhart Tolle," or whatever. But look, you're obviously
misunderstanding it. Eckhart Tolle does not say don't plan. If that was the case, the
guy would still be sitting on a park bench instead of going on Operah and producing multiple
best-selling books.