“Even a stopped clock is right twice every day.  After some years, it can boast of a long series of successes.”

– Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

Living in the moment is a good way to live your life.  When we live in the moment, it means we don’t spend our precious time dwelling on past mistakes or worrying about what the future might bring.  It also means that we don’t waste our precious time reflecting on our successes and rob ourselves of the chance to live fully and perhaps achieve some new moment of satisfaction.

Failure can drag us down.  There is nothing like the small voice inside a person to make her feel small or inadequate as it recounts the times when her efforts fell short of the goal.  If we are to live fully in each new minute, we must work at silencing the critical voice that holds us back from the whole-hearted pursuit of being alive.

Equally harmful is the voice that lists our achievements as though the past were so important that we should spend our present recalling yesterday’s success.  Although the remembering might be pleasant, it leaves us no time to forge new memories or attain new awareness about being alive.

Perhaps the example of the stopped clock should cause us to pause and think.  Not every success is ours to claim.  Some are happy accidents.  Likewise, not every failure is something to be carried as a burden.  Some of those simply fall into our path.  What matters is making sure our clock still runs and that we make it our promise to be fully alive in each passing minute.  Two times a day is not enough for us to feel alive and successful.  Let’s leave the past to reside in the past.  Remember its lessons, and carry its wisdom, but live now.  Right this minute.