You cannot make tomorrow into anything brighter or better than your potential to be present to yourself in the moment — present to any fears that are trying to convince you to take actions about tomorrow.

If you plant a fear seed you grow a fear tree. Our worries about our tomorrows have nothing whatsoever to do with the way we excuse ourselves for them. You could be the most passionate man or woman in the world about your tomorrow. You could have the greatest expectations in the universe for success and excellence in the moment to come. That wish, that longing, that natural aptitude we have to want to be excellent beings has nothing whatsoever to do with the tomorrows that we envision — where something has gone wrong and that’s why we have to protect ourselves in the present moment. Real excellence in a human being never protects itself; it’s always fulfilling its own potential by catching the fear that would drive it to what it calls perfection.

Any person who punishes themselves out of the belief that “everything that isn’t planned for tomorrow is a punishment for me” is living with a false responsibility. The true responsibility is to be actively present. A man or woman learns to be passionate about the moment because they’re present to it. They’re patient in the moment and they recognize that the moment is the seed. Tomorrow is not what matters. What matters is my attention to where we are and what we are and what’s moving through us right now.