From a very early age, we always seem to be planning ahead or striving for a bright future. When we’re young our parents start saving for college and planning for our futures. We begin school by attempting to earn the highest grades possible for a great education down the line, however, we seem to be perceiving things in the future, not the present.

Recently, a question was asked by a good friend, which was, “If you keep doing the same thing you’re doing, every day, constantly, where will you be in five years?” At first, I found myself giving an accurate description of my goals, which are to achieve high grades, graduate, then apply and get accepted into medical school and from there becoming a medical examiner. Yet, the question hadn’t really been answered. I hadn’t been asked where I was aiming to be in five years, I was being asked if I did everything as I was doing now, statically, where would I be. First, I began evaluating what I did on a daily basis. Wake up, meet my responsibility of either go to class, if not I would go with friends, something seemingly normal. Yet, I really evaluated my actions and realized that I wouldn’t get too far. It wasn’t because I lacked studies or my friendships weren’t up to par, yet it was because I didn’t think I was doing anything extraordinary.

Most of our lives are based on relatively ordinary things highlighted by extraordinary events such as trips, concerts, or other events. Yet, on the daily we have responsibilities, we work, we have to pay bills, which we perceive to be taking away from the extraordinary. However, if we do what we love, if day by day we engage in things we love, our lives become filled with extraordinary events. For instance, doctors who save lives daily, musicians who help their audience through a rough time without even knowing it. These are the events, the moments, which we live for. These moments, however, we’re only able to enjoy and obtain if we live our daily lives engaged. If we seize living our lives so much for the next moment than for the moment which we’re enjoying right now.

We tend to, unfortunately, live our lives planning for tomorrow that day by day we don’t really engage fully or enjoy our days. We live planning for college, the next exam, consumed by the idea of success.

Therefore, we should aim to live our daily lives engaged completely. Yes, goals do play a pivotal role in our lives and we should strive to meet them and we should strive to engage in thing that will help us meet them, yet we should be more engaged in the present as well.

Hence, today, tomorrow, and the next day make sure you live your days fully engaged, live them so engaged that if you did everything you did every day constantly you would not only meet your goals in five years but exceed them.