Veronica Cummings:

Hi Stephen,
Your question came at a time in life for me when I am also asking myself similar questions as to how did I find myself in this situations I am presently experiencing. Only this morning in my daily devotion I got an answer to one of my pressing questions which I will share with you. Then you also gave me another answer. First let me share what I heard in my spirit this morning.
1. After working at my goals in life that would change the lives of many people now and in the future, I found myself going through years of waiting and a lot of repetitions in certain areas. When I think that this is the final challenge or hurdle to climb over then I am face with another pressing one. Quiting is not the answer so even though I may feel discourage at times and wanting to find a way out of it I realize that I cannot run but face it until I am successful. So my greatest lesson I learn this morning is I have to allow things to work out I have to be patience and do what I have to do and wait for the universe to respond to me in the wright time or wright event. In other words I have to pass the tests that faces me and are most challenging.
2. Yes the future definitely create the present. Why do you think anyone work so hard at things? Because there are goals to achieve. Goals are our future and quiting leave you with the sad comments of “If I only had known or done this?” So yes this answer allows me to even go on and wait for my breaking day for it already has happens waiting to materialize.
Thanks for your questions and your answers I am indeed encourage especially after reading most of the comments that others share.
Peace for all is well. Remember the lessons cannot be learn without failures or challenges.

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Barb Stark:

Stephen, looking down the barrel of a gun must have been frightening!!

I don’t know how you do it. Every day you have something new that is interesting.

I am learning a lot from the talk back.

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Jimmi:

Hi Stephen,

You do indeed pose an interesting question and in return I will leave my 5 cents of feedback.
I believe Einstein said that time is an illusion; time is actually an idea that man created and it enables us to define the things that have happend, -that are happening now and the things that are yet to happen – past, present and future. If man were suddently to disappear from the face of the earth, then the illution of time would have to disappear also and there would only remain one existing time; the present moment and the present is also eternity.
The point is that weather we call it past, present or future, it’s actually the same “time” we are talking about and consequently they must ALL have an influence on eachother. So the past has an effect on the present and thereby the future; but the future also has an effect on the present and therefore also the past (since each present moment becomes the past by a fraction of a second).

In my opinon however, there is only one time where action can ever occur and that is the present. So the question is, what motivates the present action? Is it the past or the future?
I would say this very question devides man into two groups; so there are two kinds of people in this aspect.

There are people who’s actions are based upon their past experiences.
Whenever they set out to do something – anything – they compare the “goal” with their past experience and ask; does it fit?
If the goal they wish to acchieve is far beyond anything they have ever done, seen or experienced before; then they say it’s wrong or that it cannot be done and consciously or unconsciously they give up on it.
These are the people who in my opinon have the “realistic goals”; Realistic being everything they (or someone) have already done, acchieved and/or experienced. If one sets out to acchieve realistic goals, then that person can never acchieve nor experience ANYTHING new. – If this person has never had a succesful business, then s/he will never get a succesful business because that would be unrealistic when compared with the past.
In other words; this kind of person projects the past into the future and shoots for it (the person may not even be aware of this by the way). A person will for example experience failure over and over again, simply because s/he focuses on the past failures – by keeping a focus on the past failures, “failure” itself becomes the goal. Our goals are not set by what we say or think that we want, but by what we keep our eyes and attention on.
In short, they act now – their actions being based on the past – and the future becomes a recreation of their past.

The other kind of people are the ones I would define as having unrealistic goals.
The goals they shoot for and focus on have not been done before and therefore pose brand new experiences, acchievements and results.
When weighing their new goals against the past experiences there is no- or only little indication that it is even possible – there is no “evidense”, so to speak, from the past to reasure them that the goal is even obtainable. This does not matter however, because these people do not use the past as their point of reference; their point of reference is a higher faculty because their set goal is somewhat intangerble – so they keep their focus on the very idea or the vision they have in their head. They project into the future what they want now and this motivates their actions now to create that future.

About a hundred years ago someone had an idea of building an airplane – the very first one of it’s kind. – (The idea is dated further back I know).
However the first type of person I described would never be able to acchieve this. As a matter of fact, such a person would not even be able to believe it. – Their “reason” to explain their disbelief would be: “It has never been done before” and they would define the very idea as being impossible. (How many times in history have these people been proven wrong?)

The second type of person is exactly the kind of person who did acchieve this unrealistic goal. This unrealistic goal is now a common fact, simply because someone chose NOT to let the past represent a limit as to what can be acchieved.

So the two kinds of people are really; the ones who places a limit on what can be done, and the ones who crosses that imaginary line and turns the impossible into a fact.

So the future does indeed affect the present and visa versa. But how do You approach the future?
Are You backing your way into the future dragging all of your past experiences with You? Or are You leaving the past behind and walking towards the future with eyes front?

Personally I would define man as an incredible being with a fully build-in and operateable goal-seeking-device. It seems to me, that the very purpose of our lives are to set goals and acchieve them; only to set yet another goal.
Whenever we focus on something, we are actually working our way towards it weather we realise it or not. You may want to be wealthy, succesful, healthy, happy and what-not, but are these different goals getting enough attention? Or is your attention fixed upon the past and/or fixed on misseries and want-not’s?
Whatever you focus on is actually what you place in your future and your actions right now will take you there.

I will finish this somewhat longstretched feedback with two quotes that I like very much.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results” – Benjamin F.

“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading” – Lau Tzu

Kind regards

Jimmi

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Michael:

The future creates the present and the present creates the future is the battle we all face. I think we would be better off if we left the past behind and reinvented ourselves everyday.

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Danny Arrington:

SP,
Here is my take on it. A thought is a form of energy that is experienced or “manifested”. For example, a so-called “memory” is a thought. Some people use their memories to create significant feelings of pain and thus their past is what creates their present. Others leverage their painful past and create tremendous success.

So from that perspective, your memories or your past can create your present.

But that is not really the question. Since the momentum the world has right now is focused on what is possible and attracting what we really want, the question you pose is perfect.

I believe that the brain cannot tell a difference between a desire and a memory. If you have created enough neural pathways to your vision, then it is as real as a memory. Thus if you choose to ALLOW it to be, your future can and will create your present.

If you can “experience” your past as either painful or joyful, then your brain will also allow you to experience your vision or future in the present as either painful or joyful.

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Dinah:

hai Stephen,
I will try it out.
I think it is a mind shift. For me it works to think of the future goals instead of thinking of the present effort. It makes it lighter and you can look at today from an overview. I am someone easy to procrastinate of fearfailure in the moment so this is a good help to see it differently. Also it takes the pressure of the now moment in showing the bigger picture why you have to do what you have to do today.
thanks have a good week!!

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Ken Fairchild:

Good morning Stephen,

I say good morning because as usual I am wide awake at 4:00 a.m. This is my first time to listen in. An interesting if somewhat irrelevant topic. I find it interesting that people get involved in such analysis. Your story of being shot is a good place to start, as you did. You asked the question(s) “what did I do that led me here?” and I’m pretty sure there were a bunch of other questions that went along with that question. So how did this lead into an analysis of did my future create this event. My answer would be that it wasn’t your future but rather your past actions that set the stage for you laying on your back with a bullet in your leg. The stage for your past actions was set by your perception, or lack of such, of how you wanted your future to look.

If in our youth we are given a solid foundation for our life, i.e. what is life about, how am I suppose to act toward others, how am I to respond to adversity, etc, we are less likely to follow a path where such events are possible. But the critical point is not what “happens” to us, an out side event but how we “respond” to what happens, internal event. As you pointed out, you could have remained in the “woe is me” mind set or you could go on to “this happened, how do I deal with it” approach.

Any time we enter a game, we, to be successful, have to find out the rules. Once we know at least the fundamentals, how we play will determine our final score.

Our kind Father in Heaven placed us here to first of all learn the rules and then play in such a way as to be able to return and be with Him. The fundamental rules are pretty simple, embodied in the 10 commandments. Our relationship with our Father is pretty well summed up in the simple statement “As man is now, God (or Father) once was and as God is now man may become”. Understanding this pretty well points us in the right direction. The difficult part is the doing or becoming. It is our job to decide how we will respond, i.e. will be love our fellow men (and women) as our selves, will we treat them with love, respect and integrity, will we treat ourselves with love, respect and integrity, will we use our time here productively and to the betterment of others as well as ourselves? It is not so much whether the future creates our present but about our actions in the here and now.

And again, it isn’t about whether the next second destroys the last or not. I don’t think Einstein’s intent was for us to ponder the relationship of past, present and future time to the exclusion of action. While such makes for interesting discussion it is hardly relevant to our lives since it is our actions that count. Our Father doesn’t measure time but times and seasons were assigned to this earth for our benefit, to give us a reference, to let us know that when we have used (or wasted) a day, we have spent an irreplaceable resource. It is up to us to make the most of the “time” we have been alloted, be it past, present or future.

There are other purposes to this life, such as gaining a body that will eventually be eternally united with our spirit that lends meaning for this life, even to the infant who dies shortly after drawing its first breath. In our Father’s realm, nothing is wasted and we should follow His example.

I hope I have not totally confused the issue but in short, our mindset, our vision of what we want our future to be, our willingness to take action and make it the right action and a miriad of other factors, all in the present create our actual future. In “The Secret” they speak of “creating our future in our minds first” to attract our desires. This is just another tool for mapping where we want to go. If we have a strong vision we are more apt to take action than if we haven’t really given our future a thought, the case for far too many, something I would hope changes in my lifetime.

Thanks for the stimulating discussion.
Ken

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Martin Jeszke:

Hi Stephen,

Great post and a interesting topic to relate to.

I was once strangled by a violent individual, stop breathing for nearly 2 minutes and was ultimately saved by the sound of a bell. Managed to regain my breath in the nick of time.

Such an experience gives you a deeper sense of Focus and a different perspective on Life. You ultimately appreciate the value of Life more and the Future has an immediate impact on your Present.

It is often the case where a quickly taken decision in the Present can influence our Future. Definitely our Future creates the Present. I completely agree with you.

My best

Martin Jeszke

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Ted Mauro:

I would have to say that both are true. The future in our minds create the actions we take today and the actions we take today shape our future.
Twitter: http://www.pool-billiards-game.com

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Ian Kwok:

It is what we want to be in the future that determine our course of action today. Looking back into the past should only serve as a reminder of the shortcomings in our action then and should not affect our action now to pursue our ultimate goals.

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Roosevelt Cooper:

Hi Stephen,

I agree with Raymond where he said…

“In my opinion, the present and the future are creating each other.”

However, I would like to add to that.

I believe that the past, the present AND the future determine our future. Here’s what I mean…

You created a future vision for where you wanted your life to go. That future vision had a direct impact on the actions that you took in the present, which in turn had a direct impact on where your life eventually ended up.

However, if you never got shot (your past), I’m not sure if you would have ever had that moment of disgust where you were sick and tired of where your life was that caused you to create that future vision, that caused you to take the actions necessary to make that future a reality.

So I say that the past, the present and the future determine our future.

Roosevelt Cooper
http://www.web204mlm.com

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Simon Collyns:

Certainly very thought provoking material here, about Life, Man (and Woman), and Time (the past, present and future). I think we all know that the past shapes the future, but I had no idea that the future shapes the present, and I thank you for this profound insight. SC. they say

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Mark Collard:

Stephen, your conclucion reconciles with mine. There is NO DOUBT – the FUTURE CREATES THE PRESENT.

Anyone who has studied success, listened to your earlier DTAlpha chats, or even completed the Landmark Education curriculum will tell you that the BE –> DO –> HAVE equation is the only way to live life powerfully.

I won’t add anything further to what Stephen and other here have said that agrees with this notion, but I am compelled to add a quick note about the impact our PAST has on our future.

Most people, and I do mean MOST people, can’t see their future because their past is blocking their view. Lots of us can’t let go of stuff, or make up stories of things that might happen (because of the past), that we place it mentally before us all the time. So bad, that it clogs our vision of what is possible in the future. You have to get complete with the past, remove it from your future, and create a clearing or blank canvas on which you can DO ANYTHING.

Anything is possible working from a blank canvas. But if it is filled with crap from the past, our options are limited.

So Stephen, yep I agree with you, but I think you have only discussed half the equation. It is important to understand that creating a blank canvas in the present (by removing the past) is CRITICAL to success.

What do others think about this?

’til next time, Mark

How To Win Lotto Frequently – Guaranteed!

Top Selling Activity Book “No Props: Great Games with No Equipment” by Mark Collard

[Reply]

Christina Chow:

Stephen, first I want to thank you for just talking about the issue of time, and telling us your story. Here are my thoughts: I agree with Ekhart Tolle when he said, “the only power there is, is contained within this moment… and that the past cannot prevail against the power of the Now”. In a way, Tolle’s statement agrees with Stephen in that one must be at peace with one’s past. It seems to me, nevertheless, that the time factor is a pure invention. It is whatever we wish to call it. I remember what the science fiction author Ray Bradbury said in one of his stories, that there is no such thing as time, since the future takes place so soon, that as we speak of the “now”, this “now” already belongs to the past. So, there might not be a future, or a present or a past, and yet we feel that there is something going on, that something is present, and something is about to happen… and therefore, I have arrived at the conclusion that there is only present. Even what we call the past or the future belong to the present. You may say that you have made lots of mistakes in the past, but they are not gone, because thanks to those mistakes you are right now in a different place… The past stays with you forever and the future, even though it has not happened, is bound to happen. So, the future also stays with you forever. What is important is actually our ability, our skill to be in peace with our self, our life, our present. This skill, which has never been taught in school, demands excellence. How much do we know about how to be in peace with our self, with our life, with our present? I mean, so what if so and so has happened to you in the past! So what if so and so will happen to you tomorrow! It is still you that you have to face, and accept, and do something with it, and decide whether you want to empower yourself with it or give up the decision. What is interesting is the question: what is the present? does the present have any limitation? Do we, human beings, have the power to change our present? and if what Tolle says is true and the power lies in the “now”, how is it not possible that we can change the “now”, and the “then” and the “next”? First, we must identify what is the present, and then, be aware of what does the word “present” really means. We can also understand our past,its characteristics, its purpose, its meaning in our life, and we can forgive or accept or decide to depart from that situation and do this now, and so on. Does this answer your question, Stephen? Please let me know. Best, christina

[Reply]

Jeff:

Stephen,
There is only ‘The Present’, there is no ‘The Future’ and no ‘The Past’ in reality.
As a human being however, we can create the future while we are experiencing the present, and we can remember the past.
So to answer the question “Does the Present create the Future or the Future create the Present?”
First we need to be clear that it is only “Our Future” that we are looking at.
So the question could be, “Does the Present create Our Future, or does Our Future create the Present?”
The answer is, that as human beings that Our Future creates the Present.
It is the Future that we foresee that creates Our Experience in the present.

To illustrate: Imagine that you are holding a winning lottery ticket and the prize is $2 million. You are not going to see that money for 1 month however. What is your experience? Knowing that in 1 month you will receive the prize.
Yip Yar!
Now instead of the ticket, imaging that you are holding a summons to appear in court to face charges in 1 month.
The experience in the present will be different yes?
The thing to see is that both those scenarios involve something that will happen in 30 days, nothing is actually happening in the present regarding either. You don’t have the money, and you are not in court.

From the illustrations it can be seen that we are always experiencing the present based on some perceived future. The Past is influencing what we perceive in our future. The past limits what we consider possible in the future.
Problem is we don’t relate to the Future as being given by the Past. We are so limited by the Past, that we don’t even know we are messing with our Future by projecting from the Past.

You got that Stephen.
And you created the Future without counsel from the Past.
You created a Future that the Past would have told you was not possible.
And that Future effected your thoughts and actions in the Present.

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PJ Haenelt:

I read the book the Power of Now and really believe in the full experience of NOW. It is the vision
of the future that creates our now. We have to act in the NOW on the vision to create the future. I
have used goal setting as my tool to acomplish my dreams. Every time I set these goals they come to
pass. Just another way to say what you said in your talk. I Love the Life I live and Live the Life
I Love. My situation in life is always improving. I try to make all my choices positive to keep me
on track but the most important thing in my life is to have fun living it and that is what I have
done. I regret nothing. One thing I observed in my rich uncle, aunt and cousin is that they never had
enough and never really found happiness because they just thought that money would buy happiness but
all it did was give them more choices. They were always afraid of losing it. I have what I need and
always strive for more but never worry about losing it. That’s just how I feel but I could be wrong
but don’t care because I am having fun.

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Nicky:

For me this is an ‘and/and’ world rather than an ‘either/or’ perspective. Thus my answer echoes all that you have said but it comes out a little diffently! There is ONLY the present moment, the eternity of the now, therefore all creativity happens in the NOW. However, POSSIBILITY is perceived to manifest in the the future, a pure illusion when all is NOW. We know that the CONCEPTION takes place NOW, the PREGNANCY is invisible at first but gradually makes itself more and more known and then we give BIRTH in the future – which is then the NOW. So the answer is yes and yes. Have fun, Nicky

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Sorority Websites:

Yes, It is awesome. Thanks for sharing

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