Mind Over Matter: The Self-Discipline to Execute Without Excuses, Control Your Impulses, and Keep Going When You Want to Give Up (Live a Disciplined Life Book 11)

by Peter Hollins

Someone who focuses on the present lives primarily in “the now.” They react most powerfully to what their senses are showing them at the moment. They tend to be very concrete in their thinking, choosing to orient themselves toward “what is” rather than what happened in the past or what could happen in the future. The “present” mindset can be broken down even further into two distinct camps: those who embrace the possibilities of the present (we’ll call them “hedonists”) and those who don’t like the present but feel they have no other choice but to live in it (we’ll call them “fatalists”). The present-hedonistic person finds opportunities in the current time and is happy to indulge in what’s happening around them now. They’re the ones who go to parties, embrace adventures in unfamiliar places, or interact with society on an ongoing basis. They’re happy to take risks and don’t necessarily care too much about the consequences (or have plans to mitigate the results if they have to). The present-fatalist person doesn’t really want to be focused on the present, but they don’t feel the future holds anything for them. They sense that somebody or something else—whether it’s their social circle, financial realities, religion, or “luck”—is in control of their lives and consider the whole game of existence to be “rigged.” Their expectations and hopes have been dashed, and they don’t feel any need to work for the future because they don’t believe they have one. What both of the present...