There are many psychological, philosophical and spiritual voices that have touted the importance of living in the moment. For example, Rother (2004: 122-230) informs his readers that they should live only for the hour and its allotted work, and calls upon them to live a day at a time, to be in the here and now and to not make decisions on the basis of the past or the future. However, the central thesis of this paper is just the opposite. The thesis is that if you live only for today, you shall ruin your tomorrow.
There are several reasons to support this paper's thesis. The first reason in support of this theory is the fact that without consideration of future desires and goals, the plans and actions necessary to meet these goals and satisfy these wishes would not be forthcoming. Getting what one desires often requires focusing on the future and planning for it, not just living in the now. For example, education, retirement, home ownership, being able to send one's children to college, preparing for possible job lossùall of these require considerable thought and actions that are directed not toward the moment, not toward the present, but toward what tomorrow might bring. Indeed, it could be argued that part of survival itself is preparing for the future. People who live in earthquake zones and prepare for that eventuality are likely to suffer less injury, less property loss, and less confusion than those who do not.
A second reason that supports the notion that living for today can ruin one's tomorrow involves relationships and the ability of focusing on the past to help us with present conflicts and upsets in our relationships. For example, if a spouse angers a person, one might consider how, in the past, he or she has engaged in the same sort of behavior that now is causing one so much anger and thereby forgive. Most all relationships can suffer if a person can't look past the negative things that are occurring in the mom...