Stop Living In Tomorrow

Worrying about the future is distracting you from the present

One night, I got back to my apartment after a long game, and just sat on the couch pondering over how I played. I was stuck thinking about things that didn’t go my way on the field, and how they could affect my future.

In an attempt to distract myself, I open up my bible and start to read.

I just so happened to stumble upon this in Chapter 6 of Matthew’s Gospel:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life… do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”

I froze. Chills ran down my spine. I was stuck beating myself up over things that already happened, thinking about a future that didn’t exist yet. With all that going on in my head, I was completely distracted from the present moment.

Stressing over things adds nothing to your life. It diverts your attention from the joys and opportunities of the present by keeping you hung up on the past and future.

“Oh wow great point, I think I’ll just never stress again.”

Oh if only it were that simple.

Here’s what I found to be the key to avoiding stress and focusing on the present:

Shifting from Passive to Active state of mind.

I was spending more mental energy thinking about what might happen to my career (passive) instead of thinking about how I could improve today (active).

When you are in a passive state, you are mostly thinking about things happening to you, mostly things beyond your control. You are anticipating a potential bad outcome, one that creates some type of fear. You find yourself leaning into distractions, avoiding major responsibilities, or even zoning out of the present moment.

When you are in an active state, your gaze is fixed on the opportunities and responsibilities right in front of you in the present moment, because you know that how you engage with the present can affect your future outcome. You cannot control everything, but you at least want to make the most of what you’ve been blessed with.

I always want to stay in an active state of mind, but sometimes life causes me to slip back towards the passive. Here’s 2 ways I found that help me stay locked in as the aggressor without worrying about the future.

1. Detach from things beyond your control

As a professional athlete, competing every day, grinding to reach the top, there’s always an abundance of external noise, speculation, and influence. You find yourself thinking about your career all the time, sometimes for better or for worse.

This can often be a distraction from the work and opportunity right in front of me. Almost like an invitation back into the passive state.

The only thing I can control is working as hard as I can each day, competing as best I can each time I take the field, and being the best version of myself every day. The only day that matters is today.

2. Obtain confidence through evidence

Sometimes we experience worry and doubt due to some type of failure or lack of confidence. Confidence creates focus and conviction, so it’s something we must have to be fully present in an active state of mind.

I have found the best way to obtain true confidence, not fake self-talk, is to have an actual process that works. This process creates evidence that we have the skills to achieve what we are working towards. This evidence then becomes the source of our confidence.

For example: If I need to improve a certain pitch, I throw that pitch during my training sessions in a way that yields measurable improvements. Now I am going into my next game with a new level of confidence in that pitch that I did not have before.

I read through Matthew 6, meditated on it, and reminded myself of the opportunity I have been blessed with: living out my dream as a professional baseball player.

I practiced what I just preached to you. I let go of all the noise and everything beyond my control. I re-evaluated my routines and figured out what part of my game I needed to work on. I saw real results in a very short time which got me excited to get back on the field again.

When my name got called to go pitch again, I was more than ready.

Filled with excitement, energy, confidence, but also with a sense of calmness that helped me focus on throwing one pitch at a time.

If you are constantly hung up on the past and worried about the future, you can be completely oblivious to the present right in front of you. There are so many opportunities and blessings every single day.

Sure life can be filled with hardship, suffering, and adversity, I’m not denying that. But I’d rather spend my life competing for the future I want than worrying about the one I’m afraid of.

Detach from what you can’t control. Build evidence you can trust. Let today be the only day that matters.

- MT