Imagine Napoleon on the battlefield, looking at a plan unfolding exactly as he thought. He observes that his prospects are rosy and positive. But he is indifferent to this. Always has been. “Even if it were otherwise,” he says, even if things were bad, “a man must live in the present. He who has courage despises the future.”
Because the future is meaningless and unimportant to the person who can bravely face and make the most of the present. The present moment is, as Marcus Aurelius would say, all you need. It’s enough. Good or bad. Scary or exciting. A man must live in the present and face it with courage. Starting today.