What matters in life is what you do next, no matter what happened.
- Magical Mindful Living
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
Introduction.
I heard this phrase from YouTube video and wondered that it is true. And it appears hold fundamental truth about life. "What matters in life is what you do next". Not what you have done, or not what you have planned for the next year. Some people would say, this is incorrect, that our past experience matters and our future plans are the most important. So, let's dive deep into the life to understand whether there is any truth.
Forget about the facts, I think this is great news for anyone who is used to procrastinate a lot. Including myself. Think about what it means. Imagine you are halfway through to the semester, and you have been partying all the time, not doing your homework. Now within next half semester you are supposed to study and pass the exam. And what would be more helpful than saying yourself "What matters in life is what I do next". And that would be a good way to kick start your engine. Because as Mike Posner once said, "Every journey begins with a one step".
Your past has less value than you think.
But we must look deeper. If we think that the above quote is true, it has two meanings, like I said earlier. First is, values we give to our past is far less important than what we assume. If we consider the above case scenario, this is why the work you have done will become relatively less important, if you continue to work better during the latter half of the semester. Even if we consider the extreme case scenario, a guy who has worked minimum during the semester, and crammed 7 days in a row without any break, out of fear, or out of courage, might still get better results on paper than someone who has done work entire semester. If you add some smartness to your work definitely it is going to make a better result. And we do not have to limit ourselves to the University life. If someone has been lazy until they are 40 years of age, what matters is the work they do in the year 41. Which will make a difference to the rest of his/her life. If you have been a drunkard until you are 89 years, what matters is what you do when you are 90, you might die sober, with a smile. If you have failed 99% of the time doing a startup, what matters is 100th attempt, not the 99 you lost.
Your future has less important than you think.
Now consider the future. You may have plans for next 5-10 years lined up. If you are an organized person. If not, you might just have an ambition. "To be rich" or "To be a Lawyer", to "Travel" or to do "Charity". But, whatever this future plan, has less value, than what you are experience right now. In a way this is exactly what I meant when I wrote previous article about the best feeling you can have is what you are experience now. This is just another way of framing that concept for a practical value.
Understanding these steps make me better equipped for life challenges. If you are sad, what will you do next will make you happy at the end of the day. If you are happy, what you chose to do next will keep you happy at the end of the day. Consider today, consider next hour, consider next minute, and you will catch the moment where everything happens right now. And the little thing that you chose to do, once you finish reading this article is where life is. Nothing more nothing less. And I can say, you are a mindful practitioner, if you chose to just do that. At least remember it when you are panicking a couple of days prior to your next exam.
There’s a math graph for this. What you do next, puts you on a specific vector. And you get a lifetime’s worth of “what you do next” opportunities after that, which will either continue on the same vector, or move in a different direction, starting a new vector.