present

John Lachs still has the best formulation of what we need to do, moment by moment, to gain steady life satisfaction. We must learn "to enjoy activities at the time we do them and for what they are..."

In shifting our gaze to the present we must not, and need not, forget the future. But here, in the attentive present, is where life must be worth living.

And what does it mean to be attentive is this way?

Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German. -William James, Principles of Psychology

If only doing were always as easy as knowing.