I recently thought about when I first started writing and found it hard to believe that it had been ten years. I started looking at time differently and I became more aware how fast it was ticking by. This time last year now seemed so close after recalling where I was in my life; it was scary to feel that so much more could’ve been accomplished.

Soon I had an array of references of how much time I had wasted and moments where I had begun something new and how much progress would’ve been made had I kept it up. I felt down and deflated and it was hard to shake it and still is. Even though I know the past is the past and it cannot be changed it’s hard to not bring it up and dwell on it when there’s the slightest bump in the road.

I recently came across a way of thinking when it came to time that is also an old adage: ‘take one day at a time.’ It’s so simple but it can be hard to apply at times and guide your mind away from worries about the future and concerns that don’t even exist. I tried applying this to my writing and thought about focusing on book at a time, a paragraph at a time or even a sentence if need be and living in the flow of now.

This reminded me of a philosophy that’s referenced a lot in Sikhi, which talks about breath. That our life is just this one breath, and nothing exists but that. I found it quite empowering as it allowed me to let go of all the times I had failed or let myself down, and especially those times that I felt I wasted, which hindered my current actions.

I’ve always believed that there’s a lesson in everything. In this case I realised how short time is and how each day needs to be a building block towards what you want to achieve. That to achieve something great happens by thinking small (something I heard Dr Wayne Dyer once say) and putting the majority of your focus on the present. Dr Wayne Dyer also gave an example of this and talked about tennis players and how they put very little of their focus on winning a Grandslam but instead take one point at a time. That is what he meant by thinking small and I will certainly take on this approach for my writing.