That is one of my favorite quotes from the late, great Earl Nightingale.
What it really means is that all that really matters is NOW. This moment.
With practice you can learn to stay in the present, and that's where the magic happens!
We spend 30% of our time thinking about the past. Agonizing over what we could have or should have done. Kicking ourselves for not doing what we now realize was the "right thing."
We spend ANOTHER 30% of our time worrying about the future, most of which won't be anything like your fear told you it would be. That's 60% of your time and energy. Remember, where your awareness goes, energy flows. So don't put that energy in yesterday's relationship, or tomorrow's doubts. Yes, we live in the age of distraction, but only if you allow it.
Everyday YOU GIVE PERMISSION for hundreds of people, companies, and things to distract you. (Read that again, and really understand it!)
Yet one of life's sharpest paradoxes is that your brightest future hinges on your ability to pay attention to the present!
When we're at work, we dream about our upcoming vacation; on vacation, we worry about the work piling up on our desks. We constantly dwell on memories of the past or fret about what may or may not happen in the future. We don't appreciate the living present because we allow our minds to run wild. In Buddhism they call this phenomenon "monkey mind", because you go from thought to thought like a monkey swinging tree to tree.
Most of us don't undertake our thoughts in awareness. Rather, our thoughts control us. In order to feel more in control of our minds and our lives, to find the sense of balance that eludes us, we need to step out of this energy current, to pause, and rest in stillness—to stop doing and focus on just being.