Goals are the guides all through our life. We all have goals that we are moving towards and making a great effort to achieve. This is a good thing. Or can it be bad? How many of us never reach our goals and yet we have tried so hard and really thought about nothing else? I believe the mistake most of us make is that we do not focus on our present situation.
Let me explain. Most of us see our present situation as a stepping stone that we use simply as a means of reaching our final destination. We don’t take time to truly appreciate where we are today and all the great things we already have in our lives. We should focus our attention on the journey and not on the destination, or we will miss the beautiful scenery along the way.
Let’s use our job as an example. Now most of us want a promotion. We have plans to become the manager or general manager in our companies. Unfortunately, most of us will never reach the goal, but will watch others achieve our goal instead.
What we should be doing is focusing on the job we are currently in now. Forget where we want to get to and just focus on the present. You see, what we can control is our performance in our current job. We can decide to be the best we possibly can in our current job. Now this may mean further education to have the skills we currently do not have. It may mean working harder to produce better results than our colleagues. It could simply be a change of attitude, such as stopping complaining and becoming a more devoted and supportive employee. By doing our current job to the best of our abilities, we in fact give ourselves the best chance of promotion.
So the best thing for all of us to do to achieve our goals is to just focus on what we have and where we are now. Do the best and be the best we possibly can in our current situations, and we will give ourselves the very best chance of reaching our goals in the future. We have heard the old sayings and they are true: “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”, “Patience is a virtue”, and so on.
Have patience, have appreciation of what we already have, and take time to help ourselves be the very best we can. Do these things and we will all reach our goals, but more importantly, we will enjoy our life every day.

Title	Focus on the present
Theme	To (76) ______ our goals, we should focus on what we have and where we are now.
Common (77)______	﹡We do not focus on our present situation. ﹡Most of us see our present situation as a stepping stone to our final destination. ﹡We do not spend the time truly (78)______ where we are today and what we already have in our lives.
(79)______—our job	﹡(80)______ the thought of getting promoted. What we should do is (81)______ our best to do our current job. ﹡To be the best in our current job, we should get further education, work harder than (82)______, stop complaining and (83)______ ourselves to our job.
Conclusion	If we are (84)______, grateful for what we have, and take time to help ourselves be the very best we can, we can not only (85)______ in the future, but also enjoy our life every day.