“That the path to personal happiness and inner peace is through the extinguishing of all desire to have or to affect things beyond one’s control and through living for the present without hope for or fear of the future; beyond the power of opinion.”
– Zeno of Citium, 300 – 260 B.C.
If we are anxious, we are living in the future, if we are depressed, we are living in the past, if we are content, we are living in the present.
As long as we can be confident that our actions are right for the moment, regardless of whether something went well, our conscience can be clear. Once we understand that the only time we have control of is in the moment, then we can avoid anxiety by focusing purely on what needs to be done now.