Where Do We Fit in the Dimension of Time?

Where do we exist in the realm of time?

How does our past influence our future?

How much importance should we place on what has happened on the past, and how far into the future should we be looking? Would it be okay to simply live in the present? Is that even possible?

Everyone is so concerned with the future (finding jobs, relationships, money, etc.) that we cease to treasure and savor the now--the present.

Time past and time future
Allow but a little consciousness,
To be conscious is not to be in time

T.S. Eliot: Burnt Norton

Past, Present, Future

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present

From: "Burnt Norton"
T.S. Eliot