understanding life

what is life , how to lead it, am i controlling my life or is life controlling me , these are few questions which are generally there in my mind. the more i read and understand views of some well known people and philosophies on life and religious fundamentals , i am am understanding how actually we are leading life our way. We curse the way circumstances are sometimes and complain about almost everything but some sometime i can seriously see and feel how our mind, our decisions and the way we do things actually is guiding our life and actually creating our life .
One line which has really touched my heart is " Every act is an act of self definition, we are not our past, we are and will be what we will create .... how true". how true , i feel.
We often dwell deep inti our past and also judge people according to their past, but fact is people change, they progress, we all progress and the only way we can judge our self and others is the way we are creating life right now . i am so impressed by these lines that i feel a enthusiasm and spirit to actually create my self . but as everyone else i am so stuck with my own self image and my past that i don't make so much effort in focusing on present and focusing on future.i so wish if we could all just use our wisdom and look at things in perspective and stick to defining ourselves with better acts...