The future is not in the past.

It is important to look forward. To want to be more than what you are. Because if there is no progress, what is the point of action? If the status remains the same despite your best efforts, why even try? Action should cause reaction, a wave, a ripple of some kind, just to have meaning.

"Words offer the means to meaning, and to those who will listen, the enunciation of truth." - Alan Moore

 People want different things from life. Some desire greatness, power over others. Some wish financial success and material wealth. Some value intelligence over anything else and thus wish to make significant contributions to science, some believe that the thing that makes them feel the best is making others feel better. Others merely want a family to call their own and financial security, to live in love and not in poverty. Some are satisfied by a simple life on a farm, away from the busy sprawling cities. We all have our hopes and dreams, and certain things we can be happy with. Certain milestones or objectives that are more than mere waypoints on our road of life. They are the steps we refuse to fall from, bridges we cross just once. They are what we can call 'enough'. Just about 'enough'. The bare minimum of happiness.
But once reached, one cannot bear remaining stagnant. It'll do for a while, but soon enough one will want more. It is human nature, it is the reason why people always complain about the present state of things whatever that state may be. And I do mean whatever. The lack of change is one of the most irritating forces there is. That's why people stuck in confined spaces for a long time can go a little wacky, to say the least. It is upon that nature that we act, make a move for progress. Not to act would mean not to matter.
However, to act mean to have a possibility to act, a chance to make a change. And that is what many of us lack for most of our lives. A white collar worker cannot initiate a promotion-inducing chain of events at any time. The action has to be well-timed, or it will remain arbitrary, inconsequential. In that case, it might be better for the action not to have taken place at all. For an action to matter, it does not only have to be purposeful, bringing along some kind of advance, but the time for it also has to be bode. But we all need actions that matter.
Actions offer the means to matter, and those who will act, an accomplishment of significance.