“You shall then count seven complete weeks after the day following the [Pesach] holiday when you brought the Omer as a wave offering.” (Vayikra 23:15)

The Sefer Hachinuch (mitzvah 306) writes: “According to the simple meaning the source of the mitzvah is that the essence of Yisrael is the Torah and the Heaven Earth and Yisrael were created because of the Torah. It is the reason they were redeemed and taken out of Mitzrayim — to receive the Torah at Har Sinai and fulfill it...”
We were commanded to count from the day after the Yom Tov of Pesach until the day of the receiving of the Torah to give expression to the great desire of our neshamos for the honored day our hearts yearn for as a slave who eagerly longs for the shadow [of evening] and keeps counting until the desired time comes when he will go free. For the counting shows that a person’s whole desire is to reach that time. And that is how we count the days of the Omer — by saying “so many days of the counting have passed.” And we don’t count by saying “there are so many days remaining until the time.”
The famous question is that when we’re counting toward something we’re anticipating we [generally] count the remaining days and not the days that have passed. (Rav Shimshon Pincus Tiferes Shimshon)
At age 13 I officially went to work. Three dollars an hour for babysitting and getting booked almost every night earned me enough to buy almost anything I wanted.
I’d bring my homework or a friend. And I would count the hours.
I never told myself they’ll be back in another half hour... even when I was really tired. I would always calculate how long I’d been there. An hour and fifteen minutes (almost $4) two hours and 40 minutes ($8). I was definitely waiting for the moment I’d get paid. Each passing moment meant more coins in my purse.
When I remember this I understand why we count the days that have passed and not the ones still to come.
Rav Pincus explains this method of counting based upon the words of Rav Aharon Kotler regarding Yaakov and Rachel.
Yaakov worked an additional seven years for Rachel and it is testified about him: “And they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had for her.” If in truth his goal was marriage to Rachel the days should have stretched out like an eternity and not felt like a few days.
However at that time Yaakov was involved in preparing himself for the tremendous task of building the Shevatim. Therefore because the great toil the desire to accomplish more and more and the goal were the essence of those days they seemed like but a few days.
If each day of Sefiras Ha’omer is comparable to one hour of babysitting paid in cash immediately... If each hour of Sefiras Ha’omer is an eternal acquirement and each moment a special opportunity to emotionally prepare to receive the Torah then we count the days for which we’ll be compensated. We count the moments whose reward will come on the day of Matan Torah.
But what exactly are we to do?
What is there in the world? There is only Hashem Yisbarach Hashem’s unity. Since Hashem’s unity is all of existence these days are Hashem’s and these are the days in which one must build 49 days in which Hashem’s unity will be expressed in all our actions.
There is only Hashem Yisbarach. I must feel this as much as possible. I must open my eyes in the morning and see Hashem — the Hashem Who granted us life the Hashem Who brought children’s laughter into my house the Hashem Who gave me laundry that I must now take off the line. To live with Him to inhale this spirit and grow closer to Him.
That’s all I need to do. To open the windows of my neshamah and bring Hashem inside. To bring Him into my conversations into my thoughts into my deliberations and decisions. To count the days that have passed and make them mine.