Present

The author Mark Twain once wrote “I’ve had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened.” These words rea critical as they seek to remind us that it is important to appreciate the present moment. Take a moment to think about where you are, right now. Use this moment to think about who you are right now.

Chances are while reading that sentence, even for brief moment, you have thought about who you once were, or who you aspire to become. If you didn’t do it then, you most certainly did now. You’re welcome. Such an effort was intentional on my part, and for that I will consider this paragraph a success.

Where we get ourselves into trouble, this author included, is when we pull ourselves away from the present to consider the past or future. While this effort may be considered beneficial in the context of reflecting on a pleasant memory, remembering a loved one, or planning future aspirations; such efforts may be over shadowed by our tendency as people to dwell on the past and worry about the future.

I am no stranger to that. At least up until recently.

About a month ago, I went on an unplanned date with destiny to have a near death experience, one of which had the accident materialized would have been entirely my fault. The details of such I will get into another day. Needless to say the experience was traumatic, resulting in the need for an immediate break, only after of course, the breakdown that came with surviving it.

I credit that moment to being an overdue inflection point in my life to help steer the ship back on course. For the experience and the survival, I’m grateful.

So what does this have to do with being in the present? Well I share this story as I have come to the conclusion that the root cause for why the experience happened was due to chronic burnout resulting from nearly a decade of dwelling on the past and worrying too much about the future. It was only after having a near death experience and taking a the appropriate time needed to reconcile the experience that I was able to make strides to live more in the moment; there is still a lot of work to be done in this area.

It is with this experience that I would implore anyone to take more moments to be present. Leave the phone behind. Acknowledge past and future thoughts, be they good or bad, and give yourself the permission to allow them to be only a thought or a memory. Focus on the now, for it is the efforts made in this moment that will define your future more than a thought ever will.