In the Moment

In the past few days I have been hearing the same message over and over again from many sources.  It was a conversation I had with a friend while walking this weekend, a lunch time discussion with another friend, it was the focus of the sermon in church this Sunday, and it came through loud and clear in an email from another friend.  That message is to live in the moment. More importantly to let go of the what ifs and maybes and to stop living in either the past or waiting on hold for the future. It’s not always easy to live in the here and now!

Sometimes I find myself in “What if” land.  What if I figured out what I wanted to do with my life 10 years earlier?  What if I had known the benefits of pilates when I was running competitively?  What if I had said yes instead of no to that trip?  What if I said what I was thinking not what I thought my someone wanted to hear? What if I hadn’t just eaten all that chocolate?  And so on and so on it goes.  It’s really a pointless place to be.  You can’t change the past and thinking about how things might be different if you could – doesn’t get you any closer.  And the assumption is things would be better right???  You don’t waste time wonder how much worse things could be do you?  You have no power to change the past – period.  You are assuming great things would have happened if you had taken a different path but you’ll never know what opportunities you may have missed either!

I also find myself living in limbo sometimes too.  Should  I plan a big trip – maybe not because work could get really busy and it would be difficult to get away.  Should I improve my home or maybe it’s better to keep money in the bank and wait til later.  Am I ready for this race – maybe I should wait to race until I’m more ready.  Should I say yes to an opportunity that’s here now even though it might not be what I want long term?  Maybe I shouldn’t go biking today because it might impact my long run tomorrow. I’m on hold.  Waiting for the perfect moment and a sign to live and move forward.  The things I am waiting for I have no control over.  I can’t predict how my business will grow, how my health will be and what my bank account will look like in six months.  The only thing I can do is make decisions based on right now.

As one of my friends said to me recently – ‘If you want to guarantee your business will be busy – plan a big, long vacation!’  The reality is that would be a good problem to have – a nice trip and the need to juggle a bit and make it work.

In my early 20’s I had a friend who lived in my apartment complex.  She used to borrow my blender and explained her mother advised her not to buy one because she would surely get one as a wedding present in the future.  She is married now – but it was about 10 years after this conversation that she actually got married.  That would have been an awful long time to live on hold without the things she needed because of the maybe of the future.  And what would be so bad about ending up with two blenders and giving one to a friend or charity?

When I look at the ‘problems’ I might have by taking an action – they really aren’t problems. So I am going to heed the advice of many and live in the moment. There are things I can control. I can work hard now to grow my business. I can workout and take care of my body to be ready for whatever may come. I can make decisions based on my current situation not what I think it might or might not be.

There will always be tosses and turns in life and decisions to be made. I can only affect what is happening today. Today I am going to workout, eat right and work hard on the things that matter to me. And tomorrow – we’ll see when we get there!