Short Version

Be Present

Be Focused

Be Your Best

Simple, but not easy.

I’m trying to be all of the above.

But is trying enough?

Not according to Yoda.

Not according to me either.

I can, and I will do better.

Long Version

It’s easy to lose focus, no matter how important the task at hand.

Take the drive home from a familiar spot… we pass through the 17 intersections, zoom along the highway at speeds of 120km/h+, turn left a few times, and make our way through some four-way stops. All of this perhaps completed with our most precious items in the world sitting in the back seat… and yet… we can’t remember the drive at all.

At all!

Were we paying any attention at all?

Not really.

How is this possible?!?

It happens because we all drift between the past, the present moment, and the future.

We drift in search of clarity, certainty, and to feel hope.

Among other things.

We drift mentally into the past, the comfort of ‘what was‘. The past offers certainty. The thing happened, this much we know. And we turn it over in our minds, reliving it for the pleasure, or reliving it for the ‘what if’s’. It’s easy to get lost in thought there… in the ‘what was‘.

Our thoughts also drift into the ‘what will be‘. Although the future offers no certainty, it does offer hope. Hope for better times, feelings, experiences, results, etc. The feelings about what lay ahead are often nicer to imagine than are the feelings of the present… the ‘what is‘.

Often the present moment is too challenging, too uncomfortable. And we need to escape it. No matter what we are actually doing in the here and now. And this drifting in thought, this lost focus, it makes us horrible at being the best version of ourselves in this moment, in the ‘here-and-now‘.

What the hell am I talking about?

I’m talking about focus, or lack thereof, and the long term impact.

The fact that we invest a lot of our time doing things we don’t always want to be doing (working, working out, meeting the parents) all to get to do the thing we do want to be doing with the people we want to be doing them with. If we fail to be at our best in the present (work) moment, then the past we create is weak. Because while each present-moment is fleeting and gone, and easily seen as expendable, the reality is that each of these passing present-moments is a brick, a brick that builds the walls, the buildings, the cities, the monuments (such as they are) that we leave behind. Our past is constantly being created – right here and right now.

What sort of city am I building?

We should pay closer attention to each present moment, more so than we do.

I should pay closer attention to each present moment, more so than I do.

I know this, and it’s a big part of why I’ve not unveiled any great ‘BTBB business plan’ for the future. I’ve not focused on that future yet. I’ve some general ideas, and each day seems to offer new opportunities, but that’s all in the future. And I have a current role that demands my full attention. A role one cannot simply give ‘two-weeks notice’ on and just tap out. This role (and my style) is a ‘6-months notice’ sort of gig. And halfway through the 6, I remain heavily focused on the present.

Yes I need to do some planning, and there’ll be time for that over the summer.

Actions, new actions, can wait until the Fall.

For now, today, quite literally today, I remain focused on the task at hand.

I remain as present as possible.

DW